To ask for your help with DS’s Science homework?

[KhalliWhalli]

So this is how the conversation went:

Me: Your science teacher said you haven’t done your homework.
DS: I tried, but it was just too hard.
Me: Rubbish. You’re just not trying hard enough. Give it here...
DS: OK Mum. You have a science degree. Please help me.
Me: Blimey, this is really hard, let me ask on Mumsnet...

So here we are asking for help. I don’t even understand the questions! Can someone help us? Thanks.

I don't think I would be mixing calcium metal with hydrochloric acid!
It all looks very poorly presented and just odd.

That’s really simple for Yr 10

With corrections in red!
I hate it when homework is given out with so many typos.

Forming reactions is really important at GCSE. Here you go

Ah, just saw that he missed the lesson. Once he’s been taught the stuff it’s fairly simple for a year 10

[quote KhalliWhalli]@2021V2 He missed the lesson as he was at a paediatrician appointment. I emailed the teacher and said I would ensure he caught up then she sent us this 😬.[/quote]
But as I’ve said already he will have done this before in year 7 it’s part of the NC for year 7 acids and alkalis - others have posted all the videos and links I would use. It’s not chemistry as such it’s word filling in. The understanding of the chemistry reaction is the learning.

Some metal you would not react in the lab due to the volatile reaction but they all form the same pattern.

You say your son is it year 10 so this should have been done in year 7,9 & again in year 10. When the teacher sent their work did not they not send a PowerPoints or a textbook reference (?) if not that must be an oversight.

But honestly it nothing to be worried or confused about. Once he understand the general formula it is fill in the words.

Then some work in the shorthand formulas (google is his friend here eg google chemical formulae of iron sulphate etc)

Then last stage is balance left and right side. You can’t change the formula but you can put numbers in front.

My daughter says you start of with Bob and Jane on LHs and you can Bob and Jane combined on the right but they have been severed in half! So I need to put a 2 in front of the half Bob and Jane combined on the rhs and now I have conservation of mass ie started off with 1 Bob and one jane and ended up with. 1/2 Bob:Jane joined so a two in front gives me one whole one each -

With displacements reactions she talks about celebrity couple being called iron oxide eg Alex r is iron and oxygen is jen Lopez and then along comes Ben (hot stuff mr magnesium) she dumps a rod and all of a sudden you get magnesium oxide and iron produced as she combines with Ben and a rod is dumped . I’m not sure about the celebrities used but it helps her understand it or did when she is in year 7&9 now she’s GCSE she understand and explained in terms of reactivity and electrons !!

Ps the teachers part 2 last question is poor as in Magnesium must be capital M and lower case g or Mg not MG that would be marked wrong at GCSEs

[quote PoodleJ]Sulphuric acid makes sulphates
Hydrochloric acid makes chlorides
Nitric acid makes nitrates
So to name the salt (product) you just need to have the metal from the reactants and add it to the correct ending. All reactions produce hydrogen.
You need to know the symbols for the different acids then the symbols for the metal sulphate etc. This second part seems complicated but it’s straightforward.
Watch this clip to help you

[/quote] That's what I came here to say! Can I add, as a sideline, that I detest the 'new' spelling, sulfuric instead of sulphuric? How simple do we have to make things?

@Lillith111

Forming reactions is really important at GCSE. Here you go

Yes it is really important. Which is why it is important that the student looks up how to do it for themselves rather than being given the answers

Previous posters have given you the general formula for metal + acid reactions. Balancing symbol equations (part 2) are slightly harder as students always muddle up the numbers (coefficients - big numbers, and sub-scripts - small numbers). This video is fab technique for not confusing the two. I teach a similar version and have loads of students can now balance equations!

Metal + acid = metal salt + hydrogen.

Then for the chemical equations he has to make sure the two sides balance.

Surely this must be in relation to what he's just learned in class? Does he not have notes?

Answers easily found on Google (not helpful sorry)

Can I add, as a sideline, that I detest the 'new' spelling, sulfuric instead of sulphuric? How simple do we have to make things?

I think the agreement was we'd use 'f' in 'sulfur' and the US would start using 'aluminium' instead of 'aluminum'. We've stuck to our side of the arrangement considerably better.

@HungryHippo11 I didn’t give him the answers. I gave OP the answers. Now she can check if he’s doing it along the right lines. If she didn’t know before this can help OP check the work. I tried to be helpful. As opposed to being condescending and putting down posters who are trying to help like you are

Wow, that takes me back. I'm sure balanced chemical equations was A level when I was at school!

@KhalliWhalli That's very straightforward, and the balanced chemical equations on the right will help fill in the worded equations on the left.

Did you not do chemistry GCSE or A-level before your science degree?

He needs to talk about this with this teacher.

If he doesn't understand it, he needs to work out HOW to understand it. But you're just teaching him to cheat instead.

Also, I would not teach my child by giving them the answers or googling them, but ask them to look more closely at what's in front of them and seeing if they could make the link between the left and right and therefore see their way to the solution.

They will learn to figure things out for themselves next time. Most of the information is there, just a few bits to work out, and they need to learn to look at the information given and work through it themselves.

....and there should be plenty of online resources to take him through the topic if he missed a key lesson..........

Well this thread has made me feel completely stupid .

@KhalliWhalli Is that because of the replies, or have you looked closer at the question and seen it for yourself so you're kicking yourself for not seeing it sooner?

At least your DS will get his work done and will hopefully have filled in his knowledge gap?

Wait, what? DS did this in lockdown in year 7, this exact piece of work albeit on a website not paper. I don’t have a science degree and even I can vaguely remember it from school, with a quick Google refresher.

@Valeriekat

I don't think I would be mixing calcium metal with hydrochloric acid! It all looks very poorly presented and just odd.

There's nothing wrong with mixing calcium metal and hydrochloric acid. It's about risk assessment and the molarity of the acid. I have prepared it at work for students many times

This seems to be the relevant BBC Bitesize. He definitely needs to sit through a lesson on this and understand it before trying to answer the questions, because this is fundamental stuff.

Speaking as a mathematician I am curious as to what your science degree is tbh. I guess that’s the problem with an exam system that allows you to drop one or more of the sciences at an early age rather than getting a solid grounding in all three.

Whoops forgot the link.
www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zqd2mp3/revision/2