Acids and Bases

The next few weeks are all about the nature and reactions of acids and bases. What are acids? What are bases? How can we tell if something is acidic or basic?

Ionic Formulae

Today we looked at writing ionic formulae. We used the reaction between sodium and water as our context...after being a little bit frightened by its reaction in the courtyard.

Then, we learned about writing ionic formulae:

Ion Formation Recap

Today was a recap of ion formation:

There are some important ions we need to remember the formula and charges of:

Atoms and Ion Formation

We learned how atomic structure (and where an element is on the Periodic Table) help us predict what ion an atom can become:

Key Words:
Anion: a negative ion
Cation: a positive ion
Valence Shell: the outermost electron shell (these electrons can be involved in bonding)
Neutral: no charge
Stable: less likely to react

The Periodic Table of Elements

How do chemists remember so much?! They don't - they use things like the Periodic Table of Elements to help them - they look for patterns and apply these using their knowledge of atomic structure and the Periodic Table.

Once we understand the groups and periods, we can explain the types of observations in this video (even if some of it is exaggerated):

Atomic Structure

Next up, we looked at the structure of atoms.

We need to know the atomic structure for the first 20 elements.

Foundation Chemistry

For the next while, we will be learning some foundation chemistry to help us better understand the material world.

We started today with a pretest. Education Perfect will assign us each individual tasks based upon our performance in the pretest. We will have class time to complete some of this, but should also try to do some of this as homework (about 10 minutes per night, four times a week).

Next, we did a brief overview of what Chemistry is.

Acids and Bases Vocabulary

Today we met the key words that will help us in the "Acids and Bases" topic (Chemistry).

We found the definition (meaning) for each of these words (pp92-93 in the sciPad).

We then used puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com to create our own revision crossword.

Across
2. A representation of a chemical reaction using symbols, plus signs and an arrow
4. The building block of matter
5. An ion made up of only one type of atom
6. An abbreviated name for a chemical, using atomic symbols rather than names
8. A sub-atomic particle found in the nucleus with no charge
9. A substance made during a chemical reaction
10. Negatively-charged sub-atomic particle.
11. A positively-charged ion
13. A pure substance make up of more than one type of element
14. The central part of an atom; it has a positive charge.

Down
1. The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.
2. The purest found of a substance, made up of only one type of atom
3. A sub-atomic particle usually found in the nucleus, with a positive charge
7. mass The total number of particles (neutrons and protons) in the nucleus
9. An ion made up of more than one type of atom
12. A negatively-charged ion