- Read basic chemical equations recognizing reactants, products, and suffixes to represent solid, liquid, gas and aqueous states (s, l, g, aq).
- State names and symbols for elements assigned in class.
It is helpful to conduct a brief lesson to familiarize / remind your students of the language of chemistry. You could use a very simple reaction and write the reaction to show the basics of a chemical equation. One example is the combustion of methane as shown in this brief video:
It's a lot of fun, and then you can use this reaction to write an equation identifying reactants / products, phases and energy (also using the terms exothermic / endothermic). It's a fun way to start the language of chemistry.
You can put together this reaction component by component and explain each part as it's added:
CH4 (g) + 2 O2 (g) --> CO2 (g) + 2 H2O (g) + energy
I posted about this demonstration on January 22, 2014, and a link to the Flinn Scientific recipe for the bubble solution was posted on January 26, 2014. Check them out!
From this basic language, students can start learning the element symbols and some of the history about the table. The following page has an brief overview of the history of The Periodic Table:
The top margin of this page contains a header with various links to explore, including a link to Tom Lehrer's Element Song with a cute video!
The following interactive Periodic Table is also from this page:
Here's a link to a blank Periodic Table -- there's a PDF you can download -- you may want to use it in class or offer extra credit for its completion:
This page also contains several Periodic Tables:
Here is a video song with the elements in order that's pretty fun:
A word of caution -- some students may master the element symbols quickly but have difficulty with the math of the course. These students think they are accomplishing in chemistry only to be devastated on the next quiz or test that requires math -- then meetings with guidance counselors and parents ensue.
I highly recommend that some math skills be taught/tested in the first unit so that students realize that math requirement. I am not a fan of super-challenging questions that a very small portion of the class can answer, but it is good for the students to get a taste of the realistic mathematic requirements on a regular basis.
The school year is in full swing -- I hope it's going well!
Remember that my lab book "Chemistry on a Budget" is available for $20 at amazon.com or $23 at lulu.com:
The book contains 13 labs that require consumable materials you can purchase at local stores.
Each lab is presented with two possible report formats -- both labs use the same procedure but each has a different conclusion -- one with 10 questions to be answered as a conclusion, the other with a full laboratory report required. This gives the teacher the option of what type of report is desired. Each version is designed to be just two pages. This way the teacher can photocopy just one 2-sided page per student (saves paper).
I hope your school year is going well! Write me to let me know about your triumphs, challenges and questions!
Have a great weekend!