Chemical Equations

 

Unit Overview

For students to learn the properties of a chemical equation. They will need to be able to understand the law of conservation of mass. The students will prove their understand of the law of conservation of mass through balancing equations. They will be able to identify the type of chemical reaction taking place from a balanced equation.  

 

Personal Achievement

At the beginning of the unit I had trouble understanding which type of chemical formula was which. But by the end of this unit, I was able to distinguish the different types of chemical formulas when looking at examples of them.

 

Enduring Understanding

A chemical equation is the visual representation of a chemical reaction. On one side, it shows the chemical formula of the reactant/s, and on the other side it shows the chemical formula of the product/s. Because of the law of conservation of mass, the amount of atoms of each element on the reactant’s side must be the same as the amount of atoms of each element of the product’s side. The atoms in the molecules are rearranged when forming the new products, not created nor destroyed. But because chemical formulas change when going from reactants to products, sometimes it will seem like the law of conservation of mass is not being followed. To ‘fix’ this, you have to balance the equation. To balance the equation, you can add any needed coefficient to the molecules on either side until you have the same amount of atoms of every element in both sides, no matter the arrangement of these.

 

There are different types of chemical reactions, which can be distinguished by different equations. These are: synthesis, single displacement, double displacement, combustion, and decomposition.

 

Synthesis: A + B → AB

Decomposition: AB → A + B

Combustion: A + Oxygen → OxygenA

Single Displacement: AB + C → AC + B

Double Displacement: AB + CD → AC + BD

 

Reflection on Progress Towards the Standards

 

Area(s) of Strength

Throughout this unit, I had no trouble balancing chemical equations. I learned to do this at the beginning of the unit, and it became very easy for me to apply it in the exercises, quizzes, and tests.

 

Area(s) for Improvement 

Sometimes I had trouble distinguishing synthesis and combustion reactions, because they are very similar, except combustion reactions have oxygen alone in its reactants.