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Essential Things to Understand About Chemistry

1 Understand the Atomic Model of Matter and its relationship to the properties of matter.

1. What are the different types of matter and how do you differentiate among them?
2. How has our concept of the atom changed over time, and what evidence has been used to support these models?
3. How does atomic structure relate to the placement and properties of elements on the periodic table?
4. How are nuclear reactions expressed and how are they used to produce energy?

2. Understand chemical elements and compounds and how they react with each other.

1. How do elements bond (including valence electron and energy changes) to form chemical compounds and how are these compounds written and named?
2. What are the differences between ionic and covalent compounds?
3. What are the types of chemical reactions and how are they written?
4. How can atoms be counted by weighing?
5. How can chemical equations be used to predict needed or desired amounts of reactants or products?

3. Understand the relationships between intermolecular forces and kinetic energy.

1. How is matter affected by changes in temperature, pressure, and volume?
2. How do properties of matter (e.g. solubility and states of matter) result from the interaction between kinetic energy and interparticle forces?