A Cost-Effective Physical Modeling Exercise To Develop Students’ Understanding of Covalent Bonding

Chemical bonding is one of the basic concepts in chemistry, and the topic of covalent bonding forms an important core of knowledge for the high school chemistry student. For many teachers it is a challenging concept to teach, not least because it relies mainly on traditional instruction and written work. Similarly, many students find the topic abstract and difficult to grasp and the traditional approach can be disengaging for some students. This modeling activity was used with 14–16 year old students to consolidate their understanding of the covalent bonding model extend their thinking beyond the "octet rule". This low cost, kinesthetic approach proved to be highly engaging for the students and a useful stimulus for discussion.