electrons in the atom

I talked about basic atomic structure in my last post, now I want to focus on the electron.

Surrounding the nucleus, these negatively charged particles have very little mass and move around the positively charged nucleus very quickly.  Older illustrations show them in orbits similar to the planets around the sun, but electrons are moving rapidly can be described as an electron cloud.

The area around an atom where the electron is most likely to be found is an orbital.  This video is about 15 minutes, but gives a nice overview:

He does talk about the Neon atom containing 10 electrons -- I'd like to add if it's neutral.

He also talks about the letters s, p, d, and f  -- what do these letters represent?

From about.com:
The orbital names s, p, d, and f stand for names given to groups of lines in the spectra of the alkali metals. These line groups are called sharp, principal, diffuse, and fundamental.

If you want to read more of this post at about.com:
http://chemistry.about.com/od/electronicstructure/a/orbitalnumbers.htm

Here's another video (15 min) by the same lecturer about electron configurations:

Here's a worksheet of practice with answers:

http://misterguch.brinkster.net/PRA014.pdf

The orbital configuration fits The Periodic Table and fits a chemist's description of the electrons in an atom.

Another way to describe the electrons in an atom is using quantum numbers which fits a physicist's description of the atom:

I like how he relates the quantum numbers to electron configurations -- this is something I would do in my own chemistry class.

Here is a video I used to show in my classroom which my students enjoyed.  It's cute, and also talks about bonding.

It's 34 minutes so you might want to break it up, show half one day and half the other.  It's an excellent review as well!

I had previously shared a Flame Test lab, which is based on the Bohr model of the atom where electrons are in a ground state, the flame provides energy so the electrons are in an excited state, and when the electrons return to the ground state they only release that specific amount of energy, which translates to a specific frequency of light.  If we can see it, it produces different colors of light.

This page contains an explanation of the Bohr model of the atom:

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/light/bohr.html

Here's one example of a lab handout previously shared here:

http://newburyparkhighschool.net/dogancay/hchem/labs/hlab02_flame.pdf

*I'd love to hear from you!   Tell me about your lab experiences, ask your questions, or share your  ideas for other topics for this blog.

For other lab ideas, check out my lab book "Chemistry on a Budget" at amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget

Each lab is presented with two possible report formats -- both with the same procedure -- one with 10 questions to be answered as a conclusion, the other with a full laboratory report required.  This was to give the teacher the option of what type of report is desired! 

Have a good rest of the week!