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Posted

Dd16 is struggling to understand electron shells, subshells, orbitals, valence electrons, and how these all relate to the periodic table. I tried to help her sort it all out yesterday but she is still confused.

Does anyone have a super clear way of explaining all this, or maybe a link to a good explanation? 

Posted

https://www.screencast.com/t/LOIDSuVf

These are my reg Chem videos on that topic. 🙂  She is welcome to start with the first video but it's just on the different types of electromagnetic radiation.  The second video (Section 5.3) is where I begin explaining shells/subshells/orbitals, etc.  I use my "patented" 🙂 bus analogy.  It seems to work fairly well and gives kids a concrete visual to hang all of those abstract concepts on.

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Posted

I would buy a used copy of RS4K Chemistry Level II, Junior High level.  The explanations are very clear, with pictures for most big picture things.  When I did High School Chemistry with my daughter, I was doing this level of Chemistry with my son, anything my daughter didn't understand, we went to her brother's book to explain.  You can get a used copy cheaply.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/097650975X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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Posted (edited)

I felt like the discussion of this in Middle School Chemistry by ACS was easy to grasp.  There are some brief videos/models here.  Since it is written for a younger age, maybe this will help it click better?

https://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/lessonplans/chapter4

Here is one example of how they show valence electrons from "The Periodic Table and Electron Filling" from this link. I would give her that (it's a pdf) and see if it helps.

 

 

Elements 1 through 20 showing electrons.jpg

Edited by cintinative
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Posted

Seconding Dicentra's videos -- my son learns best by teaching me, so he taught me according to her explanations.  And I understood it.  And I slept through high school chemistry and was an English major.  🙂 

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Posted
On 2/9/2020 at 11:24 AM, Dicentra said:

https://www.screencast.com/t/LOIDSuVf

These are my reg Chem videos on that topic. 🙂  She is welcome to start with the first video but it's just on the different types of electromagnetic radiation.  The second video (Section 5.3) is where I begin explaining shells/subshells/orbitals, etc.  I use my "patented" 🙂 bus analogy.  It seems to work fairly well and gives kids a concrete visual to hang all of those abstract concepts on.

Dd watched your video this week, she said it was much easier to understand than the other explanations she had found.

Thank you again!

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Posted
13 minutes ago, maize said:

Dd watched your video this week, she said it was much easier to understand than the other explanations she had found.

Thank you again!

You're welcome!  I'm glad the videos helped! 🙂

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