10/21-10/25

            This week was another jam packed week of AP Chem action. We took a big test on Lewis structures and then worked for the rest of the week on ionic bonding. A little side note: our class took an actual AP Chemistry multiple choice exam and this was a struggle for not only myself, but just about the entirety of our class (aside from Larkin).

            The first half of this week we spent on reviewing for testing and actual testing. We spent Monday on reviewing Lewis structures, polarity, hybridization, and VSEPR Theory. All of this led up to a huge test the following day. The test was a very comprehensive one and was a good challenge. I found the test to require quite a bit of knowledge on the materials that we learned but I felt pretty confident taking it. On Wednesday we took an AP Chemistry multiple choice exam which was pretty difficult. It was definitely a struggle for me as a I only got 7 questions out of 60 right.

            The last two days of this week we spent on doing a couple intro lessons to ionic bonding and metals. The basis for an ionic bond is a bonding between a cation and an anion. We can see that the formula will always have to be a balance between the negative and positive charges of two atoms. Ionic compounds will always be made up of a metal and nonmetal. Unlike covalent bonds, there is no sharing of electrons in ionic bonds. However, there is a strong attraction between the two ions due to the Coulombic force. Usually in an ionic compound there will be a negative charge on the metal and a positive charge on the nonmetal. The charges are generally determined by the group that the element is found in with exceptions for the transition metals.

            We also learned about some properties of ionic bonds. We discovered that melting point can also be a representation of how strong the bond between the two atoms is. The higher the melting point, the stronger the bonds will be between the two atoms of an ionic bond.

            On Friday we spent a little bit of time on metals too. We learned about some of their properties and what alloys are. Alloys can be defined as a solution that has the properties and characteristics of a metal.

            That’s pretty much all we did this week. I thought that I had a good grasp on the material that we learned this week and I believe that I had a good amount of participation. For this reason, I don’t really have any questions on the material covered this week.