Last year while attending the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education at GVSU I had the opportunity to hear a talk that showed a video of a chemical demonstration showing the burning of magnesium metal. We have all seen many of these videos (thank you YouTube) and probably have performed this demo for our own students many times. During the video it may have been represented with a chemical equation followed by the students being asked to balance the equation or maybe even predict the products. Although the use of video including the showing of the equation nicely represents the macroscopic and symbolic representation, what was so unique about this particular video is that it also included the particulate representation embedded on top of the video of the demo. This was the first time I had seen the particulate level representation done like that and so I was intrigued in wanting to find more of these representations. One of my favorite videos that represents the three so-called worlds (macroscopic, symbolic, particulate) beautifully is this one entitled HCl+NH3=NH4Cl - Ammonium chloride smoke under 100,000,000x microscope from MEL Science on Youtube. Since wanting to incorporate more of these videos into my lesson plans I was thrilled when I met up with Dave Doherty @AtomsNMolecules and he shared with me the Atomsmith Molecule Lab for the iPad. This was the first time I had seen 3D models of chemical reactions represented this way. Having the capability to move a slider back and forth to show the progression from reactants to products using 3D models and then having the capability with the program to link to real world videos representing the reaction again shows the power of this program. If you know of more of these types of videos showing these representations then please share in the comments below or on twitter using @ChemEdX.
NGSS
Students that demonstrate understanding can develop models to illustrate the changes in the composition of the nucleus of the atom and the energy released during the processes of fission, fusion, and radioactive decay.
*More information about all DCI for HS-PS1 can be found at https://www.nextgenscience.org/dci-arrangement/hs-ps1-matter-and-its-interactions and further resources at https://www.nextgenscience.org.
Students that demonstrate understanding can develop models to illustrate the changes in the composition of the nucleus of the atom and the energy released during the processes of fission, fusion, and radioactive decay.
Assessment does not include quantitative calculation of energy released. Assessment is limited to alpha, beta, and gamma radioactive decays.
Emphasis is on simple qualitative models, such as pictures or diagrams, and on the scale of energy released in nuclear processes relative to other kinds of transformations.
Students who demonstrate understanding can develop and use models to illustrate that energy at the macroscopic scale can be accounted for as a combination of energy associated with the motions of particles (objects) and energy associated with the relative position of particles (objects).
*More information about all DCI for HS-PS3 can be found at https://www.nextgenscience.org/topic-arrangement/hsenergy.
Students who demonstrate understanding can develop and use models to illustrate that energy at the macroscopic scale can be accounted for as a combination of energy associated with the motions of particles (objects) and energy associated with the relative position of particles (objects).
Examples of phenomena at the macroscopic scale could include the conversion of kinetic energy to thermal energy, the energy stored due to position of an object above the earth, and the energy stored between two electrically-charged plates. Examples of models could include diagrams, drawings, descriptions, and computer simulations.