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An exploratory laboratory can provide introductory chemistry students with discovery-oriented, hands-on activities that help teach the concepts being presented in lecture. The supplies and equipment for about 2,500 students is approximately $3,000 annually and one barrier is overcoming teachers' belief that the exploratory will supplant rather than enhance traditional chemistry laboratory work. The experiments, 30 of which are listed, support the development of critical thinking skills and active learning while making chemistry relevant and fun for beginning students.

Chemistry teachers can use rockets made of plastic Beral pipets to teach students about chemical stoichiometry. The pipets are ignited after being filled with hydrogen and oxygen. The pipets having the proper ratio of hydrogen to oxygen travel the farthest. Glass vials or test tubes can be made into highly efficient micro-Kipp gas generators. Water is poured into the rockets, which are placed over the exit tube of the generator.