Bonding

Lithium Fluoride

This little footprints science flash animation simply shows the formation of an ionic material from its original atoms

Writing the formulae of Ionic compounds

In this activity, ion formulae cards help students check, consolidate and demonstrate their ability to write correct formulae for ionic compounds. Students work cooperatively to demonstrate their mastery of the ideas to each other and the teacher. Following teacher validation of one group, the students themselves then progressively validate other groups. Includes lesson plan and resources.

BBC ionic bonding video clip

A two minute video clip in which two presenters use animations of atoms of sodium and chlorine to show how an ionic bond is formed. They discuss how gaining and losing electrons leads to positively and negatively charged ions. Only the formation of singularly charged ions is mentioned.

BBC covalent bonding video clip

A two minute video clip in which two presenters use animations of atoms of carbon and oxygen to show how a covalent bond is formed. They discuss how covalent bonding is the sharing of electrons. Only the formation of single bonds is mentioned. A summary of ionic bonding is also included at the end.

Covalent bonding for smart board

For those with access to smart board technologies this notebook presentation gives a great interactive opportunity to build covalent compounds on the whiteboard either as part of a teacher led activity or as a means of encouraging student participation

Metallic bonding

Using iron as an example this lesson plan and student resource contains a series of statements about the bonding in iron, students decide whether they are true or false. This leads to further thinking and discussion about the bonding in metals.

This activity checks on the misconceptions that: the structure of iron is an example of a giant molecule, the atoms of iron are held together by ionic bonds, iron conducts electricity because iron atoms move through the solid, iron expands when heated because the atoms get bigger and that iron metal is silver because iron atoms are silver.