Welcome back to IST and our soon-to-be fun-filled chemistry unit! In this post, I’ve linked to several helpful tools for understanding the way electrons are arranged around the nuclei of atoms, and how those arrangements impact ionic charges as well as bonding patterns among elements.
This PDF presentation from DentonISD.org explains the use of Lewis-dot diagrams to show valence electrons. It’s simple, clear, and easy to follow.
The video tutorial below clearly explains how valence electrons determine ionic charges and, therefore, bonding patterns. It’s based on the Octet rule, which is one of the most important concepts you’ll need to know from this unit.
This interactive animation from Oklahoma State University builds on the previous video to show the relative energies of electron shells around atomic nuclei. If you play around with it for a little while, you should start to see some pretty clear patterns emerge.
The Crash Course Science video below explains a lot about the movement and arrangement of electrons in atoms. Most of the video is relevant to our unit, but some of it won’t be covered until next year’s chemistry sequence. Nevertheless, it’s worth a watch and quite entertaining.
One last video. This one’s mostly for entertainment value, but it is in fact scientifically accurate.
MrKremerScience.com 