CHEM 1412 General Chemistry II Assignment Brief 2026 | Houston City College
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CHEM1412 Assignment Brief
Formal Laboratory Report
The purpose of this Home Experimental Project is to help students apply the concepts of intermolecular forces to real-world substances while developing basic scientific communication and data analysis skills. Students will design and perform their own experiment using common household liquids to investigate how intermolecular forces affect surface tension and evaporation rate. Throughout the project, students will collect experimental data, document observations with photographs, and analyze the results using chemical principles learned in class. Students are expected to explain their findings using proper scientific terminology, support their conclusions with evidence from their data, and cite any outside sources used. The goal of this project is not only to perform an experiment, but also to demonstrate an understanding of how intermolecular forces influence the physical properties of liquids and to communicate that understanding clearly and effectively.
Instructions
For this project, you will design and perform your own experiment to investigate how intermolecular forces affect the physical properties of liquids. Specifically, you will compare the surface tension and evaporation rate of at least three household liquids that can be found at home or purchased easily at a grocery store or pharmacy.
Your experiment must include both a surface tension test and an evaporation rate test. The goal is to determine which liquid has the strongest intermolecular forces and explain your conclusion using experimental evidence. The liquids to be tested are water, rubbing alcohol (or ethanol), and one additional pure liquid of your choice.
Before beginning the experiment, research the chemical name, the molecular and structural formulas, the molar mass, and the primary intermolecular forces present in each substance. Based on this information, develop a prediction (hypothesis) about which liquid will have the highest surface tension, which will evaporate the fastest, and which will have the strongest intermolecular forces overall.
Carry out the experiment and carefully record all measurements and observations. Measure all materials as accurately as possible using whatever tools you have available. Measurements may be recorded in milliliters (mL), tablespoons (tbsp), teaspoons (tsp), cups, ounces (oz), drops, or other appropriate units. Be specific. For example, write 10 drops of water, 2 tbsp vinegar, or 25 mL rubbing alcohol rather than “some” or “a little.”
For the surface tension test, place a clean coin on a flat surface and use a dropper, syringe, or a piece of cotton to add one drop of liquid at a time to the coin. Count the number of drops the coin can hold before the liquid spills over the edge. Repeat this procedure three times for each liquid and calculate the average number of drops. For the evaporation test, place the same amount of each liquid (for example, 1 mL) onto separate, labeled pieces of paper towel, coffee filter, or cotton pad. Start a timer immediately and record the time required for each sample to evaporate completely. Repeat the test three times for each liquid and calculate the average evaporation time. Record all measurements and observations in the provided data tables and use the data to determine which liquid exhibits the strongest and weakest intermolecular forces.
Take clear photos throughout your experiment and include them in your report. For every photo, place a piece of paper next to your experiment showing the date and time written by hand. The date and time must be clearly visible in the picture along with your materials or experimental setup. Photos without the handwritten date and time visible will not receive full credit.
At minimum, include:
- Photo 1: All materials and liquids before testing
- Photo 2: Surface tension test in progress for each liquid
- Photo 3: Final coin surface, right after overflow, for each liquid
- Photo 4: Evaporation test in progress for each liquid (show the timer)
- Photo 5: Evaporation time for each liquid (show the timer)
After completing the experiment, organize your data into tables and analyze the results. Explain how intermolecular forces influenced the observed surface tension and evaporation rates.
You may include additional photos if they help show your observations. Be sure your images are clear and well lit.
Due dates
Formal lab reports are due at 11:59 pm of the date indicated in the course schedule. No late formal lab reports will be accepted. *Check the “late work” policy in the syllabus.
Students will upload their work to the class platform using the provided link. No hard copies or documents sent by email will be accepted.
EULA Agreement
All students must sign the EULA prior to submitting work. Failure to do so will prevent AI analysis of your paper, resulting in a grade of zero.
The instructions to sign the agreement are here:
https://www.softchalkcloud.com/lesson/serve/o3k65pgBXKSRCQ/html
Deliverables
Use the Word template located at the end of this document. After completing all required sections, delete any instructional text highlighted in yellow and save your report as a PDF before submitting.
Complete each section as instructed and do not modify the formatting of the template.
If you use AI only to correct grammar, spelling, or sentence structure, this is allowed; however, you must also submit your original draft written before AI corrections in the appropriate Brightspace submission link. Failure to submit the original draft may result in a zero for the assignment. AI may not be used to generate report content, interpret results, explain chemistry concepts, or write conclusions on your behalf.
Protocol
All Reports must be completed individually. As per WCJC, “students must submit their own work, whether they are writing papers, taking exams, or making oral presentations. Plagiarism, taking someone else’s words or ideas and representing them as your own, is expressly prohibited by the college. Good academic work must be based on honesty. Submitting someone else’s work as one’s own is considered a serious offense by the college. Student academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to the following:
a. copying the work of another during an examination or turning in a paper or an assignment written, in whole or in part, by someone else.
Since all students are writing a report on the same experiment, similarity up to 30% will be tolerated. If a report has a high similarity rating, I will review the sources of similarity and apply a penalty up to 100% of the report grade. If the information comes from another student’s work, the grade for both students – the lender and the borrower – will be zero.
b. copying from books, magazines, or other sources, including Internet or electronic databases like EBSCOhost and Elibrary, or paraphrasing ideas from such sources without acknowledging them. If the information is copied verbatim from another source, the grade of that section will be zero.
c. submitting an essay from a past course. The grade of the report will be zero.
d. The use of AI tools is not prohibited but highly discouraged. If a student uses AI to complete any part of the assignment, that section will be graded with increased scrutiny. Submissions that rely heavily on AI and show a lack of understanding or originality may receive a significantly lower grade or even a zero, depending on the quality and accuracy of the content.
All reports must be written in Word. Handwritten reports are NOT accepted. If you don’t have Microsoft Word, you can obtain free access here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/office.
Points are lost for not using correct and professional language, creating a neat, uniform, and clear report and formatting all equations/formulas in the proper way.
- Always include a zero to the left of a decimal point (i.e., 0.78 instead of .78).
- Whenever you write chemical formulas, use the sub/superscript features of Word (i.e., H+, SO4-2, H2O). Highlight the number you want to change and click on one of the buttons shown below. Use this feature to write numbers in scientific notation (i.e., 1.5×10-5).
To write all mathematical equations, you must use the Equation Editor included in Word – handwriting is not allowed. To access, click on “Insert” on the main menu, and then, click on “Equation”. This app is selfexplanatory and quite easy to use. Symbols can be inserted by using the tool “Symbol” located to the right of the Equation Editor.
For more information about how to enable/use the Equation Editor, click on the following links:
a. How to use the Equation Editor : (https://youtu.be/SRGaW3maK38)
b. How to enable the Equation Editor : (https://www.technipages.com/word-enable-equation-editor)
c. How to fix my Equation Editor if it is grayed out : (https://dummytech.com/2017/01/24/fixed equation-icon-is-grayed-out-in-ms-word/ )
- All written sections of the report should be completed using clear, formal scientific language. The Procedure and Conclusion should be written in past tense since they describe what was done and what was observed during the experiment. The Purpose and the IMF Explanation may be written in present or past tense, depending on what is being described. You may use first person (I, we), third person (the student, the experiment), or passive voice, as long as your writing is consistent throughout the report.
- Write clearly and directly. Avoid informal or creative writing styles, including slang, contractions, rhetorical questions, metaphors, ellipses (…), exclamation points, or overly dramatic language. Keep your report professional, objective, and focused on explaining the chemistry and experimental observations.
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