9/30/13 Weekly Reflection

This week, we started chemical bonding and wrapped up Stoichiometry. We also had a test partway through the week on no-calculator math and stoichiometry, including limiting reactant problems, problems on calculating percent yield, and some about mole ratios and determining how much of a compound would be produced in a given reaction. After the test, we started with a POGIL on Lewis dot structures, which are simple representations of an atom with the element symbol in the center and the valence electrons represented as dots spaced appropriately around the element symbol. They are also very useful for looking at compounds and showing bonds. On Friday, we did some more, slightly more complicated Lewis structures, including those without a balanced charge. The Lewis structures were a good segue into the weekend homework, which was about bonding, specifically ionic and covalent bonding. It goes into detail about how they work, the differences between them, and how Lewis dot structures can be helpful when diagramming them.

I only had a few questions about what we learned this week, which is understandable considering that we only spent the last two days learning new material. In covalent bonds, how does the electron sharing work? How does the electron orbit both nuclei simultaneously? I did my best to participate a lot this week, although it took some time to adjust to having new table groups. I don't really like POGILs, although I understand the ideology behind them.I like the activity, I just don't like how rigid the jobs and their definitions are. It seems that some of the jobs, such as reader, are essentially useless (after all, we can all read.) The rest of the jobs are usually divided based on skill sets, or who is better at what, but I understand that POGILs are supposed to foster those skill sets in everyone. I think that I understood the material well. We didn't really get into complicated Lewis Dot structures - we mostly did basics, and because of the nature of bonding and how abstract it is, we are taking a decent amount of time on it. I definitely need to work on understanding bonds in a more solidly conceptual sense, as opposed to just vaguely having a sense of what is going on.  I've also been wondering what the best way to visualize a molecule is. Is it better to envision the electrons as a cloud or as individual electrons orbiting the nucleus? If they are orbiting, should the electrons be orbiting like Saturn's rings or Jupiter's moons? I will probably be working on that for a while.