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A worksheet that I gave to my students to help them revise over the key terms associated with solutions.

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By Ciara O'Keeffe 20240201

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A good website that explains why some vegetables conduct electricity.

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(Image credit: Shutterstock)

At any science fair, you're almost guaranteed to see at least two go-to experiments: the clichéd papier-mâché volcano and the ever-popular pickle or potato battery. Many people may think it's amazing that a simple piece of produce can conduct electricity. As it turns out, that's not the whole story.

There are many types of electrical conductors. These include traditional electrical conductors, such as the copper and silver wires that are used to run electrical currents in homes and buildings, and ionic conductors, which can power electricity via free moving ions. Organic material, such as human tissue or the potato in your science experiment, are ionic conductors that create ionic circuits. Electrolytes - chemical compounds that create ions when they are dissolved in water - in these materials do all of the work.

"Fruits and vegetables conduct electricity in the same way a salt solution will complete an electrical circuit," Michael Hickner, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State, told Live Science. "It's due to the ions in the salt solution. They don't conduct electrons [as traditional electrical conductors do] [ How Do Batteries Work?]

An ionic conductor contains positive and negative charges - otherwise known as charged ions - that move freely when they come into contact with a voltage. For example, when table salt is dissolved in water, the sodium and chloride - which have opposite charges, as Na+ and Cl- - create an ionic solution, Hickner said. These ionic solutions are called electrolytes and can be found in every living thing. Because of this, technically, any fruit or vegetable could become an ionic conductor, but some are better at it than others. This is also why salt water or unfiltered tap water are better ionic conductors than filtered fresh water.

The best food battery is any fruit or vegetable that has high levels of superconductive ions, such as potassium or sodium, and the proper internal structure to create a working current. Potatoes, which have homogenous structures, and pickles, which have high levels of sodium and acidity, are good examples of such foods. For an extra electrical "oomph," you can soak your potato in salt water before setting up the potato battery experiment, Hickner said.

In contrast, tomatoes have unorganized, messy insides and often leak, and even an orange - which has high levels of potassium - won't work well, because the flesh of the fruit is divided into internal compartments, and these create barriers that block the current, Paul Takhistov, an associate professor of food engineering at Rutgers University in New Jersey, told Live Science.

Some fruits and vegetables may be chock-full of superconductive ions, but you'll need a few more materials to turn these foods into batteries. The voltage from the battery comes from electrodes made of two different metals, such as copper and zinc, Hickner said. You can easily make a potato or pickle battery using a copper penny and a galvanized nail (which is usually made of iron coated with zinc).

"The fruit or vegetable can't conduct on its own. It needs something to drive the ions," Takhistov said. "When you insert two different metals and connect them with wire, you create an electrical circuit. Then, when this material is brought in contact with the electrolytes, the battery reaction starts to generate the voltage. Because of the difference in electrical potential energy between the two metals, the positive and negative ions will begin to move freely."

But could a potato battery power, for example, a phone? Probably not.

A potato battery can produce only about 1.2 volts of energy. Takhistov said you would need to link many potato batteries in parallel to create enough of a current to charge a device like a phone or tablet. "At that point," Takhistov said, "it's probably just easier to use your phone charger."

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Joanna Fantozzi - Live Science Contributor

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Why Do Some Fruits and Vegetables Conduct Electricity?

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(Image credit: Shutterstock) At any science fair, you're almost guaranteed to see at least two go-to experiments: the clichéd papier-mâché volcano and the ever-popular pickle or potato battery. Many people may think it's amazing that a simple piece of produce can conduct electricity. As it turns out, that's not the whole story.

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An interesting experiment that could be carried out with the students.

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Students are fascinated by the investigation into the conductivity of a potato. Students in my own class told me they completed this experiment for a science fair and that the potato caused the bulb to light.

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A very handy simulation that could be used to introduce the concept of melting point and boiling point.

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Melting and Boiling Simulation | PBS LearningMedia

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Observe the motion and temperature of water molecules in this simulation as heat is applied to a beaker containing an ice cube. As the ice cube melts, the water molecules are freed from their trapped state and can now roam about the glass beaker as a liquid.

