The ability to write electronic configurations and draw the orbital diagrams of elements, cations, and anions is essential in understanding the electronic basis of a variety of chemical processes.  Our experience has been that students find it difficult to comprehend this material and still harder to retain it by reading the text books.   A simple concise tutorial has been developed to lead the students through the process in short easy steps. The tutorial also includes practice problems, whose answers are just a click away.  This approach provides an instant feed-back and encourages further learning. Students are able to access the material in the course management system.  It has been successfully used in the classroom and is well suited for online and hybrid instruction.

Using the periodic table to write electronic configurations and orbital diagrams

245th National Meeting (2013)

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