need ideas for science club activity - chemistry

[dirty ethel rackham]

Hi all,

I am leading an activity in our middle school science club. The topic has me somewhat stumped.:confused: We are supposed to be doing something on Alkali and alkaline earth metals. I have a book that has some ideas, but the main point of the lesson is to demonstrate the common properties of each category on the periodic table. Anybody have any suggestions of a wow, but safe-enough activity/demonstration of these particular elements?

tia,

[Bradford Academy]

I'm having trouble thinking of an experiment that will show what you want to show safely. You could do flame tests, but that would require a burner, nichrome wire, and the salts of several elements. I can email instructions if you are interested.

A helpful website is www.howtoteachscience.com (http://www.howtoteachscience.com). They have a free newsletter for each major element.