Substances Changing: Reaction at Room Temperature

These downloadable videos and animations are part of the multimedia package Stuff and Substance, developed by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP). They can be used to develop the idea of chemical change by showing reactions that take place spontaneously at room temperature.

These resources use novel approaches to cover two commonly taught reactions. For ammonia reacting with hydrogen chloride, the two ‘gases’ are held in plastic bags which are seen to deflate as ammonium chloride emerges in the solid state. Calcium is reacted with a small amount of water so the emerging calcium hydroxide powder is obvious as well as the hydrogen (collected in a plastic bag). The videos show both reactions, and the animations represent the changes of substances in terms of atoms. A further video shows the reaction of calcium with excess water where the emerging calcium hydroxide dissolves and is not visible.

These video and animation files form part of the resources in the section Substances Changing in the Stuff and Substance multimedia package, which provides a series of interactive pages that can be used by teachers or students in the classroom.

• URL: http://stem.org.uk/rx5f7