Living Books for Chemistry

This first is a list of books I used for chemistry with my older son when he was in seventh grade.  He was more reading than experiment oriented.  Following this list is a week by week summary of what I'm doing with my younger son for chemistry this year (also 7th grade). 
Logic stage reading list based on Eyewitness Chemistry spreads.  Some of these books can certainly be used with younger children, as well, and some are simple picture books for younger siblings who may be tagging along....
 
 
What is Chemistry?
 
 
Acid Rain, Kathlyn Gay
Experiments That Explore Acid Rain, Martin J. Gutnick
Lavender, Sweet Lavender, Judity A. McLeod (re: distillation of essences and oils)
Alcohol: What it is, What it Does, Judith S. Seixas (re: breathalyzers)

Additional Topics (for which I didn't find titles, but which you might want to look up in an encyclopedia or dictionary):
Plaster
Changes in Foods, i.e., butter, sugar
 
 
Chemistry in Nature:
 
 
Video – Web of Steel (re: spiderwebs)
 
 
Additional Topics:
Hot Peppers
Food Smells and Tastes
Cave Drippings
E. Coli in our stomachs
 
 
Chemistry in Ancient Worlds:
 
 
Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color, Philip Ball (adult)
How to Make a Mummy Talk, James Deem
Mummies, Nathaniel Harris
The Tanners, Leonard E. Fisher (simple)
From Cow to Shoe, Ali Mitgutsch (simple)
The Glassmakers, Leonard E. Fisher (simple)
From Sand to Glass, Ali Mitgutsch (simple)
How Glass is Made, Alan Paterson
 
 
The First Chemists:
 
 
The Alchemists:  Magic into Science, Thomas G. Aylesworth
Medicine in the American West, Lucille Davis
Famous Firsts in Medicine, Bette Jean Crook, et al
All About Great Medical Discoveries, David Dietz
Early Health and Medicine, Bobbie Kalman
Frontier Fever: The Silly, Superstitious, and Sometimes Sensible Medicine of the Pioneers, Elizabeth Van Steenwyk
 
 
Investigating Mixtures:
 
 
Carbon, Jean Blashfield (re: organic compounds – is this the same as an organic mixture?)
Universal Foam: From Cappuccino to the Cosmos, Sidney Perkowitz (? Adult – re: colloids)
 
 
Additional Topics:
Heterogeneous Mixtures
Alloys
Fractional Distillation
Making and Separating Mixtures
 
 
Atoms and Molecules:
 
 
Elements Series by Grolier
Building Blocks of the Universe, Isaac Asimov
Atoms and Elements, David Bradley
The Discovery of the Elements, Willy Ley
A Guide to the Elements, Albert Stwertka
Meteorites: Stones from the Sky, R. U. Fodor
The Story of Light, Irving Adler (re: spectrum analysis)
Light and Darkness, Franklyn M. Branley
Light, Angela Webb
Marie Curie and Radium, Steve Parker
 
 
Additional Topics:
John Dalton
Neils Bohr
Avogadro’s Number – Mole
Trace elements in the diet
Sir William Crookes
Spectroscope
Thallium 

 

 

Investigating Compounds:

 
 
The Curious World of Crystals, Lenore Sander
Millions and Millions of Crystals, Roma Gans
Liquid Crystals: Nature’s Delicate Phase of Matter, Peter J. Collings (adult)
 
 
Additional Topics:
Covalent Bonds
Making Compounds
Mixing Elements
Ionic Bonds
Dorothy Hodgkin
William Bragg
 
 
The Periodic Table:
 
 
Mendeleyev’s Dream: The Quest for the Elements, Paul Strathern (? Adult)

Additional Topics:
Noble Gases
Nuclear Elements
Inner Transition Series
 
 
Looking at Metals:

Sodium, Jean Blashfield (re: alkali metals)
Spotlight on Gold, Keith Lye (re: transition metals)
From Gold to Money, Ali Mitgutsch
The Challenge of Mineral Resources, Robert L. Bates (re: mining)

