“The balloons were to represent bonded atoms,” teacher Clinton Davis said, “and the molecular structure they create.” Davis knew that some kids would have a better understanding of bonded atoms if they had a visual representation of bonded atoms so they could see how they are bonded. “The idea behind the balloons is that they show the repulsion of electrons from each other really well,” said Mr. Davis, For instance, if you try to push the balloons together and out of shape, they bounce back to the shape they want to be in, which is the shape with the least amount of stress on each other. Or at their lowest potential energy. Teachers were met with many challenges so far that make there classes a lot harder to teach.
“The biggest challenge of trying to hands on teaching in science class is trying to make sure all students can see the demonstration in the class and at home,” said Davis.
Davis had to think of a way to get both the student in person to see the demonstration and the students that are at home .
For this demonstration I set my iPhone up on a tri pod and used that as a better camera angle to show the balloon demo. That seemed to work really well.’’ covid protocol’s are making it harder for teachers to do labs and experiments with students.
We have not done a lab yet in class,” said Davis, “we have taken data from demonstrations, but the students have not performed a lab yet. It is the plan to start doing some and we have some COVID lab protocol that we have written up as a science department. But I think with some preparation and attention to detail it can be accomplished.”

“The balloons helped me understand the bonded atoms and the molecular structure they create because it was so visual,” junior Dylan Junkin said and your able to see all the ways that they can connect or do connect.” some students said they liked the visual model because it was something they could visually see rather than a model online in which you cannot see in a 3-d form.

“The balloon model helped me because it was a visual model with a representation of how the they connect so it gave me a better understanding of how they connect Junior Zoe Doyle said,” and it’s not a model online which i find to be harder to understand than a 3-D visual model.