Vegetables for building molecular models

Abstract

An exciting classroom activity involving the construction of molecular models and building hybrid orbitals is presented in this paper. Basic molecular geometries were built by connecting different types of vegetables using bamboo skewers. Vegetable of different shapes were used to describe the hybridization of atomic orbitals. This exercise is suitable for high school and undergraduate chemistry students. The activity helps students to apply Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) theory to envisage the basic shapes of molecules and to conceptualize the hybridization of the atomic orbitals