Additional Topics:
Liquid Metal – Mercury
Sir Humphrey Davy
Reactivity of metals
 
 
Discovering Non-metals:
 
 
Crystal Clear: The Story of Diamonds, Victor Argenzio
Spotlight on Diamonds, Graham Richard
Chlorine, Jean Blashfield
 
 
Additional Topics:
Fluorine
Henri Moissan
Graphite
Elements from Volcanoes (sulfur)
 
 
Looking at Air:
 
 
Autobiography of Joseph Priestley: Memoirs Written by Himself: An Account of Further Discoveries in Air, primary source (? Adult)
The Book of Waters, Steven Schwrtz (re: carbonated water – adult)
Soda Poppery: The History of Soft Drinks in America: With Recipes for Making and Using Soft Drinks, Plus Easy Experiments, Stephen Tchudi
Solids, Liquids and Gases! From Superconductors to the Ozone Layer, Melvin Berger (re: gases)
 
 
Additional Topics:
Joseph Black
Henry Cavendish

Burning Reactions:
 
 
Antoine Lavoisier: Founder of Modern Chemistry, Lisa Yount
What Happens When You Breathe? Joy Richardson
Fire, Ken Robbins

Additional Topics:
Georg Ernst Stahl
Robert Bunsen
 
 
The Noble Gases:
 
 
The Magic of Neon, Michael Webb (? Adult)
Superconductors, The Irresistible Future, Albert Stwertka (re: liquid helium)
 
 
Additional Topics:
Toepler Pump
Sir William Ramsay
Radon
Argon
 
 
Chemical Reactions:
 
 
The Vital Process: Photosynthesis, Jeffrey Baker
The Ozone Layer, Marshall Fisher
Jet Planes, Ray Broekel (re: jet propulsion – rocket fuel?)
Ernest Rutherford, Architect of the Atom, Peter Kelman
 
 
Additional Topics:
Displacement Reaction
Making a Precipitate
 
 
What Drives a Reaction:
The Automobile and the Environment, Maxine Rock
Friction All Around, Tillie S. Pine
Poisons: Antidotes and Anecdotes, William Tichy
Enzymes in Action, Melvin Berger
Additional Topics:
Johann Dobereiner
Photography
 
 
Rates of Reaction:

Fireworks: The Science, the Art and the Magic, Susan Kuklin
Spotlight on Copper, Mark Lambert (re: patina)
Chemicals and Reactions, Jon Richards
 
 
Additional Topics:
Henri Louis Le Chatelier
Reversible Reactions
Reactants
Fritz Haber
 
 
Oxidation and Reduction:

Nothing on topic found

Topics:
Bessemer Process
Flash Photography
William Kelly
 
 
Acids and Bases:
 
 
Police Lab: How Forensic Science Tracks Down and Convicts Criminals, David Owen

Additional Topics:
S. P. L. Sorensen
Svantz Arrhenius
 
 
Forming Salts:

The Magic School Bus at the Water Works, Joanna Cole (a little young, but a good description of this process and the only one my library has)
 
 
Additional Topics:
Ingredients in Glass (see earlier works on glassmaking, which I’m sure include this)
Salts from Copper (see earlier work on copper, which I’m sure includes this)
 
 
Electricity and Chemistry:
 
 
Electric Vehicle Structure and Components, Philip Terpstra (? Adult)
 
 
Additional Topics:
Humphry Davy
Batteries
Electroplating
Hamilton Castner
 
 
The Chemistry of Carbon:

Carbon, Jean Blashfield
 
 
Additional Topics:
Marcellin Berthelot
Carbon Chain (in above book, re: carbon?)
 
 
The Chemistry of Life:
 
 
The Greenhouse Effect, Jack Harris
How did we find out About DNA?  Isaac Asimov
 
 
Additional Topics:
Sir Hans Krebs
Carbon Cycle (in above book, re: carbon?)
 
