Alka-Seltzer Lab

On Thursday, in Mr. Muri's Biology class, we were give a flask, some water, and Alka-Seltzer tablets. We all knew a lab was coming and a few groans were muttered. This lab was to show us how the scientific method works.

Something was different about this particular lab. In groups, we were to make up our own question and experiment. It was cool to decide what you wanted to know, instead of just following directions on a piece of paper. There were six different groups and each group had three people.

During the first week of school, Mr. Muri had us write our names on a piece of paper. He uses that to determine groups so it is completely random. My group members were Elise Maine and Michelle Postiff. All together, we came up with the question, “Does the temperature of the water effect the speed at which the Alka-Seltzer dissolves?” We had to do research to see if anyone else had asked this same question, and we found a few people who had also tried it.

Next, our group was to make a prediction, compose a hypothesis, and conduct an experiment we had made up ourselves. Elise, Michelle, and I used hot water, warm water, and ice cold water. We found that the hotter the water, the faster the tablet dissolved. It was quite fun to do this experiment on our own and see what other groups came up with.

To introduce this lab, Mr. Muri had us measure the drop in temperature of the water when the tablet was fully dissolved. This lead one group to ask, “If we use more tablets, will that make the temperature drop more?” Another group asked, “Does the surface area of the water effect the speed in which the Alka-Seltzer tablet dissolves?” All in all, it was a fun lab and we all learned a lot about using the scientific method.

- Brook Sigler, Junior