Thermodynamics or thermochemistry can be a bit intimidating for the first-time chemistry teacher. Your students know a bit about thermochemistry already, your job is to help them learn the technical terminology and to take a deeper look at the concepts. It all boils down to heat flow. Where is it coming from and where is it going? How do we quantify heat? What’s the difference between heat and temperature? Your students should be able to answer these questions by the end of this unit.
Each of these activities is not necessarily meant to represent a single day. Depending on the speed at which you teach, or how long your class discussions last, each topic could take .5 – 2 days. I’ve included how much time I spend on each as a guide, but feel free to modify it to your needs.
Thermochemistry Lesson Plans
Total Duration: 13 – 15 days
Note: a day refers to 45-50 minute periods
| Topic & Timeline | Tasks | Description |
| Energy + Heat 2 days | Thermochemistry Notes Molecular Motion + Heat Flow Demo or Lab White Board Discussion | Discuss your students’ previous experience with energy and heat. Prepare some demos exposing them to molecular motion and heat flow. One I love is dropping food coloring into cold and hot water and comparing how fast the dye mixes. Prepare a few endothermic and exothermic reactions. Have your students touch the glassware to experience the heat transfer. Have your students prepare particle diagram storyboards explaining how energy/heat is transferred during exothermic and endothermic reactions. Address misconceptions at this time. |
| Phase Change Lab 2 days | Boiling Ice Lab Whiteboard Discussion | Place ice in a beaker, and then the beaker on a hot plate. Students will take the temperature every 30-60seconds while they add medium heat to the ice. Once the water has boiled for approximately 5 minutes, the lab is complete. Students should graph their temperature vs time data and discuss the arrangement of particles during the change from solid to liquid to gas. They can do this on large whiteboards to help showcase their learning as they explain their observations to the class. |
| Heating + Cooling Curves 1 day | Heating + Cooling Curves Practice | Ask your students if they have a bank account and the types of accounts they can have. Relate this to “energy accounts”. Energy can be deposited or withdrawn from different energy accounts (thermal, phase, or chemical). This energy is used for different purposes – heating, phase changes, or chemical changes. |
| Specific Heat 1 day | Temp Changes Practice | Break down the heating/cooling curve into the slope sections when the temperature is changing. All deposited energy is going into the “thermal account.” You are heating one phase of matter. Focus on the increasing/decreasing of the speed of particles. Introduce the equation for specific heat capacity. |
| Heat of Formation 1 day | Phase Changes Latent Heat Practice | Now discuss the flat parts of heating/cooling curves. There is no temperature change, so ALL of the depositing energy is going into the “phase account.” Particles are not changing speed, instead, they are spreading apart. Introduce the equation for the heat of vaporization/fusion. |
| Quantifying Heat 1-2 days | Multi-step Heat Calculations Heating Curve Calculations | Now your students can complete multi-step problems. You can give them partial or complete heating/cooling curves and ask them how much heat was transferred. |
| Calorimetry 3 days | Calorimetry Lab Discussion/Practice | Using coffee cup calorimeters, students will determine the heat of neutralization of an acid and base. They will spend 2 days in the lab. Day 1 is putting their coffee cup calorimeter together and calibrating it. On day 2 they will mix solutions of NaOH and HCl. Students discuss their results on day 3 and complete their lab questions. |
| Review 1-2 days | Vocabulary Study Guide | Review however you see fit. I don’t normally give study guides, but I feel like I have to for Thermochemistry. Students are familiar with the concept of heat, but they can easily confuse their previous experiences with what they’ve learned during this unit. |
| Assessment | Test | While your assessment should have quite a bit of math on it, don’t forget to include the conceptual ideas of heat flow. I’ve found that students can often get to the correct mathematical answer without fully understanding what that answer means. I would suggest a variety of vocabulary, conceptual heat flow, particle diagrams, graphing, and algebraic questions. |
I hope you found this helpful! If you’re looking for other chemistry lesson plans check out The Chemistry Particle’s Guide to Teaching High School Chemistry!
Save on my notes by purchasing the Thermochemistry Notes Bundle!
Save on my practice problems with the Calculating Heat Flow Practice Bundle!
