Percentage Composition

Activity: It’s Grocery Time

Objective: Calculate for the percentage composition of the compounds given their chemical formula.
Procedure:
The students will be grouped into 5.Each group will be given one grocery item with an indicated chemical
formula of the compound as an ingredient of the item. Each member of the group will perform their
corresponding tasks.
Materials: Modern Periodic table of Element, Calculator, cartolina, marker ,scotch tape
Grocery item or packages
Pre-Lab: (5 mins)
1. Activity sheets will be given to each group by the teacher.
2.The leaders of each group will get an item from the grocery bag.
3. Each member of the group will have a corresponding task (see attached task card) to perform.
Lab Proper: (10 mins) Each group selecting a grocery item to work on, will compute for the percentage
composition of carbon and sodium.
Step in solving the percentage composition of a compound;
1. Figure out the total mass of each element and calculate the formula mass/ molecular mass.
2. Divide the mass of each element by the formula mass/molecular mass.
3. Multiply each quotient to get the percentage of each element

% mass of the element

Given : atomic Masses given elements

C =12.01 H=1.01 O= 16 N= 14.01 Na= 23

Grocery item list with chosen compound present in ingredients:

GROCERY ITEM Name of chosen compound in ingridients Chemical Formula

Pancit canton - Monosodium glutamate C5H8NO4Na
Orange juice powder - Citric acid C6H8 O7
Powdered milk - lactose C12H22O11
Mamon - sodium bicarbonate NaHCO3
Menudo sauce - sodium benzoate C7H5NaO2
Graham crackers - palm oil palmitic acid C3H32O2

Guide Questions:
1. When you buy items from a grocery store, do you tend to read labels of products you are buying?
2. Based from the activity, what food product do you commonly consume which gives your body a lot of carbon
(C) atoms and sodium (Na) ions?
3. Do you think too much consumption of these food products is good for your health? Why or why not?
4. Why knowledge on percentage composition is important?