The attached picture made my day.
A group of SS2 students in one of the schools I visit to teach Chemistry came
excitedly, "Sir, we have produced our own salt. We would not buy salt
again in the market."
I taught them in SS1 SEPARATION TECHNIQUES that you can obtain
salt (NaCl) by evaporating sea water to dryness.
The students now secretly arranged for one of them to visit
Ibeno water and get sample of the seawater which they evaporated to dryness and
here comes our locally made salt.
Qualitative Analysis: The salt produced on exposure to air was found to be
deliquescent - attracts water from the atmosphere to dissolve itself. It
dissolves completely in water. The solution of the salt gave white precipitate
when tested with solution of silver nitrate, the precipitate was insoluble in
nitric acid (confirmatory test for chlorides)
This indeed is very rewarding as it has been my expectation to help this young
minds to begin now to figure out ways of harnessing our natural resources.
While I will continue with the work of purifying the product at my private
technical center, I have advised them that the salt need to be purified to
remove carbonates and other non-sodium halides etc.
We would in the present state use the salt as preservative for our emulsion
paint, we would use it for laboratory test for chlorides and to demonstrate
removal of hardness of water (water softening by ion exchange).
My philosophy of high school chemistry is to let them understand the theory,
carry out the laboratory practicals, and apply the knowledge to do mini
projects.
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