Summary

In this activity, students will practice naming and writing formulas of ionic compounds by actually looking at some examples. They also observe the color and general appearance of each compound.

Grade Level

High School

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

• Convert names of ionic compounds into their corresponding formulas and vice versa.
• Record observations on the appearance of a variety of ionic compounds.

Chemistry Topics

This lesson supports students’ understanding of:

• Naming ionic compounds
• Writing formulas for ionic compounds

Time

Teacher Preparation: 30 minutes

Lesson: 30 minutes

Materials

Suggested ionic compounds for the activity

• Calcium carbonate, CaCO₃
• Mercury(II) iodide, HgI₂
• Copper(II) sulfate, CuSO₄
• Sodium hydrogen carbonate, NaHCO₃
• Nickel(II) chloride, NiCl₂
• Potassium chromate, K₂CrO₄
• Nickel(II) nitrate, Ni(NO₃)₂
• Sodium carbonate, Na₂CO₃
• Ammonium chloride, AlCl₃
• Cobalt(II) chloride, CoCl₂
• Chromium(III) nitrate, Cr(NO₃)₃
• Sodium dihydrogen phosphate, NaH₂PO₄
• Sodium phosphate, Na₃PO₄
• Iron(II) sulfide, FeS
• Potassium dichromate, K₂Cr₂O₇
• Potassium permanganate, KMnO₄
• Copper(I) oxide, Cu₂O
• Silver nitrate, AgNO₃
• Sodium acetate, NaC₂H₃O₂
• Zinc sulfate, ZnSO₄
• Manganese(IV) oxide, MnO₂

Safety

• Always wear safety goggles when working in the lab.
• Students should wash their hands thoroughly before leaving the lab.
• When students complete the lab, instruct them how to clean up their materials and dispose of any chemicals.

Teacher Notes

• This gives students a chance to get out of their seats and to see actual compounds, rather than assigning names to meaningless substances.
• This is a "prepare one time and you're set" activity and teachers can use whatever compounds they have in their lab to prepare the sets. If you use different compounds than the ones listed, be sure to substitute them out on the student activity sheet.
• For the final question, students will probably vary in what they notice about the similarities between the compounds and less independent students might need some help starting the thought process. Asking them what things the compounds are not similar to (“Are they like water? Salt? Air? Your desk? Etc.) might help them start recognizing and articulating similarities and differences.
  • Some things students might notice are that they are all solids and powdery/crystalline in structure. Many of them are white, but some are brightly colored. (If you have talked about transition metals, they might know that the presence of a transition metal often results in brightly colored compounds.) Many of them have oxygen in them (in the form of oxyanions).