Demystifying scientific symbolic language

A stone engraved with different ways of expressing the same chemical reaction between water and a metal

Source: © Lisa Sheehan via Debut Art

Teach your students how to understand and use chemical symbols in their learning

Chemistry has used symbols since its alchemic origin. Today’s symbolic language provides a user-friendly and efficient communication method for chemical knowledge. However, our students often find chemical symbolic language difficult to grasp. We need to emphasise its importance for understanding chemistry and also demystify the language. How do we do this? By guiding our students step-by-step through a process of communicating their own scientific observations in symbolic language.

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