Balloon Dance VSEPR
Use balloons to illustrate bonding pairs and electron pair repulsions leading to the determination of molecular shape For example, if you tie 6 balloons together, it automatically forms the octahedral shape. Then each time you pop one, they rearrange themselves to sequentially form the other shapes: trigonal bipyramidal, tetrahedral, trigonal planar and linear. It’s visually appealing, a concrete example and memorable for students. Also, popping the balloons wakes the students up!
Topic:
- General Chemistry
- Electronic Structure/ Electronegativity/ Shape
Strategy:
- Representations
- Demonstration and Simulation
- Models and Representations
- Visualisation
- Technology
- Online and e-Resources
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