Blog Reflection; Week of 10/20/13

Blog Reflection by Raymond Zhao

We learned about the other type of bonds in the past week, ionic bonds. Ionic bonds are bonds that are made of atoms that aren’t metals so they are nonmetals like hydrogen or carbon or oxygen. Also, ionic bonds can include polyatomics. Before learning about ionic bonds on thursday, there were review days for lewis structures and ionic bonding, a test day, a mole day, and a pretest day. So, we didn’t get very in depth on ionic bonds yet. However, there were still a lot of material covered: Ionic bonds are when atoms give up or receive electrons instead of sharing them like ionic bonds. They strength of bonds depends on the size (larger atoms=weaker bonds) and the energy level (higher the energy level= greater the melting point and strength).

So far, there were only 2 pogils about ionic bonding. The pogils were fairly easy for me, but this was because ionic bonds were taught in ACIS 2 and the pogils were just introducing us to the topic. I remember in ACIS 2 there were a ton of pogils and activities dedicated to ionic bonds so it is okay if I know some background information about ionic bonds.I still learned about the bond strength from the pogils so it was still very valuable.

My participation was very good last week, maybe a 10/10. I participated, especially on mole day’s jokes, every day. Because of this I think my understanding on ionic bonds are really good-10/10. I am very confident about my chemistry ability right now, but I sure this will change once more complex topics about ionic bonds are introduced. However, I am still a bit confused on how the number of orbitals affect ionic bonds. So I need to work on that more.

I wonder if atoms with 7 valence electrons could give up 7 electrons because I never did that before. I would think that it is not possible, but I don’t know for sure. For example, could chloride give up 7 electrons to have an octet as an alternative to gaining 1 electron?

After this week, my views on ionic bonding has changed because I now think of the bond strength and the melting points. I also can quickly think of the charges and valence of electrons of different element based on the group in the periodic table

Blog Reflection; Week of 10/13/13

Blog Reflection by Raymond Zhao hour
In the past week, we did and learned many things. Some significant ideas we learned were about bonding, and the calculations involved with it.  I learned that:

- There are two types of bonds, ionic and covalent

- Ionic bonds don’t share electrons. One atom gives an electron to another to fulfill the octet rule.

- Covalent bonds share electrons to fulfill the octet rule.

- Polarity is if the electrons are closer to one atom compared to another

- Dipole moment is the measure of Polarity

- Lewis dot structures are a model of the molecules and their bonds. free electrons are dots and the bonds are lines. If there are more than three atoms then the most electronegative one is in the middle

- Resonance forms are the different types of one molecule

- Incomplete octets are when the atom has less than 8 valence electrons. Be can have only 4, B can only have 6

- Expanded Octets are when the atoms with the d level can have more than 8.

-Molecular geometries are the shape of the molecules. sp with 2 bonds is 180 degrees and is linear. sp2 is 120 degrees and 3 bonds is trigonal planar and 1 free electron pair is bent. sp3 is 109.5 degrees and can be a tetrahedral, trigonal pyramidal (1 free pair), or bent ( 2 free pairs).

-Formal charges are the total charge of an atoms.

All of them are very connected. Resonance forms can be look at through using formal charges to determine which is more likely. Also all of these ideas can be traced back to lewis structures, especially the octet rule and the exceptions.

These ideas all are very important to chemistry. After doing the all the activities like Learning these ideas was so-so regarding difficulty. I felt that learning them was challenging, but not so hard that I don't get it. The lectures, lecture quizzes, class discussions, and the lab all greatly helped my understanding of these key ideas. The most challenging part was finding the the molecular geometries.. However, working in groups allowed me to learn how to find the mass. Now, I almost fully understand the material taught for the past week; I would rate it about a 9.5/10. The thing I have a question about from last week is about the d level and how name hybridizations with the d level. My participation in the past week also greatly helped my understanding because I learned many new things by participating and asking questions. I would rate my participation a 9.5/10 too. My only question is why some atoms have special exceptions and other do not.

       After this week, my thoughts on molecules changed. In the past, I would never think about the shape, but now i do. This is because I learned new ideas through the lectures, lecture quizzes, class discussions that we did. Each of the activities added to my knowledge and the result was me understanding about all of the required material.

Blog Reflection; Week of 10/6/13

Blog Reflection by Raymond Zhao hour 1

     We dove deeper in Lewis structures last week- even deeper than the week before! I didn't know Lewis structures could be so complicated from a simple idea of charting the valence electrons in bonds. But, there was much more to learn about Lewis structures. There were ideas of formal charges, resonance structures, bond order, and polarity. Formal charges described the charge of the atom which greatly helping in figuring out the most "correct" resonance structures. Resonance structures were the possible structures for one molecule because the double bonds, single bonds, and triple bonds could be moved around and the octet rule would still be fulfilled. Bond order was the the number of bonds between the two atoms bonding together. So if there was 1 bond, there would be a bond order of 1. Polarity was the concept that if the electron are equally shared. This means that polarity is if the electrons are pulled more closer to one atom than the other. Polarity depends on the electronegativity because electronegativity is the atoms ability to pull electrons. If one atom was more electronegative, then it would pull more electrons towards it. All these ideas add up to form a more complete idea of Lewis structures.
     I greatly enjoyed the pogils in the past week. Without them, I would be very confused about the Lewis structures. The group time and and white board discussions resolved most of my confusions with the concepts. I also like the balloon lab because It helped me understand how to visualize the bonds and the geometrical name for the molecules. The ideas learned in the past week added on the the cumulative knowledge from the past about Lewis structures.
     I would rate my understanding from last week about a 8/10 because I still do not understand everything fully. I know the basics of every idea but I am very confused when we dive deeper into those topics. For example, I get the basics of naming the molecules, but I do not get which one is which. I feel the the naming purely based on the shapes is really subjective and I do not know if what I think the correct name. I still wonder about the differences between all the names like a bipyramidal and just a pyramidal compared to a triangle. I believe that if I get more experience working. My participation was a 8/10 too because I was very sleepy for one day and I had to miss Friday because of a Tennis tournament. I think 8/10 isn't too bad, but it definitely can be improved. Now, I'm wondering if there are even more concepts involved in Lewis structures. There has already been so many concepts involved in Lewis structures!

These are two pictures that summarize two important concepts learned in the past week: resonance structures and naming the shapes of molecules.
 

   

Blog Reflection; Week of 9/29/13

Blog Reflection by Raymond Zhao hour 1

     In the past week, we learned more about Lewis structures from the introduction given at the end of last week. There was also some important information gained from the %mass of copper in bronze lab. The important ideas I learned were:
~Lewis structure diagrams - a way to chart the atoms, their bonds, and their electrons.
~Hypervalency- when the atom can have more than 8 valence electrons. Doesn't follow octet rule
~ The Octet Rule- most atoms except a few wants 8 electrons in their outer most shell. They are valence electrons
~ The Duet Rule- like the octect rule, atoms like hydrogen only wants 2 valence electrons. This is an exception.
~ Valence electrons- electrons that occupy the outer most shell of an atom. These are the main electrons used in atoms and reactions
~Ionic bonds- Bonds where the atoms give each other valence electrons until the octect rule is fulfilled
~Covalent bonds- Bonds where the atoms share the valence electrons
~Absorbance is the amount of a certain wavelength of light absorbed by a solution. It is related to transmittance by the beer's law; Absorbance = -log (percent transmittance/100)

     All these ideas were acquired from the lecture quizzes, pogils, and class activities that we did. All the these activities greatly helped me because working as a group helped me learn more. If one person didn't know, others could help. If no one knows, then we can always ask dr finnan. It was also great because the ideas came together as one like how the valence electrons, covalent and ionic bonds, and the octet rule related to Lewis diagrams. This is because all them are needed in order to draw the Lewis diagram. For example, Valence electrons are the little dots around the atoms in the Lewis diagram.
     The lab of copper in brass taught me about the behavior and relationships of light and color to the % concentration or composition. It was very similar to the concentration and transmitted light lab, where I learned that Absorbance, Concentration, Transmittance, Spectrophotometry and Molarity was important.
     Although I learned a lot from the activities, I still have much more to learn. Learning these ideas was so-so regarding difficulty. I felt that learning them was challenging, but not so hard that I don't get it. The lectures, lecture quizes, class disscussions, and the lab all greatly helped my understanding of these key ideas. The most challenging part was the lewis diagrams and the lab itself.
     I rate the difficulty regarding last week about a 7/10. This is because it was challenging, but not such much that it can't be learned. I still wonder about the more complicated ideas of lewis structures and atomic structures. I also do not understand how the molecules are named (we did this on Friday with the balloon activity. With all these question from last week, I'd say that my understanding is 8/10.
     However, my participation was a good. I would rate it 9.5/10. I asked question and actively learned. Because of my good participation, my understanding was good. 
     I feel fairly confident in my math capabilities for calculations with the valence electrons and such.  But, I still need to work on memorizing all the little rules for lewis diagrams that are very complicated to me. I might also need to slow down while doing my calculations because I sometimes make silly mistakes. For example, I sometimes count the wrong number of valence electrons or put the incorrect number of valence electrons. The concepts taught in last week have made me feel more confident about Lewis diagrams.  Also, I need to remember to always double check my work because then it should help greatly for fixing silly errors
     I still want to learn how to name the molecules because I was very confused on how to name them. I think I need work on the pogils more by thinking everything through clearly.
    Overall, the past week has been great. I learned a lot, including everything that has to do with Lewis structures and atomic structure.. Activities such as worksheets and white boarding greatly helped my understanding and development. I loved the time with groups to work together because it allowed interaction with each other. I feel like this helped me the most. I hope next week is just as great!