Social Studies Connection

Balloon Race - Chemical Reactions, limiting and excess reactant, gas generated, expansion, stoichiometric relationships.

My Social studies connection is about how throughout the history of our scientific developments, specifically in Chemistry and life-based science, chemical reactions, basic gaseous concepts, and stoichiometric relationships have been the building blocks of more advanced ideas. In the early 17th century, Johann Rudolph Glauber, a German chemist, discovered basic chemical reactions by combining sulfuric acid and sodium chloride.

Shortly after this experiment, Newton, Boyle, and other chemists established theories that would change the way chemical reactions were interpreted. Thanks to these attempts and ideas during the scientific revolution, modern day chemists understand how gases and elements combine to create new compounds and release energy in the form of a reaction to yield certain overall results. My PBL experiment is heavily dependent on chemical reactions and the formation of gases on release of energy in order to achieve the inflation of a balloon.

The goal of every chemist, no matter what types of chemical compounds he or she works with, is to know and understand how and why chemicals react and change. This is one of the most important points in chemistry. It is not enough to know the structures of all the reactants and products, although such knowledge is a key starting points. It is important to also know how molecules approach one another and with what energy and with what orientations they interact. The concepts of limiting and excess reactants, gas generated, expansion, and stoichiometric relationships are all vital in understanding chemical reactions.