Stoichiometry: Limiting & Excess Reactants

This NGSS aligned lesson begins with a teacher demonstration of a phenomenon that will leave your students asking— “How’d that happen?” Follow the demonstration with a student led inquiry activity that will lead students to a definition of limiting reactant and excess reactant. Students will represent the reaction both pictorially and with written description. By the end of the activity, students should be able to participate in an informed conversation of exactly what happened during the demonstration. The emphasis of this lesson is on concept development of limiting and excess reactants as it relates to the balanced equation, and not on memorization and rote application of problem-solving techniques. The Teacher Notes included with this lesson include detailed instructions for the teacher demonstration and inquiry activity. In this lesson, students will identify the limiting reactant and the excess reactant in a chemical reaction. They will use the limiti