The Lesson 31 PowerPoint introduced students to Lewis Dot Symbols. Students worked in groups of four to complete the Lesson 31 Worksheet using the Lewis Dot Puzzle Pieces. For homework, students were assigned problems 1, 2, and 5 from the textbook for Chapter 31.
Category Archives: Chemistry
Molecular Structure and Properties: Bonding Tendencies
Students received their graded Unit 1 Exams back today. The scores were generally very good, although one question missed by several students had to do with the origin of precious metals on Earth. While the exams were being returned, students watched the video below explaining how those metals are formed when a star becomes a supernova.
After the video, we revisited Lesson 29 after students explained they were unable to locate the mystery scents yesterday. As “luck” would have it, I was able to find butyric acid in the chemical supply room, so students had the option of experiencing a putrid smell in addition to the sweet smells of apricot and artificial rum extracts. We connected the smells with the chemical name endings learned in Lesson 28 and then moved on to Lesson 30. We reviewed the Lesson 30 PowerPoint and then worked together as a class on the first four problems of the Lesson 30 Worksheet.
Molecular Structure and Properties: Structural Formulas
Special thanks to Mr. Frank for guiding students through the Lesson 29 PowerPoint. The lesson follows up on learning from Lesson 28, with students working in the same groups of four to hypothesize how unknown compounds will smell based on the properties of compounds studied in the previous lesson. Students are welcome to retrieve the Lesson 28 worksheet they turned in yesterday in order to complete the Lesson 29 worksheet. Both should be turned in at the end of class. For homework, students should complete Lesson 29 textbook questions #3-7.
Reminders:
- Use the wafting technique when sniffing the new compounds.
- We do not have access to butyric acid at school, but rest assured, it smells awful (putrid – literally like vomit). Learn more about butyric acid at wisegeek.org.
- Please save the tubes for Ms. Schulze’s 4th period chemistry class.
Molecular Structure and Properties: Molecular Formulas
We began Unit 2 with the Lesson 28 PowerPoint (slides 1-9) and then transitioned to the lab with the accompanying Lesson 28 Worksheet. Students worked in groups of 4 to complete the lab and worksheet, and then worked individually to complete textbook questions 1, 2, and 7.
Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Unit 1 Exam
Students took the Unit 1 Exam today. We will begin Unit 2 on Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday break. At the end of class we watched a video about Giving Thanks for Chemistry:
Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Review Unit 1
We reviewed the Unit 1 exam (version A) that students took home and worked through over the weekend. For the exam tomorrow, students are allowed to bring one page of notes (single-sided, notebook paper size).
Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Review Chapter 5
We used the short class period to review the Chapter 5 Quiz that students took home the night before. Students then received the Unit 1 Exam (version A) to practice over the weekend.
Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Electroplating Metals
For today’s lesson, we decided to deviate from Lesson 27 in the textbook because of reagent availability and safety concerns. We began class with a brief video demonstrating the process of electroplating copper metal with zinc metal:
After the video we sketched out the lab setup:
The students then watched a live demonstration before they set up the lab working in groups of four. Because the electroplating takes an hour or so to be clearly observable, the experiments continued to run until 4th period as pictured below along with a picture of the copper we started with:
After setting up the experiments, students watched a video about how electroplating is used in industry:
Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Bonding
The Lesson 26 PowerPoint introduced students to the four models of chemical bonding. Students also received a handout of the models with additional information. After the PowerPoint, students worked in pairs to organize the Substance Cards and recorded their learning on the Lesson 26 worksheet (one per student pair).
Note: worksheet question #8 asked students about elemental substances. We did not have time at the end of class to explore the topic, so we will discuss briefly tomorrow during class. Examples of elemental substances are molecular oxygen (O2) and molecular hydrogen (H2), both of which consist of two covalently bound atoms of the same element. An elemental substances consists of two or more atoms of the same element.
Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Classifying Substances
We entered the final chapter in Unit 1 with the Lesson 25 PowerPoint introducing students to the concept of classifying substances based on properties of matter like conductivity and solubility. After slide 6 in the PowerPoint, students received the Lesson 25 Worksheet and then worked in groups of 5-6 students to test the conductivity and solubility of the substances listed on the worksheet. By the end of class, students had compiled all of the data from the lab into the table on page 2 of the worksheet. Note: rather than build conductivity testers, students used pre-built testers to obtain conductivity results.
Update – 11/17/15: We compiled a class data set from yesterday’s conductivity and solubility tests. A few of the substances had mixed conductivity results across student groups, so we re-tested the conductivity of those substances using a conductivity tester constructed as instructed on page 1 of the Lesson 25 worksheet.
Science with Swart 
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