Complete Guide to Year 11 Chemistry Module 1 - Properties and Structure of Matter

Introduction

Welcome to Year 11 Chemistry! Module 1 kicks off a two year journey, starting with learning the fundamentals of Chemistry all the way to sitting your HSC exams. Now, looking at the name Properties and Structure of Matter, it doesn’t exactly scream “exciting”. If you’re anything like me, what you expect from chemistry is loud explosions, wild reactions and burning things. All of the fun and excitement will come soon, I promise. 

However, we first need to build a strong foundation using the Chemistry we learnt in junior science. Module 1 of Chemistry is one of the most densely packed modules you’ll ever encounter in the sciences, so don’t worry if it’s looking a little overwhelming to start with! (Our whole Chemistry team has been there so trust me, we know). Mastering these foundational topics will set you up extremely well for the rest of the preliminary course and the HSC, as each subsequent module builds on these foundations. 

In this article, we will go through some of the most important concepts in Chemistry, as well as how to structure some of your responses as this module has heaps of writing.

Periodicity

A chemist’s best friend is the Periodic Table, and for good reason. The periodic table connects to absolutely everything within Chemistry, so being able to read it is an absolute must. Here are a few foundations to get you started, which we will also build on throughout Module 1.

We call the columns of the Periodic Table “Groups” and we give each group a number; 1 to 8. Don’t worry about the middle block which the group number “skips” for now, they are a bit complicated but we will address this in Module 3 and Year 12. 

Group Number = Number of Valence electrons of an element in its elemental state. Elemental State being a neutral atom.

Source: https://www.thesciencehive.co.uk/the-periodic-table-gcse