Authors of original unit: Shawn Sendlinger

Partner Projects: Biology Student Workbench

Grade Level: High school chemistry teachers

Subject Areas: Acids, Bases, PH, titration curve, heat of neutralization, virtual chemistry lab, using spreadsheets in the chemistry Lab

The unit introduces us to the Virtual Lab Simulator, which allows us to conduct a virtual experiment on the pH titration of hydrofluoric acid (HF). Data collected in the virtual experiment will be use to calculate and plot the titration curve, and to investigate the heat of neutralization. We will use a spreadsheet to perform all the quantitative analyses of this unit.

Intended for high school chemistry teachers, who wish to use computational tools in the classroom. Also suitable for introductory college chemistry. It could also be used directly by students for self-study.

Web browser (preferably Firefox) that is Javascript-enabled, OpenOffice-Calc ??and Virtual Lab Simulator. Virtual Lab Simulator is a free software to download. You can also use the web-based version. However, you should install the Java JRE for the Virtual Lab to load. OpenOffice is a free office suit system that contains Calc, a spreadsheet, OpenOffice can be downloaded from here.To find out which plugins are already installed on your mozilla/firefox browser, just type 'about:plugins' in address box. You can download each plug-in component from the links provided and you can test if your system support Javascript from here.

Exercise in creating visualizing and energy-minimizing molecules.

Introduction: Background information on (weak) acids, (weak) bases and the titration procedure.

Part 1: ?Basics of Spreadsheet operations and manipulation. Here we adopt OpenOffice Calc software for example. You might also want to use Microsoft Excel or google spreadsheet.

Part 2: Virtual pH Titration of a Weak Acid.

Part 3: Virtual Heat of Neutralization.