About the practicals
The practicals cover key areas in the syllabus,
and use standard apparatus and chemicals.
These are listed in the ‘You will need …’ section
on each page.
The sheets are ready for photocopying. You could
consider laminating sets for reuse.
Safe working practices: general
It is important to train your students to work
safely.
l Students should understand that chemicals can
be dangerous, and must be handled with care:
not splashed around, inhaled, or tasted.
l Make sure your students can use a Bunsen
burner safely.
l Make sure they can correctly identify, set up,
and use, other standard laboratory apparatus.
l Safety glasses should be worn for all practical
work, and long hair tied back.
l Do not allow eating or drinking in the lab.
l Make sure students know what to do in
case of spillages, breakages, fire, and other
emergencies.
l Have a first-aid kit available for minor
accidents. It should include an eyewash bottle.
Guidelines for safe working could be written out
and displayed in a prominent place in the lab.
Risk assessment for each practical
In addition to developing a general ethos of safety
in the lab, you should carry out a risk assessment
for each practical, to assess specific risks.
The ‘You will need …’ section on the practical
sheets indicates hazards for reagents. Harmful
products are indicated in the text. Please point out
these hazards to your students.
See the notes about individual practicals, starting
in the next column, for other hazards.
The apparatus
You can use alternatives for some apparatus. For
example use plastic bowls as water troughs, or gas
syringes instead of inverted measuring cylinders.
Since students usually work in pairs or small
groups, this reduces the demand for apparatus.
© OUP: this may be reproduced for class use solely for the purchaser’s institute
But you may need to organise some sessions so
that groups can swop apparatus, for example for
practical 9B.
Disposal of chemicals
All liquids and soluble compounds used in these
practicals can be disposed of safely by washing
down the sink, with plenty of water.Insoluble
chemicals can be safely disposed of with other
solid waste.
Notes on the individual practicals
Hazards for reagents are noted on the practical
sheets. Below are additional notes for each
practical.
Practical 2B Warn students of the dangers in
handling hot apparatus. The delivery tube must
not reach the bottom of the test-tube, to prevent
suck-back when heating is stopped.
Practical 5 Demonstrate how to start the
reaction. (Add magnesium, and immediately put
the bung in to prevent gas escaping.)
Practical 6 Remind students to weigh the
crucible + lid, each time. Warn them about the
dangers in handling hot apparatus. After heating,
tongs must be used to handle the crucible and lid.
Students could practice using the tongs before
they start the experiment.
Students must take care not to let smoke escape,
when lifting the lid.
Practical 8A Show students how to use the
electrical apparatus safely, to avoid shorting.
They must ensure that the test-tubes are
completely filled with salt solution, and that the
crocodile clips do not touch. The test-tubes must
be raised a little from the bottom of the cell, to
allow current to flow.
The hydrogen test-tube will fill first. Much
of the chlorine will dissolve in the water, but
there should be enough for a positive test.
Warn students that this gas from the anode
is poisonous.
Practical 8B It is best to do a trial in advance,
to find a voltage that gives a good thin coating of
nickel. (Too high a voltage gives a poor result.)
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Show students how to use the electrical apparatus
safely, to avoid shorting.
Practical 9A The sherbet should be added to the
water with care, to prevent fizz overflowing.
Practical 9B Provide separate burners for each
fuel. (Pairs or groups can share and swop them.)
Pre-test them, adjusting the wicks to get a similar
size of flame. The heights of the cans should be
adjusted to prevent unnecessary heat loss.
If the burners have lids, these should be used to
put out the flame. Remind students to record the
mass of the burner + lid each time.
Practical 9C In step 4 in Experiment 2, students
must not add water to the test-tube while it is still
hot, for safety. They should set it in the test-tube
rack when adding water, since it gets very hot.
Practical 10A Excess marble can be filtered off
with a sieve, and rinsed and dried ready for reuse.
Practical 10B Sulfur dioxide is harmful, and the
reaction continues after the liquid has become
opaque. So students should pour the mixture
away immediately after recording their results.
The results can be used to plot rate (1 / time taken)
against concentration. The graph should be linear.
Practical 10C Only gentle heating is needed to
raise the temperature of the sodium thiosulfate
solution by 10 8C. Students should watch the
thermometer, and stop heating just before the
required temperature is reached. Warn them
about the dangers in handling hot apparatus.
As in 10B, students should pour the mixture away
immediately after recording results.
Practical 10D You may need to change the time
intervals for measuring volume, depending on the
concentration of hydrogen peroxide.
Practical 11A For the ethanoic acid, hydrogen
production may be very slow. Students could
place a finger over the end of the test-tube to allow
the gas to build up.
To test for carbon dioxide, students should remove
only gas with the dropper. More than one attempt
may be needed, to turn the limewater milky.
Practical 11B The pieces of indicator paper
should be well separated, to avoid overspill.
© OUP: this may be reproduced for class use solely for the purchaser’s institute
Practical 11C Magnesium carbonate should
be added with care, to prevent fizz overflowing.
Adding too much will make filtering very slow.
Instruct students to monitor the evaporation,
and stop heating when half the liquid remains.
Handling hot apparatus can be dangerous.
Practical 11D Tablets should be crushed with
care, to prevent spillage. Students should rinse
the mortar with water and add the washings to
the flask. They must make sure that the mortar is
really dry, before crushing another tablet.
If burettes are not available, dropping pipettes can
be used instead. Measure the volume used, or the
number of drops used.
Practical 13 No temperature rise is expected
with the copper.
Practical 14 Crucibles can be used instead of tin
lids. Warn students about the dangers in handling
hot apparatus. (See the notes for Practical 6.)
They may need to look through the residue
carefully, to find the copper.
Practical 15 It is difficult to exclude all oxygen
from tube C, to ensure that the iron is completely
rust-free. Discuss this with the students.
Practical 16 Warn students about the dangers
in handling hot apparatus. Ammonium sulfate
will decompose if heated to dryness, so instruct
students to monitor the evaporation carefully, to
make sure some liquid remains.
Practical 17 Demonstrate how to set up the
boiling tube, where to heat it, how to collect the
gas, and how to remove apparatus to prevent
suck-back. Warn students about the dangers in
handling hot apparatus.
Practical 19A Students could work individually,
for this practical. Warn them about the risk of
contaminating solutions. Using dropping bottles is
the best way to prevent contamination. Otherwise
each solution should be provided with one
dropper, for students to share.
Practical 19B See notes on 19A. Iron(II) solution
should be freshly made to prevent it being
oxidized to iron(III). An alternative to iron(II)
chloride is iron(II) ammonium sulfate.
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