This week was another full and busy week of AP chem. 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 very difficult test for all of my class.

            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 quite difficult for me as a I only got 13 questions out of 60 right. To reflect on this, it made me very nervous for the ap exam. I hope at the end of the year I am able to easily do well on this multiple choice exam.

            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. To reflect on this topic I thought it was very simple, it was a little hard to follow along at times during this lesson but I understood basically everything.

            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. To reflect on our work with metals I thought it was quite easy, although the concepts are likely to get much more complicated throughout the course of this unit.

            That's basically what we did this week. To reflect I thought it was a difficult week because I was very busy with soccer every single day. This made it very hard to find time to review for the test, although I felt very confident about it. I was extremely surprised that I didn't do better on the test and I really wish the tests were passed back in class so I can see my mistakes. Other than that I thought it was a good week of AP chem, my understanding of the new material was about a 9, and I participated in class activities well every day.

Example of an alloy