The oldest oxygen on the planet?

The BBC continue to churn out high quality science documentaries.

The latest to hit our screens started on Tuesday night – ‘How To Grow A Planet’. Presented by the charismatic Professor Iain Stewart.

One interesting clip from last nights episode is shown below – the production of oxygen (by electrolysis) from iron oxide. The clip skips around the chemistry (disappointingly) but it makes quite interesting viewing:

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You could ask your class to see if they could reproduce this experiment using their current knowledge of chemistry (you could give them some powdered iron oxide). I am sure with some creative thinknig you could turn this into a deisgn lab.