Bookmark Collection

WebElements is an excellent resource to get information on the different elements of the periodic table. With just one click you can get information regarding the history of the element, crystal structures the element may create, common compounds the element forms, electronegativity, and even electron configuration. When learning about periodic trends this would be especially useful because the information on radii and ionization energies are easily accessed by clicking rather than looking through a table that may be very time consuming.

This website is an excellent resource for different classroom demonstrations that can be used to explain chemical concepts. For example, there is a demonstration called "dancing raisins" where you would combine vinegar and baking soda in beaker with water and raisins. The raisins sink to the bottom right away because the density is greater than water. Once the vinegar and baking soda combine it forms CO2 gas which lifts the raisins and it appears that they are "dancing". When writing out the equation you can teach double replacement reactions followed by a decomposition reactionw with this demonstration.

This website is very useful for visually seeing the role of limiting reagents and stoichiometry in reactions. It shows how different molar ratios of reactants will give different molar ratios of products depending on the consumption of the limiting reagent. You can teach stoichiometry and balancing using this virtual tool.

This is a wonderful little short film on the reactivity of oxygen. It demonstrated which elements oxygen repels, oxidizes, and forms stable compounds with. The animation is great and short enough to show in class before talking about the reactivity of oxygen with different elements. For example when talking about the reaction with metals we can deomonstrate that it oxidizes metals such as iron to form rust. Also the video gives information on how combustible oxygen is in cars and in fireworks.

This simulation package is an great way to visually show students what molecules look like. A lot of times chemistry can be very abstract and when talking about bonding, angles, and symmetry, it is confusing to get a sense of all of those properties on a two dimensional sheet of paper. Often in high school chemistry classes there is a molecular modelling laboratory where students are able to use physical balls and sticks in order to visualize molecules. With this program it is readily available to students so that they may see these properties right on the computer screen. In a class about bonding or even writing lewis dot structures after generating a 2D image in class they can then generate a 3D image using this program on the smartboard.