About This Lesson
In this activity, students practice reading chemical formulas first by building the structure (or diagram) to match a given formula, and then by generating the correct formula from a given structure. I find that middle school students who complete this introductory activity have a much easier time understanding and working with more complex models and formulae later on. The version given in the overview is an online Google Slide show, which allows students to move simple diagrams around, but is easily modified into a version that uses Lego bricks and/or construction paper cut-outs. I have uploaded one such modification, but there are many ways to do it.
