New AACT Resources to Help Teach Chemical Bonding

As chemistry teachers around the country plan activities for their students, AACT will highlight resources from our high school resource library that can be used to reinforce topics in different units throughout the school year. Our last post highlighted resources to support a Periodic Table unit. We will now focus on new AACT resources to use in a Chemical Bonding unit plan.

Consider starting off a bonding unit with the Bonding Animation. The animation presents visuals for how different chemical bonds form. Examples of ionic, covalent, and polar covalent bonds are animated, and then students are given a sample of compounds to predict the bonding types.

The Microscopic Wonder activity can enhance a lesson on the properties of ionic compounds. Students view different salts under a microscope to look at the size, shape, and arrangement of ionic crystals. 

The Chemical Landmarks lesson, Synthetic Materials Through History, combines history and literacy to teach students about polymers and bonding. This activity can enhance a lesson on the properties of ionic compounds. Students view different salts under a microscope to look at the size, shape, and arrangement of ionic crystals. Students explore beliefs about what polymers are using familiar examples, make a timeline of polymer and material development, and combine monomer subunits to visualize how they bond together chemically.

One final resource to use is our first game in our multimedia library, created by Steve Sogo. In the Ionic Bonding Matchmaker game, students combine ion puzzle pieces to help match up charges and name ionic compounds. They are awarded points based on accuracy and speed. 

Continuing on to intermolecular forces, Investigating Water Resistance Through Fabric Identification is an inquiry-style lab where students will combine their knowledge of bonding, polarity, and water resistance to determine the best fabric for rainy or snowy days. 

We hope that these activities can help you to reinforce several of the topics covered in a unit about Chemical Bonding. Most of these lessons were made possible by great teachers who shared their own resources. We need your help to keep the collection growing. Do you have a great demonstration, activity, or lesson related to this topic that you would like to share with the community? Please send it along for consideration.