What if I cannot do practical work?

Iron wool and copper(II) sulfate should be readily available but any reactions students can carry out themselves will help. Failing that use video clips but choose carefully as a chemical change must be evident to students.

Sometimes when we do displacement reactions with metal salt solutions some students see gas produced, which confuses them. Are there any displacement reactions I should avoid?

While making careful observations is clearly a skill to develop, the evolution of gas from acidified iron(II)sulfate and copper(II) sulfate can cause problems when moving from a word to a balanced chemical equation.

It is therefore worth trying out each practical beforehand and deciding whether, for your students, this will hinder the development of their understanding.

Can my students carry out the potassium iodide/lead nitrate practical?

Despite lead's toxicity this practical can be carried out in class. However, it is the responsibility of the teacher to do a full risk assessment prior to carrying out any practical work. Alternatively you may do this as a demonstration and use a webcam to show the results to a whole class.

Do I need molymods to show model chemical reactions?

Whilst molymods are really helpful because of their design, you can use other ways of representing chemical changes such as Lego bricks. Molymods are very useful for covalent molecules but less so when representing ionic compounds. The key teaching and learning point is that in chemical change atoms are reorganised, so you can be creative.

What is meant by collision theory?

Particles must collide with each other in order to react. They need to do so with sufficient energy that bonds can be broken.

This concept is fundamental to explaining the sub-microscopic chemical changes that occur in a chemical reaction and is a building block for further understanding rates of reaction.