A Study on Improvement of Experimental Methods About the Production of Dihydrogen

수소 발생 실험의 개선에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to improve the experiment of dihydrogen production which was newly added to the 7th curriculum of the elementary science education. For this study, the teachers who had taught 6th grade students were asked about the difficulties they ever had in the dihydrogen production experiment by questionnaire. And the contents of the science textbook and teachers' guide book were analyzed. According to this investigation, the following controversial points were found. First, they didn't have exact explanations about the concentration of hydrochloric acid and the quantity of hydrochloric acid and magnesium in the science textbook and teachers' guide book. Second, the experiment which can show well the nature of dihydrogen was not included because of the safety problem. So this paper presents the ideal condition for the production of dihydrogen and an experimental method to show the nature of dihydrogen. The most ideal condition of dihydrogen production includes 40 mL of 2 molarity hydrochloric acid and 1 g of magnesium. It took 5' 42＆apos; on average to gather two bottles (250 mL) of dihydrogen. In this condition it was possible to reduce the risk of accidents and to economize the materials. This paper proposes the experiment of dihydrogen explosion with a test tube and a film box which is not included in the 7th scince textbook. If teachers show the experiment of dihydrogen explosion with a test tube or film box to students at a class, it will be more interesting for students. And they will be able to help students to understand that dihydrogen can be gathered.