Predicting products of precipitation reactions is one of my favorite lessons to teach in the whole year. I love it because it’s always been my favorite – I love the puzzle. But I also love the prerequisite skills that are wrapped up in the content of the lesson. I mean, it’s already a huge lesson, so why not go all out?
Using ALL the prerequisite skills
I like to present my precipitation reactions as word equations. This gives the kids a chance to review ionic naming rules and go from name to formula.
After getting an equation, I make the kids balance that equation. Once that’s done, they need to go through using their solubility rules to determine if the reaction is even able to take place. Once they determine that both reactants are soluble, they conduct the double replacement. Aren’t you loving all of these prerequisites?
Then again, they’ll need to use those solubility rules to determine if the products are soluble. If both are, the reaction doesn’t *REALLY* take place. Everything just dissolves and kind of hangs out together.
Now, this is all of the ways that I stretch the kids when I really need it. When I don’t need so much work, or really just want to focus on the solutions aspect of this lesson, I take it a bit easier.
Predicting Products of Precipitation Reactions Activity
I created a secret puzzle activity. The kids are given a bunch of reactions and need to determine the products. It boils down to multiple choice questions, and each answer choice is attached to a piece of a picture. When the students take those pictures and put them together at the secret puzzle, they will be able to self assess.
You see, if the picture comes out looking funny, the student will know that one of their answers is wrong. Then they can go back and figure out what the issue is.
Knowing that this is SUCH a tough concept, I truly love the self assessment aspect. I know that the kids are going to need help with this lesson, and a lot of it. There’s only one me, and 30+ of them. When I have a feature in my lesson activity that helps quell the “Mrs. Reavy – I need you”s then I consider it a win.
The kids can make an adjustment before calling me over. Then I can narrow down my help for the kids that really need to get some individual attention instead.
After getting a bit of baseline for the skill, we can go deeper with all the prereqs. My strategy depends on the kids in my room each year!
