Help With Stoichiometry

Stoichiometry is an area of chemistry that presents varying amounts of difficulty to high school students. Some pick up on the concept immediately, whereas a few students just never seem to get the "hang" of it. Most students are somewhere in-between.

Stoichiometry is a very important concept that needs to be mastered, as it also serves as a basis for many other areas of chemistry such as equilibrium, thermochemistry and thermodynamics. Just as with most things in life, "practice makes perfect", so don't worry if these problems seem difficult at first. Remember the first time you rode your bike without the training wheels? Or, since many of you have just gotten your driver's liscense (or will soon), remember the first time you got "behind the wheel" and drove somewhere? It was probably pretty hard to do because you had to remember so many things that were new. Once you had some experience, then some of the things became "second nature" and you started doing them as a matter of course without having to concentrate on how to do them. It is the same way with stoichiometry. Once you have done a few mass-mass problems, for example, you should see that they follow a pattern in the way they are set up. If you practice doing this type of problem then they should soon be a lot easier to do. You don't think that Tiger Woods just shows up for golf tournaments, plays his rounds, collects his winnings, and then goes home to lay around until time for the next tournament, do you? No, not hardly. He constantly practices to keep his skills honed, especially those difficult putts for which he is so noted.

The following links are to websites that contain notes and in some cases, practice problems of different kinds of stoichiometry problems. You can look at them to see if the information is a helpful addition to your classnotes and your textbook as you try to get an understanding of this area of chemistry.

Send questions, comments or suggestions to
Gwen Sibert, at the
Roanoke Valley Governor's School
gsibert@rvgs.k12.va.us 		  Back to Notes Menu Back to Types of Equations Notes