 
Organic Synthesis:
 
 
What an Awful Mess: A Story of Charles Goodyear, Robert Quackenbush
Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World, Simon Garfield
Twentieth Century Inventors, Nathan Aaseng (re: Leo Baekeland)
 
 
Additional Topics:
Asphalt
Thomas Hancock
William Henry Perkin
Creosote
TNT
Bakelite (in book on Baekeland?)
 
 
The First Plastics:
 
 
Spotlight on Plastics, Mark Lambert
Plastics, Terry Cash
 
 
Additional Topics:
Ivoride
Alexander Parkes
Parkesine
Celluloid
Ebonite
 
 
Making Synthetic Materials:

Recycling, Gary Chandler (re: plastics)
 
 
Additional Topics:
Wallace Carrothers
Nylon
Polyethylene
 
 
The Story of Chemical Analysis:
 
 
Food Safety, Sharon Gordon
The Food and Drug Administration, William Patrick
 
 
Additional Topics:
Karl Fresenius
Flashpoint Apparatus
P. J. Kipp
Analyzing Dyes
Jons Jakob Berzelius
Alcohol Lamp
 
 
Monitoring Materials:
 
 
Nothing found on topic, yet
 
 
Topics:
Mikhail Tswett
Food Adulteration
Joseph Gay-Lussac
Hydrometer
Volumetric Analysis
Klett Colorimeter
 
 
The Chemical Industry:
 
 
Dynamite, Diana Glasner (also goes with TNT topic, above)
Trail Blazers of Technology: The Story of Inventors, Harland Manchester (re: Alfred Nobel)
Tom Noddy’s Bubble Magic, Tom Noddy
Soap Bubble Magic, Seymour Simon (simple)
The Homemakers, Leonard E. Fisher (simple)
Procter and Gamble: The House that Ivory Built, 338.76681 (?Adult)
Keeping Clean, Daisy Kerr

Additional Topics:
Chemistry in Agriculture
Contact Process
Chemicals from Oil

And here's what I'm doing with my more science experiment oriented younger son this year for chemistry, also in seventh grade. 

Here are the topics I attempted to cover first semester, not in any particular order, but by visiting and revisiting them over and over throughout the semester:

What is Matter
States of Matter
Properties of Matter
Atoms/Elements
The Periodic Table
Compounds/Mixtures/Solutions
Chemical Reactions
Acids and Bases/Alkalis
Organic Chemistry intro (will do more on this next semester)
Common Elements
The Alkali Metals
The Noble Gases
Water Chemistry
Chemical processes: distillation, filtration, evaporation, chromatography
Food/Cooking related Chemistry


Week 1

Individual reading:  read from Eyewitness Matter, Chris Cooper, spreads from "What is Matter" through " Mixtures and Compounds".

I read from Visual Factfinder: Science and Technology, from "Birth of Science" through "Solids, Liquids, and Gases".  Also, from Reader's Digest How Science Works, from "Matter" through "Solids, Liquids, and Gases".

Experiments/activities from How Science Works:  Tested for Brittleness and Hardness.

Used http://www.chem4kids.com/ info. on states of matter, plasma and Bose-Einstein Condensates (supersolids and superfluids). 

Read online article concerning BEC's.

Used Brain Pop info on states of matter and experiment to see gas move (during a free trial period).

Memory Work:  Five States of Matter.

Classified a solid (a pillow) by its physical properties.

Talked about melting/boiling points.

Tested for volume of a solid and talked about the properties of water as a solid.  Tested viscosity of liquids and rated them.  Tested for volume of a gas.  (All from How Science Works pages we read this week.)  Also measured density; melting point; boiling points; and looked for "holes" in water.

Created a Chemistry Timeline to add to during the year.

