General Teacher Instructions:

• Students need to be ready to work as soon as the period begins.
• Group assignments should be made in advance.
• The materials should be set out at each lab station, if possible.
• A central supply area, if needed, should be easily accessible.
• The supply area should have any supplies from the kit that were prepared by the teacher as well as all of the school-supplied materials necessary for the experiment.
• All the supplies should be clearly labeled.
  

Materials in Kits:

• 5 500 ml beakers
• 5 thermometers
• 5 10 ml graduated cylinders
• 5 test tube brushes
• 5 plastic measuring cups
• 25 pair plastic gloves
• 5 tongs
• 5 25 ml dropper bottles of solution (0.75 ml Oxalic Acid), labeled B
• 5 25 ml dropper bottles, Labeled A
• 1 packet containing 0.4 g of KMn04
  

Materials Supplied by School or Students:

• hot and cold tap water
• paper towels
• clock with second hand or digital watch
• 1 ruler per student
• safety equipment
• 1 pen or pencil per student
  

National Science Education Standards:

8 A SI 1: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry: Grades 5-8
1.4 Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence. Students should base their explanation on what they observed, and as they develop cognitive skills, they should be able to differentiate explanation from description — providing causes for effects and establishing relationships based on evidence and logical argument. This standards requires a subject knowledge base so the students can effectively conduct investigations, because developing explanations establishes connections between the content of science and the contexts within which students develop new knowledge.

8 B PS 1: Properties and changes of properties in matter: Grades 5-8
1.2 Substances react chemically in characteristic ways with other substances to form new substances (compounds) with different characteristic properties. In chemical reactions, the total mass is conserved. Substances often are placed in categories or groups if they react in similar ways; metals is an example of such a group.

12 B PS 3: Chemical reactions: Grades 9-12
3.4 Chemical reactions can take place in time periods ranging from the few femtoseconds (10 —15 seconds) required for an atom to move a fraction of a chemical bond distance to geologic time scales of billions of years. Reaction rates depend on how often the reacting atoms and molecules encounter one another, on the temperature, and on the properties — including shape — of the reacting species.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics:

DAP3: Develop and evaluate inferences and predictions that are based on data:
Grades 6-8 d. make conjectures about possible relationships between two characteristics of a sample on the basis of scatter plots of the data and approximate lines of fit
Grades 6-8 e. use conjectures to formulate new questions and plan new studies to answer them

PS2: Solve problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts:
Grades 6-8

REP3: Use representations to model and interpret physical, social, and mathematical phenomena:
Grades 6-8

Special Directions for Teacher Setup:

There are enough materials in the kit to split evenly among five student groups. You may want to inform the students to bring a ruler and a watch the day of the exercise. You will need to make the KMn04 solution. Add the provided KMn04 (about 0.4 g) to 500 ml of distilled water. Mix, then fill each of the dropper bottles labeled A. The KMn04 solution has a poor shelf-life. We recommend that you not mix up the solution until you are ready to use it.

Safety:

• Be careful.
• Teachers and students should always exercise appropriate safety precautions and utilize appropriate laboratory safety procedures and equipment when working on science performance tasks.