New AACT Resources to Teach Chemical Reactions (2024)

As chemistry teachers plan activities for their students, AACT will highlight resources from our high school library that help to reinforce topics in different units throughout the school year. Our last news post highlighted resources from our high school library that support a Periodic Table unit. We will now focus on lessons and other activities to be used in a Chemical Reactions unit.

We have added a few resources related to this topic to the high school library, which are highlighted below. We have also updated our unit plan to help you teach a unit on chemical reactions. 

ACCESS CHEMICAL REACTIONS UNIT PLAN →

Modeling can help your students understand what is happening at the particle level during a chemical reaction. In the Chemical Reactions Performance Task, students work in groups to model simple chemical reactions and write balanced chemical equations for them.              

After teaching balancing chemical equations and types of reactions, a simpler alternative to a chemical reactions lab is the Interesting Reactions Video Stations. Using written clues and QR codes linked to videos, students write chemical formulas and balanced chemical equations for each of the reactions.

Performing chemical reactions in the lab is an important part of the steps to understanding a chemical reaction. In the Decomposition of Copper (II) Carbonate lab, students will perform a synthesis reaction and a decomposition reaction and explain the outcomes of each. 

We hope that the new resources and the updated unit plan can help you to reinforce several of the topics covered in a unit on chemical reactions. Most of these lessons were made possible by great teachers who shared their own resources. We need your help to keep the collection growing. Do you have a great demonstration, activity, or lesson related to this topic that you would like to share with the community? Please send it along for consideration.