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High School Physical ScienceUnit 2SPS2 · SPS3

Chemistry: Bonding, Naming & Reactions

How atoms team up, how we name their teams, and why nothing in a reaction ever truly disappears.

Two identical white powders…

Salt and sugar. You can't tell them apart by looking. But heat them and sugar melts at 186 °C while salt holds out until 801 °C. Dissolve them and test with a bulb circuit: the salt water lights the bulb, the sugar water doesn't. Same look — wildly different behavior. Why?

Start: What Do You Already Know? → Explore on your own ↓
6activities
15new words
6parts
∞replays — new every time
Open world

Explore

Jump in anywhere, in any order. Every activity reshuffles each time you play, so there's always something new. You earn electrons for every right answer.

Think about it

Big questions to wonder about

By the end of this unit, you'll be able to answer every one of these.

Why does salt need four times more heat to melt than sugar?

What must be swimming around in salt water that isn't in sugar water, to light a bulb?

A sealed bag fizzes and inflates like a balloon — but its mass doesn't change by a single gram. How?

CO and CO₂ differ by just one oxygen atom. Why is one of them so dangerous?

Vocabulary

Word Wall

The 15 words you'll own by the end of this unit. Tap any card to flip it. Words you collect in the activities get a ✓.

The road ahead

Unit Roadmap

Six parts, in the order we'll learn them.

1

Part 1: Why Atoms Bond: Ionic vs. Covalent

  • Valence electrons & the octet rule
  • Transfer vs. sharing
  • Predicting ion charges
SPS2
2

Part 2: Ionic Formulas & Names

  • Criss-cross & reduce
  • Metal + nonmetal-ide
  • Roman numerals for transition metals
SPS2.bSPS2.c
3

Part 3: Naming Covalent Compounds

  • The prefixes mono- to deca-
  • Name → formula
  • The decision chart
SPS2.c
4

Part 4: Properties: Reading the Data

  • Melting points
  • Conductivity in solution
  • Structure explains behavior
SPS2.a
5

Part 5: Equations & Conservation of Mass

  • Reactants, products, coefficients
  • Closed vs. open systems
  • Balancing equations
SPS3.aSPS3.b
6

Part 6: Five Types of Reactions

  • Synthesis & decomposition
  • Single & double replacement
  • Combustion
SPS3.b
Where we're headed

Learning Targets & Success Criteria

Learning Targets

I am learning to…

  • Explain how ionic bonds (transfer) and covalent bonds (sharing) form, and use data to predict their properties
  • Write formulas and names for binary ionic and covalent compounds using IUPAC rules
  • Use balanced chemical equations to show that mass is conserved in a chemical reaction
Success Criteria

I will be successful when I can…

  • Explain how ionic bonds (transfer) and covalent bonds (sharing) form
  • Build any binary ionic formula with the criss-cross method — and reduce it
  • Translate names ↔ formulas both ways: ionic (-ide, Roman numerals) and covalent (prefixes)
  • Use melting point and conductivity data to prove a compound is ionic or covalent
  • Balance a chemical equation using only coefficients
  • Explain why a sealed bag keeps its mass and identify five reaction types on sight
Georgia Standards of Excellence

Standards

SPS2 · SPS3

SPS2: Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to explain how atoms bond to form stable compounds. SPS3: Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to support the Law of Conservation of Matter.

SPS2.a

Analyze and interpret data to predict properties of ionic and covalent compounds.

SPS2.b

Develop and use models to predict formulas for stable, binary ionic compounds based on balance of charges.

SPS2.c

Use the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) nomenclature for translating between chemical names and chemical formulas.

SPS3.a

Plan and carry out investigations to generate evidence supporting the claim that mass is conserved during a chemical reaction.

SPS3.b

Develop and use a model of a chemical equation to illustrate how the total number of atoms is conserved during a chemical reaction.

Watch

One-minute videos

Quick previews from Simple Science Videos.

Ionic vs. Covalent Bonds

SPS2.a

Writing Ionic Formulas

SPS2.b

Chemical Nomenclature

SPS2.c

Balancing Chemical Equations

SPS3.b

Types of Chemical Reactions

SPS3.b
More on Tobin Science

Keep going

Free activities for this unit that go deeper.

Naming Binary Compounds

Balancing Chemical Equations

Counting Atoms