Middle and High School … from a Montessori Point of View
An excellent 3d viewer for molecules.
In addition to the existing molecules, you can import any number of others if you can find them in one of the right formats (PDB, SDF or MOL molecule definitions): the ligand.info: Small Molecule Meta Database is a good source for SDFs.
Down at the creek the water striders are out. They can stand, walk and jump on the surface of the water without penetrating the surface because of the force of surface tension that causes water molecules to stick together — it’s the same cohesive force that make water droplets stick to your skin. I got a decent set of photos to illustrate surface tension.
The green canopy that over hangs the creek allows for some nice photographs.
The dust in Mars’ atmosphere scatters red, while the major gasses in Earth’s atmosphere (Nitrogen and Oxygen) scatter blue light. Longer wavelengths of light, like red, will bounce off (scatter) larger particles like dust, while shorter wavelengths, like blue light, will bounce of smaller particles, like the molecules of gas in the atmosphere. The phenomena is called Rayleigh scattering, and is different from the mechanism where different molecules absorb different wavelengths of light.
Ezra Block and Robert Krulwich go into details on NPR.
Molecular models tend to fascinate. As a introduction to the chemistry of elements, students seem to like putting them together, and they tend to enjoy finding out what their molecules are called.
You can’t beat fitting together molecules by hand as a learning experience, but 3Dchem has a nice collection of interactive, three-dimensional molecules, including molecules of the month.
They also have three-dimensional periodic tables showing the sizes of the atoms in the traditional tabular form as well as a spiral.
