We're going to be honest: we do Physics. That's why this is called The Physics Classroom website. And when we do the Teacher's Notes section for our Concept Builders, we typically have a lot to say ... and a lot of resources to point you to. We're not claiming to be ignorant of chemistry; we just don't have a lot of resources here at The Physics Classroom to point you to. And so this page is going to be a lot shorter than our usual page that accompanies our Physics Concept Builders. That's our honest confession.

This Concept Builder belongs in a unit on bonding and molecular structure. The task that students complete is to identify a bond as being polar or non-polar. And if polar, they must also indicate the direction of the dipole moment. The activity can be a stand-alone activity used during a discussion of covalent bonds. Or (as we have designed it) it can be used as a pre-cursor to our Molecular Polarity Concept Builder in which students combine an understanding of bond polarity with molecular shape in order to determine if a given molecule is polar.

The three Difficulty Levels in this Concept Builder differ only in terms of the number of questions. The six Question Groups in the Master Difficulty Level include the three Question Groups of the Apprentice Difficulty Level. And the nine Question Groups in the Wizard Difficulty Level include the six Question Groups of the Master Difficulty Level.  
 

• Apprentice Difficulty Level: Question Groups 1-3 ... Students identify whether a bond is polar or non-polar; and if polar, then they identify the direction of the dipole moment vector.
• Master Difficulty Level: Question Groups 1-6 ... Students identify whether a bond is polar or non-polar; and if polar, then they identify the direction of the dipole moment vector.
• Wizard Difficulty Level: Question Groups 1-9 ... Students identify whether a bond is polar or non-polar; and if polar, then they identify the direction of the dipole moment vector.

The Concept Builder can be used for personal, independent practice, as an in-class activity, or (for Task Tracker users) as assigned homework. For Task Tracker users, completion of a difficutly level is recorded in our database.
 

The most valuable (and most overlooked) aspect of this Concept Builder is the Help Me! feature. A click on the Help Me! button opens a page which discusses the distinction between polar covalent and non-polar covalent bonds. The meaning of a dipole moment is explained and examples are given. This Help feature transforms the activity from a question-answering activity into a skill-building activity. The student who takes the time to use the Help page can be transformed from a guesser to a learner and from an unsure student to a confident student. Students need to be encouraged by teachers to use the Help Me! button and to read this section of the page. A student that takes time to reflect upon how they are answering the question and how an expert would think about the situation can transform their naivete into expertise.