Chemistry 11 (SCH3U) Unit 1 – Matter, Chemical Trends, and Chemical Bonding Lesson 1 – Atomic Theory and Structure

In this lesson you will be introduced to the various models of the atom and the scientists who put forward such models. You will also learn about the structure of an atom and its particles including protons, neutron and electrons and learn to use nuclear symbol notation to represent any atom of any element in the periodic table.

By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

describe all the models of the atom and rationalize why the cloud or quantum model of the atom is currently most accepted;
explain the Gold-foil experiment using a diagram;
represent the structure of an atom using Bohr-Rutherford diagrams and nuclear symbols;
calculate the number of neutrons using both the mass number and atomic number;.
explain the difference between atom and isotope and use an example to illustrate the existence of two isotopes of the same element.

Let’s start by examining the nature of atoms and the various atomic theories. Please watch the video below and take detailed notes.

In this second video lesson you will learn about how chemists represent the structure of an atom as well as existence of atoms of the same element but with different number of neutrons, a.k.a. isotopes. Please watch the video lesson below and take detailed notes.