My Last Day Teaching

Since Today Was my Last Day Teaching I thought I would put up some pictures I have of me doing a demo when we were learning about REACTIVITY of the periodic table ;-) I do have some great pictures of me and my students as well but I do not think I can put them on te web!

So as you can see here I am putting on gloves.... always a sign of a good experiment! Notice the Tin can on the lab table! That is POTASSIUM. One of the most reactive elements! When stored it has to be in a glass jar of oil, then the glass jar has to be put into the tin container. This is because it reacts with air.

Another thing it reacts with is .....H2O or WATER! If you see in this picture I am cuting the potassium (into a little smaller than pea sized pieces) and I also have a beaker of water on the lab table.... can you guess what it going to happen?!?

Well... the potassium is going to be put into the beaker of water. This is me preparing to put it in. READY, SET, GO!

And the potassium as soon as it hits the water...explodes~

A little closer picture.
This is the reaction of a very small piece or potassium, can you imagine if I would have thrown the whole stick of potassium in?!? Well that was what all the kids wanted to do. They wanted to take all the potassium and throw it in the pool.... they are so funny ;-)