Be a Chemical Engineer: Purifying Components of a Mixture for Renewable Energy 

Overview of Online Format Facilitation

Field: Chemical Engineering Outreach
Format: Online, Remote, Virtual via Zoom (but can also be done in-person)
Age: Middle School
Time: 50 min
Objective: In this chemical engineering outreach activity, students will learn about separation techniques used in renewable energy applications.  

Acknowledgment:
The following activity has been adapted from the Middle School Chemical Engineering For Girls open-access repository. The version on this website has been adapted for a virtual format, contextualized to the impact chemical engineers have in renewable applications, and aligned with the Florida education standards. 

Materials Needed

Participants will explore various materials, such as salt, sand, and iron filings, and apply separation methods to extract rare earth metals for renewable energy production.

• Salt  
• Sand 
• Iron Filings 
• Beads 
• Coffee filters 
• Small magnets 
• Plastic cups 
• Plastic bags 
• Rubber bands 

• Before the experiment, prepare bags of mixed ingredients: 1 tbsp sand, 1 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp iron, and 20-30 beads. Make sure to have extra bags so that if the students want to try a different order or method of separation, they can get a new bag to try again. This prep works very well for remote activities.
• Send the teacher a comprehensive handout of the activity at least two weeks prior to its implementation. The handout, from the teacher’s viewpoint, should encompass detailed management instructions, theoretical background, alignment with educational standards relevant to the state, and any necessary printed materials for student use
• Ensure that the chosen activity utilizes safe materials and requires minimal teacher preparation time. To respect the teacher’s time, deliver the materials at least one week before the activity and remain available for any inquiries or clarifications

Introduction (10 min)

• Welcome and introduction of volunteers (5 min) 
• A presentation about chemical engineering and its role in solving real-world problems, focusing on environmental sustainability and helping communities (5 min) 
• Explain the students what at the objectives of the day.

Overview of the activity (5 min) 

• Tell students what the mixture in the bag is. (sand, salt, iron, beads)
• For the activity, the sand will be the ‘rare earth metal’, the component we want to recover. The other components are other parts of the ‘rock’ that was mined from the earth that we don’t need. 
• Ask them about the different properties of the materials in the bag and how they could use these properties to separate the materials. 
• Break students up into groups and leave them to design and test their filter prototypes (15 minutes) 

Roles and Responsibilities 

• Teacher: Facilitate the overall activity, manage student behavior, provide support as needed. 
• Volunteers: Assist groups with designing and testing their filter prototypes, provide guidance and support. 
• Tech Support: Assist with technical issues during the Zoom session. 

Volunteers:  Ideal steps for separation to help the students if they are stuck

• Use the magnet on the outside of the bag to attract the iron filings and remove them from the mixture.  
• Add water to the remaining mixture. The beads will float and can be easily removed. 
• The remaining solution can then be put through a coffee filter which is rubber banded to a plastic cup. The water will dissolve the salt and the sand will get stuck in the filter while the saltwater flows through. 

Wrap-Up: Discussion (10 minutes) 

• Ask students how they separated the materials. This should involve a discussion about the properties of the materials. Why does the magnet work on the iron but not the sand? 
• Was the separation perfect? What could have interfered with this? 
• Do the order of the processes matter? Can you separate the sand before everything else? The salt? 
• What problems came up along the way? How can these be remedied (fixed)? (Sand getting through the filter could be remedied by using finer filters, using multiple at once, or going through multiple rounds of filtering.) 
• Did dirt or other pollutants get stuck in the filter? (Was the filter fouled?) 
• Could the filter be used effectively again? 

******Closing remarks and thank you to participants (5 minutes) 

Alignment with Florida State Standards:

The activity primarily focuses on concepts related to physical science and engineering design. 

Florida State Standard: SC.7.P.10.2 – Investigate and describe the transformation of energy from one form to another. This standard relates to the broader concept of investigating transformations, which includes separating materials based on their properties. For instance, students can observe how magnetic energy is transformed into mechanical energy to separate iron filings from the mixture. 

Florida State Standard: SC.8.P.8.2 – Differentiate between weight and mass recognizing that weight is the amount of gravitational pull on an object and is distinct from, though proportional to, mass. While not directly related to weight and mass, the activity involves understanding the properties of different materials (such as their magnetic properties) and how these properties can be used to separate them. 

Florida State Standard: SC.8.E.5.7 – Investigate and describe the properties of rocks and minerals to determine the importance of minerals to Florida’s economy.-Though not directly related to rocks and minerals, the activity involves investigating the properties of materials (salt, sand, iron, beads) and how these properties influence their separation, which aligns with the broader concept of understanding material properties. 

Resources: 

Lubbe, Caroline, Nozka, Aniela, and Rivera-Jiménez, Sindia. “Be a Chemical Engineer: Purifying Components of a Mixture for Renewable Energy” [Virtual Outreach Presentation] STEM Class, Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences, Sarasota, Fl, April 24, 2023.

• Handout 1:
• Handout 2:
• Slides:
• Number of students: 15