Teacher and technician
4.1 practical notes
4.1b Activity 4.1 – The mystery box
In this activity, students use experimentation and creative thought to work out what is inside a sealed box.
Students will learn how to:
Discuss and explain the importance of questions, evidence and explanations
Test explanations by using them to make predictions and then evaluate these against evidence
Discuss the way that scientists work, including reference to experimentation, evidence and creative thought
Apparatus
Apparatus (per student group) Notes
Mystery box These need to be prepared prior to the lesson.
Use opaque empty boxes or containers. It does not matter
if they are different sizes, for example margarine tubs, shoe
boxes, cereal boxes.
Place a different small object into each one. Suitable
objects include a bouncy ball, old key, roll of tape, large
wooden dice, pencil, candle, monkey nut (check
beforehand that no students or staff have a nut allergy),
cork.
The boxes should then be sealed with tape.
Running the activity
1. If possible a technician should create the mystery boxes so even the teacher does not know what is inside. This way
the teacher will not be tempted to give clues!
2. Groups are given one box each. They use Worksheet 4.1b(1) to help them plan experiments to work out the
contents of the box and record their results. They may find that after each experiment, their idea of what the mystery
object is changes as they refine their experiments and gather more data. This models the way that scientists work:
they use creative thinking to come up with experiments, gather results, refine their experiments and repeat.
3. Groups then swap their mystery object with another group and repeat the process. They then get together to discuss
what experiments they used and if their findings are the same. This models the way scientists repeat each other’s
experiments and discuss their results via journal articles and conferences.
4. Students can complete the questions in the Student’s Book to consolidate what they learned by doing the activity.
Cambridge Lower Secondary Chemistry
5. The students will want to open the boxes and find out what is inside, but do not let them! In not finding out the
definitive answer to what the objects are this further strengthens the analogy, modelling how scientists may never
know the answer to some questions, for example, how the universe began.
Expected results
Groups will have their ideas for what is inside each box. Groups that study the same mystery boxes should have similar
ideas.
Stage 8
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Teacher and technician
4.2 practical notes
4.2b Chromatography of sweets
In this investigation, students carry out chromatography on the food colouring from sweets.
Students will learn how to:
Describe trends and patterns in results
Make conclusions by interpreting results
Safety notes
Ensure that students do not eat the sweets. Peanut sweets should not be used if there are students with peanut
allergies.
Apparatus
Apparatus (for demonstration and per pair) Notes
Beaker (250 cm3)
Small, soft paint brush
2 paper clips (preferably plastic coated)
Chromatography paper, cut into pieces approximately Ordinary filter paper can be used.
20 cm x 10 cm
Pencil
Ruler
A sweet Each group should get a different colour sweet. M&Ms®
work well but if these are unavailable use another sweet
that is coloured with artificial food colouring or liquid food
colouring which is available from supermarkets.
Running the activity
Cambridge Lower Secondary Chemistry
1. This activity is outlined on Worksheet 4.2b(2).
2. You may wish to demonstrate how to carry out the method before students attempt it.
3. Encourage students to make small, intense spots on the paper. They can go over the spot again once it has dried.
Expected results
Students will produce chromatograms which contain ‘spots’ containing the different dyes in the food colouring.
Some food colourings from different coloured sweets may contain the same dyes. Groups can compare chromatograms
to find out.
Each ‘spot’ in a chromatogram may well still be a mixture of dyes. A better separation can be produced if the cylinder of
filter paper is taller. You might like to use a taller one in a gas cylinder for your demonstration to show them.
Stage 8
2 • Chapter 4
4.2c Applying chromatography
In this investigation, students use chromatography to identify which pen was used at a crime scene.
Students will learn how to:
Describe trends and patterns in results
Make conclusions by interpreting results
Explain the limitations of the conclusions
Apparatus
Apparatus (per pair) Notes
3 water-soluble black pens Each group needs to have access to the same 3 black pens.
If the class is small they can share them. If the class is larger
you will need to buy sets of identical pens.
Chromatogram Prepare a chromatogram in advance using one of the
black pens and using the same method as described in
Worksheet 4.2b.
Beaker (250 cm3)
2 paper clips (preferably plastic coated)
Chromatography paper, cut into pieces approximately Ordinary filter paper can be used.
20 cm x 10 cm
Pencil
Ruler
Running the activity
1. This activity is outlined in the Student’s Book.
2. Students work in pairs or small groups and plan their method. You may wish to give groups a copy of
Worksheet 4.2b, which contains the method they used for chromatography of sweets.
3. Make sure that students draw their start line in pencil, and place small dots of each of the three pens along it. These
should be separated by at least 2 cm to avoid the inks running into each other.
Expected results
Students will produce chromatograms which contain ‘spots’ containing the different dyes in the inks. There will be a
different pattern from each, showing that they contain different dyes.
Cambridge Lower Secondary Chemistry
Students should compare their chromatogram with the previously prepared one in order to identify the pen used at the
crime scene.
The pattern will not be exactly the same. Encourage a discussion on why this is. For example, they might have used a
different amount of ink (which would result in different size ‘spots’) or left the paper in for a different amount of time
(affecting the position of the ‘spots’).
Stage 8
© HarperCollinsPublishers 2021 • 3