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A good website on physical changes that could be used in the classroom.

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heat a substance and measure its temperature, for example, melt ice or boil water

allow a substance to cool and measure its temperature

It is often easier to allow a substance to cool down. Salol is a solid used in these investigations. To investigate its cooling curve:

1. Put some salol and a thermometer into a boiling tube.

2. Put the boiling tube in a hot water bath. Allow the salol to melt and reach the temperature of the hot water.

3. Take the boiling tube out of the hot water.

4. Measure and record the temperature of the salol every minute for about 20 minutes, stirring briefly to evenly mix the hot and cold parts.

5. Plot a graph of temperature against time.

The diagram shows a cooling curve for salol. Notice that the temperature stays the same during the state change (freezing), and this is the melting point (or freezing point) of the salol.

The temperature stays the same during a state change:

during melting and evaporating, internal energy increases as the motion of particles increases and bonds are broken

during condensing and freezing, internal energy decreases as the motion of particles decreases and new bonds are formed

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Physical changes - Revision 5 - KS3 Physics - BBC Bitesize

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heat a substance and measure its temperature, for example, melt ice or boil water allow a substance to cool and measure its temperature It is often easier to allow a substance to cool down. Salol is a solid used in these investigations. To investigate its cooling curve: Put some salol and a thermometer into a boiling tube.

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A visual on the changes of state. This could be used to explain that the boiling point is when a liquid changes to a gas, and that the melting point is when a solid changes to a liquid.

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An image of how to investigate electrical conductivity in various solutions.

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A really good website that could be used in relation to boiling point. It has videos, animations and a simulation that can be used to bring learning to life for the students.

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Boiling Point of Water (Procedure) : Class 9 : Chemistry : Amrita Online Lab

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An experiment to determine the boiling point of water.

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A simple experiment that students could carry out to help them understand why some substances dissolve better in water than other substances.

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Solubility Science: How Much Is Too Much?

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A saturating science project from Science Buddies

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A very useful reading that talks about the importance of medicinal drug solubility in the pharmaceutical industry. It has informed my planning as dissolving tablets in water is something the students will be familiar with and this will help them to see the importance of solubility in everyday life.

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Methods of assessment that I used throughout the unit of learning (formative and summative)

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Methods of assessment that I used throughout the unit of learning (formative and summative)

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Matching game on solutions and solubility

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Matching game on solutions and solubility

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Another method of formative assessment. This is a class activity where I hand out cards to each volunteer. As a class, we must match each card to its corresponding definition. This is a chance for me to give feedback to the students.

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A useful website to find Junior Cycle resources on solutions.

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A method of formative assessment that is used to give me feedback on student learning.

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This is a method of summative assessment that would be used at the end of the period of learning. My students will be getting this class test at the end of the unit of learning.

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1st year test on solutions and solubility

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My 800 word reflection

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I used this model when planning for my lessons. It is a really useful resource to help promote an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning.

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An interesting peer reviewed paper that talks about student teachers having misconceptions around the gas concept. However, it links to my learning outcome and unit of learning as it states that student teachers often have misconceptions about dissolution, solubility and diffusion concepts. This has informed my planning as I need to ensure that I have a strong understanding of these topics so that I do not pass on these misconceptions to my students.

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A Comparison of Level of Understanding of Student Teachers and High School Students Related to the Gas Concept

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The purpose of this study is to investigate understanding levels of high school students, chemistry student teachers and prospective science teachers ...

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This is a good peer reviewed paper that states how important it is to know the solubility of chemical compounds in water as this data is used to make paints, drugs , batteries etc. This has informed my planning as you can hook the students into the lesson by explaining why we need solubility data and that in this lesson we will be generating such data.

