Thanks to a grant from the Buncombe County Schools Foundation (BCSF), Ms. Megan Sanders has new hot plates and glassware for her classroom, and her AP Chemistry students are putting the equipment to good use at T.C. Roberson High School.
On Dec. 1, they created starch-Iodine clocks to visualize how heat and reactant concentrations change the rate of chemical reactions. When they mixed two colorless liquids, nothing seemed to be happening until the solution suddenly turned dark blue. The students experimented with different concentrations of each chemical. In some iterations, they heated one or both reactants before mixing them. Then they recorded how long it took for the solution to turn blue.
After being selected as a BCSF fall grant winner, Ms. Sanders bought eight new graduated cylinders and two hot plates. She’s sharing the equipment with the rest of the science department – from chemistry to physical science to biology.
“Science has to be hands-on,” she said. “So I’m really thankful for these high quality supplies.”
Each year, BCSF provides around $40,000 in classroom grants to help teachers expand student learning opportunities – from books to models to video cameras to weather stations and more.
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