BOOK AND MEDIA REVIEW pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Review of Understanding the Atom Scott M. Smidt* Laramie County Community College, Albany County Campus, Laramie, Wyoming 82070, United States isotope and “simplified mass” of the protons and neutrons. Nevertheless, I suspect that, on their own, most students will not recognize the significance of these qualifications. Most textbooks avoid this difficulty by providing students with the necessary isotopic masses for these calculations rather than having students calculate them. In any case, it would be fairly simple for an instructor to point out this simplification before showing the clip to students or making it available through a library or tutoring center. The remaining four chapters explain the quantum model of atomic structure, starting with the concept of energy levels and the shapes of the orbitals, then moving to the determination of an atom’s electron configuration (including explanation of the aufbau principle, the Pauli exclusion principle, and Hund’s rule), and finishing with a description of the four quantum numbers. Throughout all five chapters, viewers are presented with examples and sample problems that pose a question and then provide an explanation of the answer. These make the DVD particularly useful as a review and allow students to check their understanding. Compared to previous DVDs released by Sponholtz Productions, the material covered by Understanding the Atom is not as inherently visual in nature, but learning from videos is so familiar and comfortable for students that this is not a defect. And in the end, this DVD does an admirable job of providing a review of complicated topics in its run time of 36 min. All DVDs can be ordered online;2 a 90-day streaming version is also available.
Understanding the Atom by William R. Sponholtz III. Sponholtz Productions: Ashburnham, MA, 2010. DVD. $29.00 (teacher version DVD); $19.00 (student version DVD).
A
lthough Understanding the Atom is the third DVD produced by Sponholtz Productions, its content places it first in viewing order. Similar to its predecessors, it provides a succinct review of basic chemistry concepts and skills (see ref 1 for a review of other DVDs in the series).
’ AUTHOR INFORMATION
Cover image provided by Sponholtz Productions and reproduced with permission.
Corresponding Author
The first chapter of the DVD summarizes basic atomic structure, defines associated terms (e.g., isotope and ion), and introduces the related notation used to represent elements or specific isotopes (e.g., atomic number and mass number). In short, this chapter deals with material about atoms found in an early chapter of a typical chemistry text. Although this chapter generally makes for a useful summary, it risks generating a misconception by how it introduces the atomic mass unit (amu) and the calculation of isotopic masses (in the context of demonstrating how to calculate atomic masses given the natural abundances of each isotope). The problem stems from approximating the mass of protons and neutrons as 1 amu and then calculating the mass of two isotopes of chlorine by simply adding the number of protons and neutrons. In addition to ignoring the mass defect (which usually is not mentioned in introductory texts until the chapter on nuclear chemistry), it could leave students with the impression that “isotopic mass” is exactly the same as “mass number”. The same issue appears in a sample problem provided in the online study guide available to students. To be fair, this is not a calamitous error, and the graphics in the presentation do specify “approximate mass” of the Copyright r 2011 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
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’ REFERENCES (1) Smidt, S. J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88, 18 19. DOI: 10.1021/ed101004e. (2) Sponholtz Productions Home Page. http://www. SponholtzProductions.com/ (accessed Jun 2011).
Published: July 05, 2011 1216
dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed200387h | J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88, 1216–1216
