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You’ve had a minimum of 5 weeks off and now thinking about getting prepped and ready to go back to school. For me there was nothing better than getting pristine notepads and new stationery for the start of term, I may be a little sad! I would then spend the last week of the holidays, cramming all the holiday work I had not yet completed and then spiral into panic mode about everything I had forgotten over the summer. To try and help you, I have come up with a list of topics that I think would really help my year 11 students get prepared and ready for their final year of GCSE chemistry!
#1 - Know the difference between atoms and ions
This may seem like a fairly obvious starting point but there are still students even in A-level who occasionally struggle with this. Don't panic though, here's a great resource to help you.
Phet Simulation Atom Builder - This simulation is FREE to access, allowing you to see the structure of an atom and play around with adding & removing, protons, neutrons and electrons and observe what happens. To give yourself a little more structure, you can use this useful inquiry-based learning worksheet* to guide you through the simulation to make the most of the learning. *You will need to sign up for free to Phet to access this.
#2 - Writing ionic formulae
Now you understand what the differences between atoms and ions are, you now need to get to grips with ionic formulae. The key with this is balancing charges so the overall compound has a charge equal to zero. This means:
Total charge of positive ions + Total charge of negative ions = 0
Swap and drop is quite a good way to work this out and I've created a visual diagram to help you with this.
Put the swap and drop method to practice, using these RSC resources. Why not print out the ion cards to help with the more complex ions? Then apply your swap and drop method to determine the formulae of the ionic compounds on this worksheet. For the answers, take a look at the bottom of the RSC article.
#3 - Balancing equations
Over the summer I've found quite a few of my students going into year 11 have struggled with balancing equations. Being able to balance equations will make life so much easier when it comes to advanced moles calculations and organic chemistry.
Phet Simulation Balancing Equation - I'm returning to Phet for this one, because it is such a good resource. Start with the introduction using the scales tool to start, then work through each of the games, initially using the diagrams and then for extra challenge minimise these so you are just working with the equations.
If you want some extra practice, here are some additional questions to work on.
#4 - Reactions of acids
Most exam boards love to include a reactions of acids question in papers, especially for the experimental side of this. So, to help out with this one, I've created a self-learning worksheet combining YouTube links and questions to help you learn some of these reactions. You can also use BBC bitesize which provides the information for each type of reaction, check out both the Acids & Alkalis and Making Salts section.
!! CHECK POINT !!
If you've reached this far well done. Here's an extra worksheet to practice everything you've revised so far and again, there are answers on page 2 (for questions 1 & 2) and page 3 for the remainder.
#5 - Moles Calculations
Every gardeners and new chemist’s worst nightmare, the mole! It may at first seem a huge hill to climb, but if at first you do not succeed, watch a YouTube video and then practice, practice, practice.
Tyler DeWitt has made some brilliant YouTube videos. I highly recommend Introduction to moles and converting between grams and moles, as a great place to get started if you're struggling with mole calculations.
Now for the practice part, work through these moles calculation questions and don't forget to check your answers.
Don’t Panic
If you've made it this far well done! In short, the 5 chemistry topics to revise before year 11 are:
Know the differences between atoms and ions
Writing ionic formulae
Balancing equations
Reactions of acids
Moles calculations
Whether you can't wait to get back or dread the return to your chemistry class, I hope you can see there are a lot of resources out there, which are free and designed to help you with understanding chemistry, so there's no need to panic!
If you've found this article helpful, please leave a comment & share it so others can benefit from these resources too!
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