Read about the elements from introductory section of Fizz, Bubble, Flash! (page 4-7)

Visited the Thomas Edison House in Louisville.  Talked about his inventions and his use of chemistry.  Viewed the first motion picture, created by Edison.  Looked at the various types of light bulbs he developed, and his many other inventions.

Visited Glassworks in Louisville where son was able to blow his own orb.  Saw film on how glass is made and used and visited all three different types of glass studios to see work being performed in each.

Week 2

Began working a few pages per day of The Nature of Matter, a reading comp/science workbook covering various chemistry topics.

Read from How Science Works regarding "Atoms" and "Elements and Compounds".

Read from Fizz, Bubble, Flash! regarding the Periodic Table. (pages 8-11)

Played Elemento.

Also began working slowly, intermittently, through another chemistry workbook entitled The Atom.

Week 3

Continuing with Matter workbook daily.

Read from HSW about Chemical Reactions.

Individual reading:  read about Thomas Edison from Great Lives and wrote a short report about him.
Also read Chemistry: The Birth of a Science, Tom McGowen.

Burned Elements and Compounds.  (HSW)

Separated solid mixtures: iron filings and sand; iron filings and flowers of sulfur; iron filings with sulfur and hydrochloric acid.  (These last two are from the 1960 Golden Chemistry book which was banned for a while, LOL, precisely because it includes usage of more dangerous chemicals.  I'm not sure I'm brave enough to do many of their experiments this year....)

Separated pigments, using chromotography: permanent markers vs. water color markers.  (We got terrific results with the water color markers - Crayola!)

Looked at miscible vs. immiscible liquids with oil, water, and food coloring.

Tried distillation.  (All these other activities are from the How Science Works book.)


Week 4

Continued Matter workbook.

Read about Acids and Bases, Salts and Soaps from How Science Works.

Read about Alkali Metals from Fizz, Bubble, Flash! (pages 12-21)

Used cabbage juice indicator to test acids and bases.

Individual reading:  Looking at Glass through the Ages, Bruce Koscielniak.

Talked about the alkali power of oven cleaner, brass polish and silver polish.  Talked about what tarnish is and applied silver cleaner to tarnished silver.

Tested for water hardness.  Used washing soda to make water softer.  (All activities, again, from How Science Works.)

Week 5

Read about Organic Chemistry and Biological Soaps from How Science Works.

Individual reading:  Metal, Claire Llewellyn

Made plastic from milk.

Continued Matter workbook.

Tested different types of soap on boiled eggs (protein stains).  All activities from How Science Works.

Week 6

Set up experiments from Matter workbook to look at conservation of mass.  Continued in workbook.

Read intro to Adventures with Atoms and Molecules I and wrote definitions of terms used. 

Attended 2 hour chemistry lab at Louisville Science Center where students made Colonial ink, talked about the elements at some length; discussed chemical reactions and burned various compounds to see the element colors; had a great demo on liquid nitrogen; and set off a liquid nitro bomb at the end of class.

Week 7

Continued Matter workbook.

(I intended to start him in the Tiner book Exploring the World of Chemistry this week, LOL, but I kept forgetting to order it and now I'm still waiting for it to come in!)

Week 8

Read online info about water treatment chemistry and sewage treatment chemistry in preparation for trips to both locations this week.

Visited Kentucky American Water Company and toured the plant.

Individual reading:  A Drop of Water, Walter Wick.

Visited Fayette County Sewage Treatment Plant at Town Branch and toured the plant and lab.

Read over information provided by both companies and discussed. 

Began experiments from Adventures with Atoms and Molecules.

Week 9

Checked on States of Matter experiments.

Continued Adv. w/ Atoms and Molecules experiments.

Continued in Matter workbook.

Individual reading:  Science Files Materials:  Metals, Steve Parker.

Visited a local orchard and the owner discussed the safety of chemicals in use in organic vs. traditional farming of apples.

Week 10

Continued in Matter workbook.

Continued AWAM experiments.

Watched You Tube videos of Hydrogen and all the Alkali Metals, with demos of their properties, from Nottingham University.

