This is an HTML program that helps you spell with symbols of chemical elements for anything you want. Just cut and paste the text, paragraph or list of names you would like to "symbolize" in the left field. The program automatically displays the words that could be spelled with chemical symbols in the right field. When a word has more than one possible spelling, all of the possible combinations are displayed on a single line.

This exercise introduces students to many chemical resources found on the internet.  Rather than being geared for upper-division chemistry majors, much of the material introduced is appropriate for freshmen and sophomore level students (although more advanced students will also benefit from the exercise).  The “web guide” contains links to many search engines and resources with brief descriptions of each while the “web report” has a number of exercises that asks students to search for chemical information.  The assignment is self-guided; students are encouraged to choose topic of interest t

Many extended structures can be viewed as close-packed layers of large anions, with the smaller cations fitting in between the anions. Larger holes between close-packed anions can hold cations with octahedral coordination. Smaller holes between close-packed anions can hold cations with tetrahedral coordination. The online jsmol resources show these layers and their holes.

The goal of this activity is to have students calculate the empirical formula of a compound given the contents of a unit cell. 

A repeating building block, or unit cell, is used to represent extended structures since shifting a unit cell along its edges by the length of the edge will exactly replicate the extended structure.

This activity was adapted from the J. Chem. Ed. article, “Discrepant Event: The Great Bowling Ball Float-Off.” In this activity students use a bowling ball and some basic materials to predict whether the ball will sink or float in a tub of liquid.