Spring Semester Week 2- January 17, 2019 Balancing Chemical Reactions

Now that we have covered the Parts of a Chemical Reaction and reviewed Counting Atoms, we are ready to learn how to Balance Chemical Equations. Below are the notes for this upcoming week to prepare:

Balancing Chemical Equations Notes

I was so proud of how readily the kids understood the principle of balancing of chemical equations. We briefly reviewed the Law of Conservation of Mass and then began to learn the steps of balancing equations. We began by counting the atoms on the reactant side and the product side of the equation. We made note of which atoms were unbalanced. We then used coefficients to balance the equation, understanding that adding coefficients to certain compounds in order to balance 1 specific atom also required us to re-count and adjust the other atoms in that particular compound. Once the equation was successfully balanced, we then practiced reading the chemical equation with the new coefficients. 

Students were then broken up into groups of three. They were given banner paper with two chemical equations and manipulatives they could use to visually see a color-coded version of the individual atom counts. The groups worked to balance their two equations, then presented their results to the rest of the class.

Below is the answer key to the graphic organizer we completed in class as well as blank additional copies just in case someone needs an extra.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a8wsTIlewZmxXb-SZ9Pey7Dma80AUOfl/view?usp=sharing