IR,Mass Spec and enthalpy application activity

AS/A level Chemistry actvity with accompanying lesson plan

A problem solving lesson plan applying students knowledge of combustion, enthalpy, infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry to a situation. A fictitious company 'Blue Bird Motoring' are looking for a new fuel to use in their new car design to beat the land speed record. The students have to work in groups to work out what each fuel is and then use the data provided to work out which fuel would be most efficient (maths skills). Students must then write a full report back the company (literacy) detailing everything they have found out.

My students were thoroughly engaged and there are a few red herrings in there to confuse them and ensure they check their work. The graphs can be a little hard for them to interpret so they need to use all the other information to help them reach an answer. i would suggest giving students a double lesson to complete all aspects of the task.

Applicable to both new specification and old specification OCR and possibly AQA