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Highlights

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Consensus machine learning models perform better than singular models

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Quality-oriented data selection yields better results than using all data

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The uncertainty of test data determines the theoretical limit of a model's performance

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The concepts of actual and observed performances of solubility models are introduced

Summary

Accurate prediction of the solubility of chemical substances in solvents remains a challenge. The sparsity of high-quality solubility data is recognized as the biggest hurdle in the development of robust data-driven methods for practical use. Nonetheless, the effects of the quality and quantity of data on aqueous solubility predictions have not yet been scrutinized. In this study, the roles of the size and the quality of data sets on the performances of the solubility prediction models are unraveled, and the concepts of actual and observed performances are introduced. In an effort to curtail the gap between actual and observed performances, a quality-oriented data selection method, which evaluates the quality of data and extracts the most accurate part of it through statistical validation, is designed. Applying this method on the largest publicly available solubility database and using a consensus machine learning approach, a top-performing solubility prediction model is achieved.

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Pushing the limits of solubility prediction via quality-oriented data selection

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Consensus machine learning models perform better than singular models * Quality-oriented data selection yields better results than using all data * The uncertainty of test data determines the theoretical limit of a model's performance * The concepts of actual and observed performances of solubility models are introduced Accurate prediction of the solubility of chemical substances in solvents remains a challenge.

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A useful article that explains why water is a good solvent. The relevant pieces could be used in class.

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Solvent properties of water (article) | Khan Academy

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Why water makes a good solvent, and what kinds of molecules dissolve best in it.

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A useful video to show what types of substances are soluble/ insoluble in water.

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Soluble and insoluble materials - Experiment - Elementary Science

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Solubility, degree to which a substance dissolves in a solvent to make a solution (usually expressed as grams of solute per litre of solvent). Solubility of one fluid (liquid or gas) in another may be complete (totally miscible; e.g., methanol and water) or partial (oil and water dissolve only

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Sand
Soil
Oil

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Salt
Sugar
Coffee
Copper Sulphate

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Boiling point and melting point of Ethanol

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Boiling point and melting point of Ethanol

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Boiling point = 78.23°C
Melting Point = -114.14°C

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This interesting news article from 2021 states how a water soluble dye had caused a stream in Harlow to turn red. It is important to relate the content back to everyday life for the students and this is a useful article to do so.

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Harlow stream turned red by a soluble dye, Environment Agency finds

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Environment officers say the brook which turned colour for a third time is not harmful to wildlife.

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Temperature
Polarity
Pressure
Molecular size

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A really good resource that has very innovative ideas and simulations that can be used to teach students about the concept of solubility.

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A useful video that could be used to show how crystals are made.

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CW 6:
Students should be able to investigate the properties of different materials including solubilities, conductivity, melting points and boiling points.

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This is an image of a saturated solution of Copper Sulphate that I captured after school one day.

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Key words associated with this Learning Outcome

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Key words associated with this Learning Outcome

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Solute, solvent, solution, crystal, solubility, solubility curve, electrical conductivity, charged particles, melting point, boiling point

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Definitions associated with the Learning Outcome

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Definitions associated with the Learning Outcome

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Solubility: The solubility of a substance is its mass in grams that will dissolve in 100g of solvent at a fixed temperature.
Conductivity: The measure of the ease at which an electric charge or heat can pass through a material.
Melting Point: The temperature at which a given solid will melt.
Boiling Point: The temperature at which a liquid boils and turns to vapour.

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Each student received this sheet when we were investigating the effect of temperature on solubility.

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PowerPoint to support the lesson plan

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A useful resource that I used during the lesson to demonstrate electrical conductivity.

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This safety poster was useful in helping me to put together safety precautions for the experiment. It helped me to identify the success criteria to being a safe scientist. It is a visually appealing poster that would be good to have displayed in the classroom.

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NoS 3, NoS 4, NoS 7, PW 1, PW 3, PW5, CW 2, CW 4

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This document was useful as it helped me to understand exactly what I needed to include in the lesson and what information the students needed to know. It helped me to plan my learning intentions for the lesson. It stated the learning outcomes clearly and showed good examples of students' work.

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Some crystals that were grown during school placement when we were studying the Learning Outcome: CW 6