Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Finding the magic in middle school chemistry

Can anyone help me find the magic in middle school chemistry? DS12 really needs to understand by doing and I am kind of stumbled for ideas. For instance, when DS was younger and had trouble grasping fractions, I used baking. 1/4 cup of an ingredient versus 1-1/4 cup would drastically alter his creations. The difference between a t and T mattered. We broke everything down and even made our own cleaning supplies just to get fractions down.

For middle school chemistry I have bought skittles to make atoms and followed an obscure youtuber to get the basics of atoms (protons, neutrons , electrons, AMU, etc), but now we are up to Lewis Dot Diagrams, covalent bonding, energy levels and DS12 is shutting down at a lot of data memorizing. I know there is magic in chemistry. Any suggestions to unlock it? I really believe DS12 is a scientist level at heart. He loves experimenting and blowing things up. TIA and wishing everyone a wonderful 2017!

For internet videos, we have found Khan Academy to be useful.

ACS also has a number of resources:

for teachers (includes video demos that might be a nice alternative to actual experiments): https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/k-8.html

for students: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/adventures-in-chemistry.html

PHET has a bunch of fun interactive simulations for most areas of science, including chemistry: https://phet.colorado.edu/
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/chemistry

I think he might really enjoy just playing with the PHET simulations, in particular.

TY aeh. Seems like there is a PHET intuitive gaming connection right away. Let's see if I can tap into the twin's natural competitive relationship to get them to find the magic of chemistry.

Chemistry is awesome, but is too often taught as an excruciating pile of factoid memorization. Some great suggestions above for looking at simulations and other ways to bring it to life as action, not as a list of data.

Chemistry model kids are horribly expensive but can be great to play with, and make some reality out of all those facts. For instance, DS (albeit when much younger) had an absolute blast making hot ice when he could create models of the original molecules, and add, remove (evaporation!), break up and recombine at each step of the way to vividly show what was actually happening at the molecular level. All that stuff about the where/ why/ how of different kinds of bonding, which kinds happen under which circumstances, all become a lot more meaningful when you are working with actual visible molecules. Even at that young age he was (trying to ) demonstrate to classmates how the model related to the dot diagram and to other systems of writing out chemical reactions, and which kinds of bonding where taking place where and why. A 12 YO will do this at a far more sophisticated level than DS when 7 - but that kit got *me* through 2 years of university chemistry, too.

(p.s. here's a basic hot ice link: http://chemistry.about.com/od/homeexperiments/a/make-hot-ice-sodium-acetate.htm . If you google around, you can find a ton of info on the underlying chemistry, and there is a surprising amount of different concepts that can be explored all going on in this one simple experiment, making it a neat departure point for a lot of research. For instance, http://www.livestrong.com/article/251878-an-explanation-of-sodium-acetate-hot-ice/ ).

Lewis diagrams and bonding are actually FUN... *if* they are taught as a process which is a sort of GAME to play with the symbols.

It's an on-paper game of distributing electrons and making pairs to 'share' in order to create bonds, basically.

Use the periodic table to figure out which ions form which IONS, and this tells you how many electrons to allot for each participant-- sort of like doling out cash to Monopoly players, or different Mana to MTG players to start a round, if that makes sense (it might to your middle schooler, anyway).

Then, start making four pairs around each letter-symbol-- by putting one dot at each coordinate position (except H and He, which each get only TWO electrons, not 8)...

It's most fun to get the hang of this on a white board where it is easy to erase and re-write as needed.

It's a PUZZLE-- to see how many ways there are to make a molecule in which ALL of the atoms are attached, and where they have 8 electrons each, (even if you have to "cheat" and make them share sides and therefore electron pairs)... those shared pairs represent bonds, yes-- but the puzzle itself is an aspect that stands alone like a sudoku puzzle with electrons and atomic symbols.

It's really a lot of FUN to do them. Like balancing equations.


But then again, this is the subject in which I have a PhD, and I've taught a lot of people to do Lewis Dot structures, so I may be a bit biased in terms of considering this fun.

But what it emphatically is NOT-- is memorization based.

Nope. Make a note card that has the PROCEDURE on it, if that is going to specifically be assessed formally, but beyond that, use the periodic table, and figure out which group an atom is in to know how many electrons to give it. For example, Carbon has four, and a fluorine would have seven-- by virtue of which GROUP they are in (that is, which column).

So if I were making a DOT structure for Carbon tetrafluoride, I would need one carbon (C) and four fluorines (F, F, F, F) and then I'd need to play in arranging them in ways that would allow those electrons (4 + [7x4] = 32 e) to "connect" everything and have each of those five atoms have 8 electrons (well, dots representing them) around the symbol, in pairs...


It becomes evident in a hurry that placing the carbon in the center is the only real way of accomplishing this.



Another fun way of doing Lewis Dot structures is with halved index cards (write the atomic symbols on those) and a candy such as smarties, or skittles-- something small and dot-like. Count the electrons, distribute, evaluate, rearrange, etc. Eat your work when you're done for the day.

HK is reminding me of all the fun chemistry we did as children (but then, one of my parents also has a PhD in chemistry, and thus also views it all as play!): marshmallow/gum drop & toothpick molecular models (the self-referential nature of models of sucrose was endlessly amusing), innumerable variations of acid-base reactions using household products/kitchen ingredients, combustion of various materials, electrolysis of water, etc.

We had a well-used book, an earlier edition of https://www.amazon.com/Science-Experiments-You-Can-Eat/dp/0064460029, which was quite entertaining.

Thanks Platypus, HK and aeh. I have had to place the remaining Skittle packages in the car trunk temporarily, as I have been eating too many.

Our car's defogger is busted, so we have taken some pretty basic measures to defog. Kitty litter in socks to dehumidify overnight. A bit of shaving cream on a paper towel goes a long way. I tell DS that we are trying to make the Olympic curling team. Science all around....