Individual reading:  What's Smaller than a Pygmy Shrew?  Robert Wells.

Read through online info. regarding winemaking (vinification), fermentation, and distillation.

Looked at yeast in sugar water and discussed the action of yeast.  (Plan on making root beer!)

Visited a local vineyard for a tour of the entire facility and discussion of the chemistry and chemicals involved in winemaking.

Week 11

Continuing with Matter book.

Continuing with AWAM experiments.

Used some of the experiments from Complete Science to complete work regarding solutes and solutions.

Did some of the experiments from Soda Pop Science, Thomas Rybolt.

Individual Reading:

Usborne's Science in the Kitchen (and chose some experiments to do)
Magic School Bus at the Waterworks

Week 12

Continuing Matter workbook.

Individual reading:

The Elements: Silver, Susan Watt
The Story of Oxygen, Karen Fitzgerald

Did experiments from Science in the Kitchen book selected last week.

Continued experiments from Soda Pop Science.


Week 13

Continuing Matter workbook.

Individual reading:

Simple Science Experiments with Water, Eiji Orii and Masako Orii
How to Think Like a Scientist, Answering Questions by the Scientific Method, Stephen Kramer

Completed two chapters from The World of Chemistry, John Tiner (with chapter quizzes).

Completed some worksheets from Complete Science.

Week 14

Continuing Matter workbook.

Completed a chapter from Tiner book.

Did experiment on mixtures from Complete Science.

Did experiments ds chose last week from Simple Science Experiments with Water.

Read aloud Routes of Science: Atoms and Molecules, Chris Woodford and Martin Clowes.  Added many figures to science timeline.  Added to memory work.

Read aloud Chemicals in Action: States of Matter, Chris Oxlade.  Added to timeline and memory work.  Did one experiment from the book that we haven't done before.

Attended exhibit and program regarding the Louisville Waterworks at the Frazier Arms Museum. 

Week 15

Continuing work in Matter workbook.

Read aloud The Periodic Table, Sharon Cooper; Chemical Reactions, Louise and Richard Spilsbury; and Acids and Bases, Chris Oxlade.

Did experiment on chemical reactions between acids and bases from Science in the Kitchen.  It's great fun to mix citric acid, baking soda, and powdered sugar to make a fizzy, foamy mixture!  (We like to eat it, too, but very sparingly!)

Completed a block of 5 experiments from AWAM.

Completed experiments from Soda Pop Science book.

Did two experiments from Chemical Reactions and one from Acids and Bases.

Week 16

Continuing with Matter workbook (almost finished!)

Completed a block of about 10 experiments from AWAM.

Completed chapters 1-5 in Friendly Chemistry so that we'll be set to begin working with chemical formulas next semester.

Week 17

Completed Matter workbook.

Picked back up daily work with The Atom workbook.

Week 18

Continued work in The Atom.

Completed Tiner chapter regarding electricity (reading about Benj. Franklin in history).

Son began reading Benjamin Franklin and Electricity, Steve Parker.

Son read first chapter in Changes in Matter (Atwater/Macmillan), a middle school unit on chemistry, and completed the activity log work for it on his own.

Read aloud chapters 6 and half of chapter 7 in Friendly Chemistry, played various games associated with those chapters and completed work regarding orbital notation.


Recap of Memory Work thus far this year:

5 States of Matter:
Bose-Einstein Condensates (BEC's)
Solids
Liquids
Gases
Plasmas

Energy goes up with each level from BEC's through plasmas.  The particles (atoms) at each level are more excited, so more movement is seen.

Parts of an Atom:
Nucleus = Protons (+) plus Neutrons (neutral) - both are made of Quarks.
Electrons (-) form the shell(s) of the atom and are composed of Leptons.
Gauge Bosons hold all these particles together.

Number of Protons = Atomic Number.

When Protons = Electrons, the Atom is neutral.

