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Making Water Molecules
What is the structure of a water molecule? Students use gumdrops to build a water molecule model.
Students often begin with misconceptions
about molecules.
Materials
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per student:
 1 lg red gumdrop
 2 sm blue gumdrops
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 toothpicks
 toy
car
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What To Do
 EXPLAIN that everything
is composed of extremely small atoms. When atoms come
together they form molecules. Water, also called H2O, is made up of three atoms:
two hydrogen (H) atoms and one oxygen (O) atom.
 HOLD up a toy car. COMPARE and
CONTRAST the toy car with a real car. DEVELOP a definition of
a model with the class.
 Students BUILD a water molecule
model with one oxygen atom (red gumdrop), two hydrogen atoms
(blue gumdrops), and toothpicks.
What's Happening?
Find out more about atoms, ions, acids,
and bases.
Challenge. Try
building other molecular models. You may want to do a little
research first. Share your results in our pH
Exchange.
Atomic Gumdrops: What does the structure of an atom look like?
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