Introducing moles numeracy worksheet | 14–16 years

By Duncan Short2021-06-17T13:39:00

A close up photo of some baked flapjack oat bars

Source: © Graham Parton/Shutterstock.

Use the context of cooking to get students more comfortable with concepts such as balanced equations, ratios and reagents

The concept of stoichiometry and reacting masses in chemical equations can be a difficult one for students to initially engage with. But if we think of chemical equations like recipes, with moles telling us about the ratio of the ingredients, it can be a little easier for students to grasp. Cooking is a fun, accessible introduction to why we use balanced equations.

Use this worksheet alongside the Education in Chemistry article Baking with moles to introduce the topic. Students answer questions such as how many baking products they can make with certain amounts of ingredients, culminating in writing a ‘formula’ for flapjacks based on the ratios of the constituent elements and exploring formula mass.

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