Just add water to a dry powder for an intriguing instant illumination in a bag.
The mixture glows in the dark and allows students to discover the chemistry behind chemiluminescence and explore it by designing experiments to make the light brighter or last longer.
Students will begin to understand that the light is a product and the kinetics of the reaction can be controlled by temperature.
A great introduction to kinetics, scientific inquiry, and chemiluminescence, enough materials have been provided for at least ten demonstrations.
A typical inquiry activity that can be done with students is to add about 4 g of instant light powder into the plastic bag. Then, about 20 mL of room temperature water is added. The solution will begin to glow upon mixing. As a teacher, you can then ask your students, what are the variables in this experiment. Students should identify variables such as the amount of water, amount of powder, temperature of water, etc. Next, students can be asked how to make the light last longer. Have them give suggestion and try each of the suggestions out to see the effect of the change. The correct answer of how to make the light last longer, is to decrease the temperature of the solution. Once a student identifies this as the variable, have a 30 mL sample of hot water and a 30 mL sample of ice water. Add these to different plastic bags at the same time and have your students make observations. Students will observe the the light in the bag with the hot water will become very bright very quickly, then fade away rather quickly. The light in the plastic bag with cold water will not get as bright, but it will last for a considerably longer time. This is a perfect inquiry activity to begin talking about kinetics of reactions. The kit comes with a 100 g bottle of instant light crystals, instructions and 10 heavy duty plastic bags. Also available is just the bottle of instant glow light crystals as a 100 g bottle.
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