Water: Getting to Know the Water Molecule

Interactive, scaffolded model

Overview and Learning Objectives

Students discover that water molecules are polar, and that the polarity makes water a liquid under normal conditions (room temperature and average atmospheric pressure). In the previous activity, students built their model of a simplified cell with solutions on both sides of a membrane. In this activity students "turn up the magnification" to look at water molecules and their interrelations in a network of other water molecules, thus expanding their understanding of the properties of water and aquatic solutions.

Students will be able to:

• represent, in drawing or text, that on an atomic level, water is a network of polar molecules linked together by hydrogen bonds;
• revise their model of an erythrocyte in solution to incorporate their molecular view of water.

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Central Concepts

Key Concept:

Water molecules are small and highly polarized. Their polar nature gives water its unique, macroscopic properties. On a microscopic level, water is a network of these polarized molecules linked together by hydrogen bonds.

Additional Related Concepts

Biology

• Elements of Life
• Fluids

Molecular Biology

• Polar molecules
• Polar nature of water

Physics/Chemistry

• Solubility
• Solutions
• Water

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Textbook References

• Biology (Miller and Levine) Prentice Hall 5th Edition - Unit I: Chapter 3 - Introduction to Chemistry
• Biology (Prentice-Hall) New York Edition - Chapter Two - The Chemistry of Life
• Biology: Concepts and Connections (Pearson) 5th Edition - Chapter 2: The Chemical Basis of Life
• Biology: Exploring Life - Chapter 4: The Chemical Basis of Life
• Biology: Exploring Life - Chapter 5: The Molecules of Life
• BSCS Blue (8th Edition) - Chapter 1: The Chemistry of Life
• BSCS Human - Chapter 8: The Cellular Basis of Activity
• Cell Biology (Pollard and Earnshaw) Saunders 2002 - Chapter Two: Molecular Structures
• Web of Life - Chapter 2: Chemical Basis of Life

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Benchmarks and Standards

AAAS

• COMMON THEMES: Models - The basic idea of mathematical modeling is to find a mathematical relationship that behaves in the same ways as the objects or processes under investigation (Full Text of Standard)
  
  
• COMMON THEMES: Models - The usefulness of a model can be tested by comparing its predictions to actual observations in the real world (Full Text of Standard)
  
  
• THE LIVING ENVIRONMENT: CELLS - A living cell is composed of a small number of chemical elements mainly carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur (Full Text of Standard)
  
  
• THE PHYSICAL SETTING: THE STRUCTURE OF MATTER - Atoms often join with one another in various combinations in distinct molecules or in repeating three-dimensional crystal patterns (Full Text of Standard)
  
  
• THE PHYSICAL SETTING: THE STRUCTURE OF MATTER - The configuration of atoms in a molecule determines the molecule's properties (Full Text of Standard)
  
  

NSES

• Physical-Science: Matter Structure/Properties - 5 Solids, liquids, and gases differ in the distances and angles between molecules (Full Text of Standard)
  
  

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Activity Credits

Created by CC Project: Molecular Workbench using Molecular Workbench + Pedagogica

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Requirements

• Java 1.5+ - Java 1.5+ is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X 10.4 and greater. If you are using Mac OS X 10.3, you can download MW Version 1.3 and explore within it instead.

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