Category Archives: 3. Atoms, Elements & Compounds

IGCSE Chem Topic 3 – Atoms, Elements & Compounds

But just how small is an atom? – from TED-Ed.

Here are some key terms for this topic: Key Terms C3

Revision sites covering Bonding:

GCSE s-cool – Chemical Bonding – revision notes & animations, practise exam questions & a revision summary. For Doc Brown’s Chemistry quizzes, word-fills, crosswords and study notes go here and just scroll down to ‘18.Structure, Properties and Bonding of Materials’.

Skoool Chemistry – click on ‘1. Structures & Bonding’ for excellent lessons that take you through the topic; also a glossary of key terms. Worksheets from Mr Guch that cover Properties of Ionic & Covalent Compounds.

For fun, here’s Chemical Party (a 1m 30s vid).

3.1 Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table

Short videos on what is an atom and parts of an atom (from The Virtual School) in English; and here’s one in Australian. Science Bank 17 (Atomic Structure):Part 1 – structure of the atom, Part 2 – atomic number & mass number, Part 3 – electronic structure.

The Virtual School have made a number of other short videos. Here’s one on atomic & mass number; this covers energy levels & electronic configuration. Some practice exam questions on atoms go here and here. And here’s a poem.

What are isotopes?:

A good powerpoint – although you don’t need to know about Rutherford’s experiment (the first few slides):

atomic structure from Ninth Grade

GCSE s-cool – Atomic Structure – revision notes & animations, practise exam questions & a revision summary. Skoool Chemistry – click on ‘5. Atoms & the Periodic Table’ for excellent lessons that take you through atomic structure; also a glossary of key terms.

For Doc Brown’s Chemistry quizzes, word-fills, crosswords and study notes go here and just scroll down to ‘17.Atomic structure, isotopes, electronic structure’. Chemactive worksheets & answers just click on ‘Atomic Structure questions’.

A dynamic (wow!) periodic table is hereWhy not try the Periodic Table time trial challenge? – it’s addictive.

3.2 Bonding

3.2.1 BONDING: the Structure of Matter

3.2.2 IONS and IONIC BONDS

In case you didn’t get that, here’s a lesson on ionic bonding. Some other Virtual School videos include the formulae of ionic compounds and their names part 1 and part 2.

3.2.3 MOLECULES and COVALENT BONDS

A 15m lesson covering Ionic, Covalent & Metallic bonding from ChemistryKlipz:

A nice review of bonding and here’s a song:

And now we need another song. Oh, here’s Mr W singing his Octet Rule Song.

3.2.4 MACROMOLECULES

A 17m lesson about Giant Structures from ChemistryKlipz.:

The Periodic Table of Videos looks at Carbon – one of the most important elements for our lives on Earth. They look at various forms of elemental carbon, from diamonds to exotic graphene and buckyballs (10m 3s).

Here’s a 2m 31s lesson on Carbon (including graphite & diamond) by Peter Weatherall.

How about Burning a Diamond? – from the Royal Institution Christmas lectures of 2012.

3.2.5 METALLIC BONDING