https://doi.org/10.15255/KUI.2020.055
Published: Kem. Ind. 70 (1-2) (2021) 57–64
Paper reference number: KUI-55/2020
Paper type: Professional paper / Chemistry in Teaching
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How to Acquire an Idea of the Size of Atoms and Ions

M. Sikirica

Abstract

Chemistry teaching uses quantities such as the picometer and Avogadro number. Teachers easily pronounce or write, and students learn to reproduce these quantities by heart, without any idea of how much numbers like 10^–12 or 10²³ actually are. This paper shows how students can, by solving simple problems, learn independently about the size of atoms and the meaning of Avogadro’s number. In the present digital age, “distance learning” and digitised textbooks, modern school does not need standard “classes” but laboratories, workshops, sports halls, and sports fields, where students could acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities by exerting their activities.

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Keywords

chemistry education, HCP and FCC crystal structures, atomic and ionic radii, interstitial holes, solved exercise questions