Quantum chemistry isn’t easy. Not even for grown adults with a plethora of degrees. But the introduction to quantum chemistry is absolutely needed to understand chemistry and what comes from the Bohr model of the atom. So this list is my favorite quantum chemistry activities for high school students. These are for teaching the very basics to my high school chemistry students.
Quantum Estates Analogy
This is actually the lesson I used for my demo to get hired at one of my schools. I got a bunch of non-chemistry teacher adults to get on board with this lesson! The gist of it, is that we look at an atom as if it was an apartment building. The elevator hasn’t been installed yet, and the electrons need to move in.
Depending on how much your students need to learn here, you can look at just the floors of the apartment building (principal energy levels) or get as specific as each bed in the apartments (down to the spin of the electrons.) This helps to teach Hund’s Rule, that the electrons don’t want to double up unless they have to. And it will also teach the Aufbau Principle, that the electrons want to live as close to the lobby (nucleus) as possible. Ya know, since the elevator hasn’t been installed yet.
This quantum chemistry activity makes something so abstract super visual for my students. They really get a good handle on it after this analogy. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about electron excitation. That’s a party in the penthouse! The electrons “pregrame” and drink a Redbull to get wings (really it’s energy!) They release energy to go back home.
Flame Test
I have a huge place in my heart for the flame test lab. This is what really made me want to become a chemist. Seeing the beautiful hot pink lithium flame changed something in me. I can literally see it clear as day in my memory, back in my high school chemistry lab. I preface this lab today as my favorite lab of the whole year, though it’s not even the best one I do. (Read about my biggest crowd-pleasing lab here!)
Essentially I soak some wooden coffee stirrers in test tubes full of 20-30mL of 1M (at least) chloride solutions overnight. I use whatever is in my stock room, but if you need to break out that catalog and make orders, this is what I suggest. Sodium chloride, even though it’s kinda boring, it’s good for the discussion on using a flame test to identify. Strontium, barium, potassium, and of course copper chlorides. You could also do nitrates instead. Read a more indepth most on Flame Test here. If your students have never lit a Bunsen burner before, you may want to start here!
I like this lab because it is beautiful, of course. But I also love that you can get a few chlorides that come out really close in color, like sodium and calcium. These are both orange-y in color and can be hard to distinguish from each other. Using these two in your experiment can create a great discussion on the validity and reliability of flame tests. There are plenty of flame test results that are super reliable, but others can get a bit confusing. This leads you perfectly into my next quantum chemistry activity.
Spectral Lines
After going over the flame test, and how it’s only *mostly* good, you can do the spectral lines lab. In this, you will be able to talk about the specific jumps that the electrons make from one level to another. A specific amount of energy is released when the electrons return to ground state and we can measure it! Of course, if you want to measure, you will need some spectroscopes, but I think it’s worth it! Using the glasses is fun, for sure, but I think the measurements really work to solidify the concepts. It will help to make connections and show the students the gateway to the higher level quantum chemistry that could be explored.
It’s really important that your classroom or lab is VERY dark. I totally turn off my computer and hang black construction paper over my classroom door to keep out interference. (But that’s also part of their error analysis!)
I love using these three quantum chemistry activities together (and in this order). I think they lead into each other so well and in such a way that the kids get a good grasp on such a foreign and imaginative concept.
Need some help figuring out how this fits in your curriculum? Download my free curriculum outline here!
