Can and Balloon Lab

Freezing and imploding, the chemistry students of room 702 experimented with the relationships between temperature, pressure, and volume. Ms. Elwell  gave her student’s a lab which was intended to teach the gas laws by applying them to two similar situations: what happens to a balloon placed on a flask that goes through a great temperature drop and what happens to an aluminum can that goes through a similar temperature fluctuation. At the end of both experiments, students observed the balloon imploding into the flask and the metal can spontaneously crumpling in on itself. “It was so much easier to understand the laws of gases through hands-on activities instead of note-taking,” said sophomore Parker Ginn.  His lab partner, senior Kyle Long, agreed on the superior aspects of performing labs: “It’s crazy cool when the stuff we’re working with explodes or makes weird noises or catches on fire.”