1. Lin Wozniewski lwoz@iun.edu
Potions and Poisons
Lin Wozniewski

2. Disclaimer
This presentation was prepared using draft rules.  There may be some changes in the final copy of the rules.  The rules which will be posted on the National Science Olympiad Website in the Featured Trial events and will be the official rules.

3. Safety First Students must wear: Closed shoes
All skin from neck to toes covered
Lab coat or lab apron
Indirect vent or unvented chemical splash proof goggles.
All skin from neck to wrists covered
Long hair (shoulder length or longer) must be tied back.
Visorgogs now permitted

4. Potions Magic is in the eye (and mind)of the beholder.
What seemed like magic in Harry Potter’s time we now understand.
In this part of the event we are going to focus on aspects of chemistry that might once seemed like “MAGIC”!!!!!
Middle School students can understand a lot of the concepts without having to understand all of the chemistry

5. Potions
Sometimes when we mix two reactants together the result is a drastic change in the color
Sometimes when mix two liquids together we get a solid formed
Sometimes when we mix two liquids together we get a gas given off
Sometimes when we mix two liquids together we get heat given off or taken it
Sometimes when we mix two liquids we get an immediate reaction

6. Potions Sometimes we get a delayed reaction
Not all reactions occur all at once.
Imagine if you will a large rock concert in a football stadium.
The person you came with has already entered the stadium.
You stand poised at one door of the stadium and try to find this person.
How long will it take you to find your partner?
This is how chemical reactions work

7. Potions Sometimes we can make a reaction go back and forth at will.
These are called reversible reactions.
Sometimes when we add water to something, nothing happens
Sometimes we get bubbles produced.
Sometimes we get a color change
Sometimes we get extreme swelling.

8. Potions
Since the same thing does not happen all of the time, what does happen seemed like magic in the old days
Students will be able to mix reagents together and on the basis of what happens, they should be able to classify the reaction as:
No reaction
Heat release/heat intake
Precipitate reaction
Delayed reaction
Drastic color change
Hydration/dehydration
Gas release
Acid/Base titrations

9. Potions
Separating chemicals that have been mixed would also have seemed like “MAGIC” in the middle ages
Students may be asked to separate components of a mixture.

10. Poisons
There are many poisons around the house that middle school students should know about.
Middle school students should understand that you should not mix cleaning products and have a basic understanding of why
Middle school students should understand that drugs undergo reactions that cause them to either become ineffective or poisonous.
Middle school students should understand that cleaning products should not be consumed

11. Poisons
There are also poisons in our environment that middle school students need to understand
Middle School students should understand that metal ions can get into drinking water from chemical spills
Middle School students should understand that many organic molecules are also dangerous
Middle School students should understand that how dangerous something is will depend on its concentration and how to dilute.

12. What Students May Bring
test tubes & racks, spot plates, well plates, reaction plates, beakers or similar small containers for mixing
something for scooping & stirring
pH or Hydrion paper
hand lens(es)
Beral pipettes
9-Volt or less Conductivity tester
paper towels
Test tube brush
5 pages of notes from any source
A Calculator

13. What Supervisor will Provide
All required reagents
All Probes/chemical instrumentation
Chromatography materials

14. The Competition
Students will do at least one wet chemistry event themselves
The rest of the event may be either student run experiments, or event supervisor demonstrations, or running experiments
Students will answer questions on the classifications of experiments,.
They will answer questions about separations of components of a mixture

15. The Competitions
Students will answer questions about common generic cleaning products and their interactions (ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol, bleach, Epsom salts, vinegar, nutritional supplements containing calcium and iron and Vitamin C.)
Students will answer questions about heavy metals. This year they are Arsenic, Copper, and Iron
Students may be asked questions about toxic living organisms: These organisms will rotate yearly. The following slides are the organisms for the 2016/2017 competition season.

16. Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans)
"Poison Ivy in Perrot State Park" by SWMNPoliSciProject - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons -

17. Wolfsbane(Aconitum sp)

18. Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arum maculatum)

19. Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis)

20. Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix)

21. Cane toad (Androctonus australis)

22. Poison Dart Frogs (Dendrobates sp)

23. Portuguese man o’ war (Physalia physalis)

24. Lionfish (Pterois sp)

25. fattail scorpion (Androctonus australis).

26. The Competition
Students will answer questions about the types of heavy metals that might be found in drinking water (lead, mercury, arsenic).
Students may be expected to do at least one chromatography separation of a mixture.
Students may be expected to perform at least one serial dilution
Students should know the difference between physical and chemical changes.

27. The Competition
Students should be able to distinguish between ionic and covalent bonding
They should be able to balance a simple chemical equation where the reactants and products are already given.

28. Time to play 1. Put powder 1 in a spot plate & add water?
Is this a reaction?
What type of reaction is it?
2. What do you get when you put the two chemicals in vials 3 & 4 together?
Take the stock solution of CuSO4 and dilute it 1 ml into 10 ml with distilled water. Then take that solution and dilute it 1 ml to 10 ml. And do it a 3rd time
Find the absorbance's of all of the solutions.
Find the concentrations of all of the solutions
Plot the absorbance vs. the concentration

29. Time to play Add a few pieces of substance S to water.
What do you notice happening?
Test the resultant with a conductivity meter
Thermometer
pH paper
Is this an example of a physical change or a chemical change?
What evidence do you have to support this?
How many different chemicals are in the mixture called “Grape Illusion?