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Everyone remembers the chemistry experiment in high school that really caught their attention. Whether they end in a remarkable chemical reaction or an explosion (or both!), chemistry experiments for high school can take students’ interests from mild to fascinating.
Excite teens while impressing and informing them with chemistry projects for high school students. Whether you focus on ionic bonding, stoichiometry, or good old-fashioned flame lab, you can make beakers and funnels their new favorite piece of equipment.
Chemistry Classics for Experimental Learning
Our understanding of scientific concepts may change, but the fundamentals remain the same! Use these classic high school chemistry experiments (and a favorite high school science fair idea!) to provide teens with the foundational knowledge they’ll need for more complex subjects later in their science education.
- Mentos and Diet Coke: Simulates the speed (and explosiveness) of carbon dioxide bubbles exploding into geysers.
- Lava lamp: Make and enjoy a stunning oil and water lava lamp that will take you back to the 1960s.
- Eggs in a bottle: Amaze your high school students with an experiment that uses air pressure to suck eggs into a bottle.
- Cereal Iron: Use a mortar and pestle, a magnetic stirrer to extract iron from your daily breakfast cereal, and focus on the nutrition of what you eat.
Expand atomic models and students’ understanding
Models and atoms are important fundamentals for students to understand, so why not combine them into one useful lesson? Show students how to visualize atoms by clearly illustrating the activity of each part of the atom.
Rutherford Model of Atomic Gold Foil Experiment Laboratory Activity
Kelsey Chemistry
Grade: Grades 9-12
Subject: Chemistry, Physics
Standard: NGSS HS-PS1-8
High school students have a hard time seeing atoms—and not just because they need an atomic microscope! Help students visualize atoms with a model activity that demonstrates the empty space within atoms and how they function using Styrofoam balls and hula hoops.
Testing ancient questions with radioactive dating
How to determine the age of material? Combine archeology, geology and chemistry in one lesson with activities on radioactive dating and half-life decay rates.
Nuclear Science Chemistry Activity Radiometric Dating Laboratory “Hands-On” Activities
Bazinga Brown
Grade: Grades 9-12
Subjects: Chemistry, Earth Sciences
Standard: NGSS HS-ESS1-6, HS-PS1-8
Chemistry labs that demonstrate how scientists can determine the age of real-life historical discoveries through a chemistry lab that explores the basics of radiometric dating. Students apply their understanding of radioactive decay and half-lives to paperclip models of parent isotopes and collaborative lab report worksheets.
Electrical Experiments on Light and Conductivity
Students will have a chemistry experience about electricity every time they turn on the lights! Show them the relationship between chemistry and electricity by focusing on chemical energy and the activity of electrical currents around them.
- Lemon battery: Students used copper, zinc and lemons to create a battery that produces actual electricity.
- Pie Plate Storm: Can students make their own lightning bolts using aluminum pie plates and thumbtacks?
- Balloon hair: Your students probably already know this! Graph the way a balloon rubs against hair to produce varying degrees of static electricity.
- Electric plasticine: Sending an electric current through dough through electrification experiments with electrical circuits and conductivity.
Inspire understanding using the Electricity Lab
What does electromagnetic radiation look like in different environments? Have students conduct spectroscopy experiments through activities and chemistry labs focusing on the absorption and emission of light.
Spectral Analysis – Flame Testing Virtual Laboratory Simulation (Digital/Printable)
Science 4 Real
Grade: eighth grade to first grade
Subjects: Chemistry, Physics
Want to demonstrate spectroscopy in your chemistry class without starting a fire? Use this virtual spectroscopy experiment to build a flame testing lab for high school students to deepen their understanding of wavelengths, white light, and spectral emissions.
Make big connections between small concepts
Can your students differentiate between electrolytes and nonelectrolytes? Learn the basics of electrical conduction through experiments that focus on the ways in which bonded compounds produce (or don’t produce) ions under the right circumstances.
Lab Activity: Solution Conductivity with MsRazz ChemClass
Author: Ms. Razz ChemClass
Grade: Grades 7-12
Help high school scientists identify electrolytes and nonelectrolytes with a conductivity lab. Designed specifically for honors courses but applicable to all chemistry course levels, this resource includes three pages of lab activities, a teacher preparation guide, and post-lab questions for students to reflect on their experiences.
Chemical reactions that create real change
Some high school chemistry experiments need to be seen to be believed. Use these chemical reaction experiments to show students what happens when two elements are mixed together and whether their assumptions are correct.
- Growing crystals: Using sugar, boiling water, twine and open jars, students create the right conditions to grow crystals and simulate chemical changes.
- Chemical Traffic Light: Take students on a colorful journey through a color-changing experiment that combines potassium permanganate, sucrose, and water.
- Green flame: Mix sulfuric acid, boric acid crystals and ethanol to create an incredible green flame.
- Flour burning: Demonstrates how to cause instant burning with just a little flour and a little heat (and have your safety measures ready!).
Get students thinking about ionic and covalent connections
Chemistry class is a great time to make connections! Courses introduce students to the transfer of electrons between metals and nonmetals, helping them visualize this fascinating chemical process.
Ionic and Covalent Bonding Units Chemical Reaction Balanced Equations Activity
sunrise science
Grade: Grade 8-10
Standard: NGSS HS-PS1-1, HS-PS1-2, HS-PS1-4, HS-PS1-5, HS-PS1-7; MS-PS1-2, MS-PS1-5, MS-PS1-1
Covers many aspects of chemical bonding and reactions through a complete three-week unit. Filled with valuable student materials and assessments that discuss atomic counting, covalent bonding, and conservation of mass, this NGSS-compliant resource is a must-have resource for any chemistry teacher who wants to strengthen their knowledge of chemistry fundamentals.
Observe chemical reactions in everyday objects
Combines mathematics and chemistry into one key concept and offers courses focused on stoichiometry. Everyday objects are on your materials list, as well as resources that encourage students to investigate the relationships between reactants and products in everyday objects and substances.
Stoichiometry Labs and Limiting Reactants Make Chalk Labs Yield Percent Editable
by Chemistry Kate
Grade: Grades 7-12
Standard: NGSS HS-PS1-7
Two versions of experiments on precipitation and percent yield make this chalk lab a fun addition to your stoichiometric units. Using sodium carbonate, calcium chloride, distilled water, and standard laboratory equipment, students can calculate the mass of the first reactant.
Inspire scientific breakthroughs every day with TPT
Whether you’re planning next week’s chemistry lesson or deciding on an activity for National STEM Day, the right chemistry experiments for high school can turn a reluctant learner into a fascinated scientist. Understanding how their lab works helps students learn more about their world and encourages them to never stop asking the questions they want to know.
Check out more high school chemistry resources to inspire student scientists in your chemistry class. If you’re preparing for the upcoming chemistry-related holidays in October, don’t forget to pick up a Moore project for Moore Day!
