Exploring energy and equilibrium through simple experiments

Authors

  • Klemens Koch Didactics of chemistry, Pedagogical University Berne and Gymnasium BielSeeland

  • DOI: 10.2436/20.2003.02.251

Keywords:

experiments, energy, heat and work, collision theory, catalysis, chemical equilibrium

Abstract

Energy moves us and entropy determines the direction, e.g. of chemical equilibria. They are behind chemistry, they accompany us through chemistry lessons and many everyday problems, such as the climate debate. This article aims to get to the bottom of the energy concepts in chemistry and their application in chemistry teaching by looking at about a dozen phenomena in ten experiments. The role of entropy is only touched on in passing; dealing with it explicitly would be a topic in itself.

Author Biography

Klemens Koch, Didactics of chemistry, Pedagogical University Berne and Gymnasium BielSeeland

Didactics of chemistry, Fabrikstrasse 8, Sekundarstufe II, PH Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland, klemens.koch@phbern.ch, https://www.phbern.ch/ueber-die-phbern/personen/klemenskoch) and chemistry teacher at the Gymnasium Biel-Seeland, Switzerland.Research field: Experiments and didactics for an extended understanding of the everyday world, e.g. in introductory chemistry, redox chemistry, thermodynamics and quantum chemistry.

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Published

2024-03-06

Issue

No. 32 (2023)

Section

Treball experimental

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