Chemistry of Life
A comprehensive understanding of biology is impossible without at least a fundamental understanding of the basics of chemistry. Knowing this, most school districts offer some physical science instruction in the middle grades or early high school before biology. The purpose of this chapter is to refresh students on atomic structure, chemical reactions, and other relevant topics from chemistry.
Chemistry of Life Lecture Powerpoint
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Purpose: This Powerpoint provides the structure and ordering of the unit. Break up the lecture into sections by adding activites, discussions, labs, and videos. This will allow the material within the unit to be taught in small, managable amounts, while giving students the opportunity to apply the knowledge in a variety of different ways. A fillable student notes outline is also available for this lecture.
Essential Concepts: Atomic structure, protons, neutrons, electrons, ions, isotopes, covalent bonds, ionic bonds, hydrogen bonds, water, cohesion, adhestion, pH, acid, base, organic chemistry, water properties, atoms, chemical reactions, elements, compounds, nucleus, atomic number, atomic mass, electron cloud, carbon dating, polarity, polar, nonpolar, pH scale, van der waals, molecular shape.
Chemistry of Life Lecture Notes Outline
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Purpose: Taking efficient notes can be a big challenge for many students, especially when working from a Powerpoint lecture. This outline gives students a means to take notes that guides them toward important concepts and avoids the pitfalls of writing word-for-word or simply not taking notes at all. The outline is written as a series of questions, fill-in-the-blanks, or diagrams.
Essential Concepts: Atomic structure, protons, neutrons, electrons, ions, isotopes, covalent bonds, ionic bonds, hydrogen bonds, water, cohesion, adhestion, pH, acid, base, organic chemistry, water properties, atoms, chemical reactions, elements, compounds, nucleus, atomic number, atomic mass, electron cloud, carbon dating, polarity, polar, nonpolar, pH scale, van der waals, molecular shape.
Hunting the Elements Student Worksheet
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Purpose: This PBS Nova special gives students a great overview of some of the highlights of the periodic table, with a focus on real-life applications of each element. Groups of elements covered include the noble metals, the elements of life, halogens, alkali metals, rare earth metals, and radioactive elements. While the Hunting the Elements movie is lengthy at nearly two hours, it is fast-paced, filled with lots of explosions and other flashy demonstrations, and countless corny jokes to keep students engaged.
Essential Concepts: Elements, compounds, atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, periodic table, noble gases, noble metals, semiconductors, alkali metals, rare earth metals, radioactive elements, elements of life.
Identifying the Parts of an Atom Worksheet
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Purpose: Students will typically easily master the calculation of protons, neutrons, and electrons from the information provided by the periodic table. However, when shown any of the different types of isotope notation, they often stumble. This worksheet provides practice in identifying the numbers of each of the subatomic particles. As an additional wrinkle, ions are also included in the practice table.
Essential Concepts: Atomic structure, protons, neutrons, electrons, isotope notation, isotopes, ions.
Molecular Models of Covalent Compounds
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Purpose: The electron sharing that occurs within covalent compounds can be a very abstract concept to understand. Many chemistry (and biology) classes will provide students with model kids to make covalent bonding a little more concrete. This worksheet is meant to accompany a class working with these models to build specific organic compounds.
Essential Concepts: Covalent compounds, covalent bonding, electron sharing, organic compounds, electron shell diagram, structural notation.
Chemthink Tutorial Worksheet - Particulate Nature of Matter
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Purpose: The Chemthink website provides a series of interactive tutorials and quizzes for students to complete as they learn different concepts in chemistry. The first module provides a solid introduction into matter, atoms, and the difference between elements, compounds, mixtures, and pure substances. This worksheet accompanies the tutorial for the first module, encouraging students to read and understand the animations instead of simply clicking through.
Essential Concepts: Matter, atoms, elements, compounds, molecules, pure substances, mixtures, phases of matter, solid, liquid, gas.
Chemistry of Life Study Guide
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Purpose: This worksheet is a set of vocabulary words and practice questions meant to encourage students to condense their notes into a more manageable form to study from. The questions and vocabulary are taken directly from the lecture Powerpoint for this unit.
Essential Concepts: Atomic structure, protons, neutrons, electrons, ions, isotopes, covalent bonds, ionic bonds, hydrogen bonds, water, cohesion, adhestion, pH, acid, base, organic chemistry, water properties, atoms, chemical reactions, elements, compounds, nucleus, atomic number, atomic mass, electron cloud, carbon dating, polarity, polar, nonpolar, pH scale, van der waals, molecular shape.
