Early in the decade of the 1980s, a move began toward the downscaling of teaching laboratory experiments. During the summer of 1988, a group of Nebraska high school chemistry teachers met at Lincoln East High School under support of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education. Dianne Epp, Ed Lyons, and Dave Brooks served as the group leaders. Written materials developed at the 1987 Woodrow Wilson program served as a starting point. The Nebraska teachers worked and revised those materials. They also developed new materials. The Nebraska experiments, though improved relative to earlier versions, were neither polished nor extensively tested. Numerous improvements already have been identified, and still more new experiments developed and suggested.

Electrolysis -A variety of solutions are electrolyzed using an apparatus constructed from pencils and a 9 volt battery.

Dioxygen -Oxygen is collected from the catalyzed decomposition of hydrogen peroxide and its properties are observed.

Boyle's Law -A setup using a small insulin syringe as a piston is used to determine the relationship between the volume and pressure for a fixed mass of gas at constant temperature.

Charles' Law -This procedure uses the air trapped inside of a Beral pipet at different temperatures to demonstrate Charles' Law. In order to do this, we must assume that a constant pressure is exerted by equal depths of hot and cold water and that that pressure causes no significant distortion of a Beral pipet.

Diffusion in a Tube -The rate of diffusion of two gases is observed by measuring the distance in a tube that a precipitate forms from the source of each gas.

Diffusion of Two Gases in Two Dimensions -The diffusion of two gases across a 96-well plate filled with substances which are sensitive to the presence of these gases is observed.

The Molar Volume of a Gas -The molar volume of the gas resulting from magnesium dissolved in hydrochloric acid is determined by water displacement and conversion of data to standard conditions.