Welcome to your two lesson topic on Fireworks. During these lessons you will have the opportunity to see some of the types of reactions which occur when fireworks are set off.
Your teacher might have set you some activities from the list below to look at outside of lessons. Please follow the instructions in their firefly task, linked to the numbered tasks below, if they have asked you to do so.
This short clip introduces you to some of the basic features of a firework, introduced by the American Chemical Society.
1. Please watch this clip, if you haven't already seen it in lessons.
Please now look at some of the infographics shown below produced by Compound Chem. Please click on the link where you can find not only the main document (these are also below for you) but also lots of information about each page.
2. Choose one of the following infographics to read more about. This will be the one you choose to base your poster on.
Choose one of the following posters which you are most interested in. Make sure you have also read more of the detail by clicking on the link above.
Now, to find out more about the chemistry, click on the clip below. These come from a playlist which was produced by the Royal Society of Chemistry from a lecture given by Reverend Ron Lancaster, owner of Kimbolton Fireworks Ltd who produce some of the biggest annual firework displays in the UK such as the London 2012 Olympics, The Queen's Jubilee and New Year's Eve displays amongst many others.
3. Please watch the teaser below which gives a flavour of the rest of the clips.
There are 16 further clips in total, each is between around 2 and 5 minutes each.
4. Please choose at least two clips to watch which link to the infographic above that you chose as most interesting. These clips will give you some more of the chemistry behind this aspect of fireworks. You can watch more if you want to spend longer, but you still need to leave time for the activity you have also been set (below).
The above activities should have taken you around 20 minutes or so.
5. Now please use the rest of your time to produce a simple poster explaining what you have found out about in today's lesson/homework.
The poster should include:
1) An obvious heading or title, in a clear and bold font which is easy to read from far away, explaining what part of a firework your poster is about.
2) Some interesting chemistry that you have learnt about during today's lesson. It is better to focus on two or three main ideas and get those right, rather than lots and lots of information which is harder to understand. Try to communicate a simple message.
- 3) Really catchy images and graphics. You are welcome to screen shot parts of the resources you have used today, but you can't lift a whole part of an infographic. Please make your poster really great to look at. Don't forget your text still needs to be legible.
Posters will be marked out of 10 (5 marks for presentation, including images, layout, use of text and 5 marks for chemical content, including chemical names, reaction details, explanations).
Further resources
There are some additional resources below which you might like to look at if you have time however this is optional.
If you are interested to learn more, you might like to watch some of this Royal Institution Christmas Lecture (2011) by Professor Chris Bishop. Their Christmas lectures are televised each year. It is an hour long so this is obviously optional for you to watch in your own time if you want to.