Can Water Molecules be Split into Hydrogen and Oxygen Atoms?
For this station, provide a beaker of salt water (or clear jar with straight sides, such as one which held salsa), two pencils, sharpened on both ends, a lantern battery, two 15 cm (6 in) pieces of bell wire and a piece of cardboard (which students will cut and use as a lid for the beaker, through which the pencils will extend). Students will connect a wire from a contact (pencil lead) to the positive terminal of the battery and from the other contact (second pencil) to the negative terminal. They will predict and observe the results.
