PhET + Tuva: Gas Laws
Sim Lesson
Lesson Purpose: High school chemistry is full of abstract ideas that students struggle with. One such important concept is gas pressure. Explained in terms of the collisions particles undergo with the walls of the container, gas pressure is easy to describe but hard to understand. This activity allows students to verify, both visually and graphically, how gas pressure is dependent on the number of particles, irrespective of their mass and size. Narrative: In this lesson, students will: Generate data using PhET simulation regarding the variation of gas pressure with changing number of heavy and light particles present in the chamber. Create graphs to identify what variable best explains the variation of pressure as the number of particles changes. How Tuva Enhances This Activity PhET offers exemplary simulations to help students visualize complex, real world phenomena. However, the data generated by these simulations is sometimes hard, sometimes impossible to capture and analyze. Tuva allows students to run simulations, collect generated data and analyze it in different ways using Tuva’s data exploration tools, a perfect combination that enables real inquiry based learning.
Air pressure is a concept that is widely used in physics and chemistry, but fairly hard to visualize. In this lesson, you'll use a simulation to better understand the concept. A better understanding of air pressure opens the doorway to understanding some important gas laws that physicists have uncovered over hundreds of years through research, experimentation and reasoning.
Topics and standards: Science, Physical Science, Simulation, Gas Laws, Grades 9-12, Tools Lab, PhET + Tuva