“12 Days of Christmas” Chemistry Quiz

My favourite type of fun is chemistry-themed fun, and Christmas is no exception!

My students know I have no limits when it comes to making everything related to chemistry, and that includes Christmas quizzes. Although I also love an impressive chemistry demonstration, on the last couple of days before Christmas I find students and staff are generally overstimulated, overtired and not in the best state of mind to be around explosive or flammable substances – or, for that matter, glitter and glue sticks!

My ’12 Days of Christmas’ Chemistry quiz is really more of a group activity than a quiz – by the end of term I also don’t usually feel like shouting over an excitable class with a sugar high. All you have to do is print it (or provide electronic copies), make sure each group has the basics like a calculator and periodic table and get them to work together to puzzle out the answers.

Want regular chemistry (A Level) retrieval practice quizzes sent to your inbox? Sign up to my free mailing list for the weekly quiz and other chemistry resources and updates.

There are three levels (see below) and within each level there are harder and easier questions. Because the answers are constrained (in case you didn’t guess, there are 12 chemistry-themed questions, each with a whole number answer between 1-12) they can at least make an educated guess for the harder questions. I usually also let students refer to books and the internet if they need help.

• Level 1: Aimed at GCSE to A Level, students need to know the basics of atomic structure and mole calculations as well as a bit of other basic chemistry knowledge, mostly from the beginning of GCSE.
• Level 2: Aimed at A Level students, this should be achievable for Year 12 or Year 13. For Year 12, there may be one or two things they haven’t covered but they can work it out based on the missing values.
• Level 3: Aimed at Year 13 students, this includes ideas such as rate equation, equilibrium constants, pH calculations and organic chemistry. Since we’re all tired, I recommend you start your Year 13s on Level 2 and let them build up to Level 3! You could offer more points for the higher level quiz as incentive to challenge themselves more.

Looking for other chemistry Christmas activities? Check out my Mince Pies and MCQs mulitple choice quiz from last year!

Want regular chemistry (A Level) retrieval practice quizzes sent to your inbox? Sign up to my free mailing list for the weekly quiz and other chemistry resources and updates.