Currently there are 118 known, named elements, with 92 of those naturally occurring.  (This number keeps changing!)

Six Types of Quarks:
Top
Bottom
Up
Down
Strange
Charm

Four Main Ways of Separating Mixtures:
Distillation
Filtration
Evaporation
Chromatography

Physical Change - a reversible change in state.

Chemical Change - a non-reversible change (usually) that results in new materials being formed.

Many changes in state are both chemical and physical.

Individuals on our science timeline for the year:
Democritus
Robert Boyle
Georg Ernst Stahl
Hennig Brand
Blaise Pascal
Joseph Priestley
Antoine Lavoisier
Henry Cavendish
Jacques Charles
John Dalton
Amedio Avogadro
J. J. Thompson
Dmitri Mendeleyev
Humphrey Davy
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
Stanislao Cannizzaro
James Clerk Maxwell
Johannes Diderik van der Waals
Friderich Kekule'
Antoine Henri Becquerel


Week 19

Continued work in The Atom.

Completed another chapter in Tiner.

Completed reading in chapter 2 of Changes in Matter.  Did only one activity log at this time.

Completed chapter 8 and electron dot notation in Friendly Chemistry.  Began chapter 9 and element families.

Independent reading:
Completed Benjamin Franklin and Electricity, Steve Parker


Week 20

Completed chapter 9, Friendly Chemistry.

Continued work in The Atom.

Completed two chapters in McHenry's The Elements, along with activities and games.


Week 21

Completed half of chapter 3 in The Elements and played periodic table game.


Week 22

Completed chapter 3, The Elements.


Week 23

Reviewed chapters 8 and 9, Friendly Chemistry.

Completed review exercises for past chapters re: notation.

Played Ion Bingo.

Completed a chapter in Tiner.

Almost finished with The Atom.


Week 24

Continue with The Atom.

Completed chapter 4 in The Elements.

Modeled atomic molecules (reinforcing work just completed in Friendly Chemistry).

Completed chapter in Tiner re: metals.

Began chapter 5, The Elements (which also covers metals, etc.).

Read through intro info for high school level chemistry lab class using Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Labs.


Week 25

Began 3 hour weekly outside lab: separating mixtures (differential solubility; solvent extractions; purifying copper sulphate).  They are keeping a lab notebook for this class.

Completed another chapter on metals in Tiner.  Completed The Atom with a work page covering metals, too.


Week 26

Discussed lab questions from last week and read over lab work for this week.  Completed lab on solubility and solutions (made a molar solution of copper sulfate and one of hydrochloric acid; made a mass to volume percent solution of phenolphthalein).


Week 27

Discussed lab questions from last week and prepared for this week's work.  Completed lab on acid-base chemistry (determining the effect of concentration on pH).


Week 28

Discussed lab questions and read over work for this week's work.  Completed lab on chemical reactions and stoichiometry (reactivity of metals, etc.).


Week 29

No outside lab this week and we didn't manage to do science at home, either!


Week 30

Completed two chapters in Tiner.

Prepared for outside lab, which was on chemical reactions this week.


Week 31

Prepared for outside lab, which was on gas chemistry this week.


Week 32

Prepared for outside lab, which was another round of gas chemistry.


Week 33

Completed chapter in Tiner on organic chemistry.

Last outside lab prep.  This one was on colloids and suspensions.  They ended by making napalm and burning it.


Week 34

Completed last chapter in Tiner.

Previewed physical science lab work (using BJU's physical science laboratory book only) and started lab using this manual as the lab notebook.  Completed labs 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 this week, with questions.


Week 35

Read over labs for chapters 2 and 3 in physical science and completed all labs for those chapters.


Week 36

Finished work on questions for labs in physical science book.

Completed chapters 2-4 in Changes in Matter, and did accompanying experiments as well as some activities regarding metals, for review purposes.

The outside work in physical science is continuing sporadically throughout the summer and they aim to have all work completed by the beginning of August.











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