Penny for Your Thoughts

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In this activity, learners will explore how metals react with each other. They will see these metals change before their eyes as they coat a paperclip with the copper taken from a penny. Learners can extend their learning using one of the Extensions provided: learners can change the reactants to see if there are any observable changes in products; they may also wish to design their own reactions with the hopes of coating metal objects of their own. Part of the 21-activity guide published by OMSI, No Hassle Messy Science with a Wow. All activities in this guide use household materials and all lesson plans include preparation directions, demonstrations, procedure sheets, cross-curricular connections, and scientific explanation of content. [Activity is publicly available through a web crawler capture on Archive.org. Activity write-up only, images are unavailable.]

Quick Guide

Preparation Time:
5 to 10 minutes
Learning Time:
10 to 30 minutes
Estimated Materials Cost:
1 cent - $1 per student
Age Range:
Ages 8 - 14
Resource Types:
Experiment/Lab Activity, Lesson/Lesson Plan
Language:
English

Materials List (per student)

  • * One small jar with lid
  • * Vinegar
  • * One tablespoon of salt
  • * 15 Pennies (or other copper items, e.g. copper wire)
  • * A steel paper clip (or other small iron-containing object, e.g. nail)

Keywords

Subjects

  • Physical Sciences
    • Chemistry
      • Chemical Reactions
      • Oxidation-Reduction Reactions

Audience

To use this activity, learners need to:

  • see

Learning styles supported:

  • Involves hands-on or lab activities

Other

Foreign language versions of this resource:

Components that are part of this resource:

This resource is part of:

Access Rights:

  • Free access

By:

Rights:

  • All rights reserved, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, 2007