Blog post #3

     This past week consisted mostly of reviewing for our test and learning about Lewis dot diagrams which also tie into ionic and covalent compounds. We took the test on Wednesday and I'm slightly disappointed with my score. I'm happy I was able to achieve a perfect score on the free response section but I'm very frustrated at how poorly I did on the multiple choice. I feel like it's my fault however and I will definitely prepare myself better for the next test. After the test, we began learning about Lewis diagrams. We also learned about how they are used to represent ionic and covalent compounds. Lewis diagrams tie in with ionic and covalent compounds because Lewis diagrams are often used to represent these types of bonds. The Lewis diagrams represent an elements valence electrons. Since the valence electrons are always where the chemistry happens we use Lewis diagrams to show how electrons bond together in covalent and ionic compounds. Some important details about Lewis diagrams are that you must represent and electron on each side of the element before paring them up and you represent a single bond with one line. We learned about all of these things through this moodle: Lewis Diagram Moodle. We also learned about ionic and covalent compounds more in depth through this lecture: http://www.screencast.com/t/e2pjK6Urr2.
     One question I still have of the material we learned this week is, would elements that have valence electrons in the d-shell have to have 10 electrons need 10 electrons instead of eight to meet the "octet" rule? I know that the d-block shells have 10 electrons so I wonder if that affects the Lewis diagrams.
I feel like my participation in last weeks activities was good. In the moodle, my role was to be a reader and I feel like a did a good job in contributing in other aspects of the activity as well. I'd rate my understanding of this material at a eight out of ten. I understand how the Lewis diagrams work but I need some practice with showing bonds. One thing that changed a little through this moodle for me was that I learned that valence electrons are not only the outermost shell. I learned that the valence electrons are all of the electrons that are shown through noble gas configuration.