Name: ________________________ Date: _______________ Period: _____

S’mores Stoichiometry Lab

Introduction:
In this experiment, you will explore the principles of stoichiometry by building S’mores, the
delicious, chocolate, marshmallow, and graham cracker treats.

Definitions: ‘Stoichio’ means element and ‘metry’ means the process of measuring. The mass and quantity
relationships among reactants and products in a reaction are found using the process of stoichiometry.

Purpose:
To determine the limiting reactant in the synthesis of S’mores.

Prelab Questions:
1. What does a chemical equation tell us?
2. What do the coefficients in a balanced chemical equation represent?

Materials:
Miniature Chocolate bars Graham cracker Square
Marshmallows Paper Towels
Bunsen Burner Wooden skewers

Reference Data:
Substance Symbol Unit mass Package Mass
Graham Cracker Squares Gc 8.50 g 408 g
Marshmallow M 7.125 g 285 g
Chocolate pieces Cp 12.00 g 348 g
** for the purposes of this lab the UNIT mass and MOLAR mass are the same thing

Procedure:
1. Perform a synthesis reaction (forming one s’more). For this lab, we will consider a s’more to consist of 2
graham cracker squares, 1 marshmallow and 1 miniature chocolate bar.

2. Calculate the mass of ONE s’more.

3. Predict the limiting reactant:
4. Determining the limiting reactant experimentally:
Post Lab Questions:
1. If I have 20 graham crackers, how many marshmallows and chocolate pieces will I need to make S’mores?
How many S’mores can I make?

2. You decide to make a large batch of S’mores. You have 85 chocolate pieces. How much of each other
ingredient do you need? How many S’mores can you make? Round to the nearest whole number!

3. While getting out the ingredients for the above batch you find you have only 30 graham crackers. How does
this effect the number of S’mores you can make?

4. A reactant that is left over is said to be in excess and those that are used up limit the amount of product that
can be made and are thus called limiting reactants. The maximum number of S’mores you could make is
called the theoretical yield. For example, if you had 17 graham crackers, 7 marshmallows, and 20 chocolate
pieces, what would the theoretical yield be? Which reactants are in excess and which are all used up and thus
limiting reactants? Theoretical Yield: Excess Reactants: Limiting Reactants: