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.