Review of Stoich and Lewis Structures Intro

This week we worked on reviewing the stoichiometry that we had learned in order to prepare for our test. We white boarded problems from our different stoich worksheets to review mass percent, empirical formulas, yield, and limiting reactants. We also did an in class online quiz to practice doing math without a calculator. There is  a lecture on doing no calculator math on the moodle  which can be accessed here.

We learned that the key to doing no calculator math is forgetting about significant figures and using whole numbers. This method is only used for the multiple choice portion of the test, so when you have found the rounded answer you are able to pick the real answer with proper significant figures. The answer given and your calculated answer will probably be different, but you just have to pick the answer that is the  closest to what you got. We also took 3 moodle hot pots in order to prepare for the multiple choice portion of the test. These quizzed us on masses and the mole, chemical equations and stoichiometry, and stoichiometry applications.

 

On Wednesday we had our first AP chemistry test which included a no calculator multiple choice section and a calculator free response section. Overall many people did very well on one portion  of the test and not so well on the other portion. For me personally, I did well on the free response portion of the test and not so great on the multiple choice portion. I think this is because I only did the hot pots once and I also did them the night before the test. I think I would have benefited more from these hot pots if I had done them multiple times and done it sooner than the night before the test.

 

The  last two days of the week were spent learning about Lewis Structures. These were introduced by a  POGIL. We learned that these were diagrams that showed the element symbol in the middle with dots around the outside to represent the valance electrons. This POGIL helped to show the class how these structures are drawn to represent atoms and molecules. It focused on the idea of covalent bonding which is where two atoms share electrons. This POGIL showed us the octet rule which is where atoms  gain or lose electrons so that they have 8 valance electrons. When drawing a Lewis structure, you must make sure that every single element has eight valance electrons. The only exception is with Hydrogen, it only forms a duet of valance electrons because it only needs two electrons to fill its valance shell. There were also 2 lectures and a lecture quiz on Lewis structures.

Over all this week, I think that I had an okay test. This is because I did really good (96%) on the free response and worse(73.33%) on the multiple choice. I'm planning on working on no calculator math and I'm going to go in after school and look at my multiple choice test to see what I got wrong.  I also think that my knowledge about the Lewis Structures is still improving. I have a good understanding of the basic rules, but I'm still not quite sure about the diagrams when it comes to compounds that are more complicated. For this reason I would give my understanding a 7/10.