Chemistry Lab: Stoichiometry—Making Salt!

This is a great lab to end your stoichiometry unit. Students will perform a reaction, convert grams to moles, identify the limiting and excess reactant, calculate their actual yield, calculate the theoretical yield, and finally calculate their percent yield. I love this lab for several reasons. One reason is that the percent yield is usually very high for students. You may even have some students get a 100% yield! Another reason I love this lab is that it is very easy to set up, and for students to run—so I can use it for standard chemistry students as well as advanced chemistry students. Finally, this lab presents so many teachable moments opportunities that really allow students to deepen their understand of stoichiometry, percent yield, and limiting & excess reactants. Objectives: Convert grams to moles. Distinguish between theoretical yield, actual yield, and percentage yield. Calculate actual yield and theoretical yield for a chemical reaction performed i