Lewis Dot CHEMISTRY App Review
App Info
Price: $1.99
Overview
Lewis Dot CHEMISTRY is a reference app designed to help chemistry students practice and review basic chemistry concepts, particularly those related to Lewis Dots. Students can look at specific compounds and see how the electrons and bonds are arrayed in Lewis Dot nomenclature, see basic information about the compound, an explanation of the compound and its traits, as well as review the rules for depicting compounds using Lewis Dots.
Features include:
- Extensive (nearly 100) list of compounds referenced
- Picture of the Lewis Dot structure for each molecule
- List of the rules for Lewis Dot Chemistry
- Handy periodic table
- Explanation of the information contained on the Periodic Table
Quality
Lewis Dot CHEMISTRY is a high-quality app that is relatively intuitive to use. Developers have, however, tucked a lot of information into corners of the app, and users would benefit from a quick tutorial or at least a list of features to look for and how to access them.
Education
This app is a useful reference and practice tool for high school and early college chemistry students who are befuddled by Lewis Dots. Each of the nearly 100 compounds has a one page reference that shows the structure, indicates the charge, shows where bonds are, and more. The page lists statistics about the compound such as the molar mass, melting and boiling points, state at standard temperature and pressure, and more. There is a simple, step-by-step list of instructions for creating Lewis Dot diagrams for other compounds.
The app also includes a periodic table with all of the usual information about each element. A reference page about the periodic table includes basic and more advanced information about how to read the table and the information about groups of elements, reactivity, and more.
There are a few inconsistencies, however (noted by my resident professional chemist). The developers may want to consider adding more information about how to determine the charge for each molecule, as this might be unclear, especially to struggling students. Some compounds apparently do not show resonance as the developers indicated they should, and the geometry of some ionic compounds is shown in crystalline form instead of molecular form with no explanation about why this should be so.
Entertainment
This app is not intended for entertainment.
Value
For $1.99 in the App Store, Lewis Dot CHEMISTRY offers an inexpensive and handy reference tool. Students can surely find similar information available for free on the web, but this app balances its small investment with the convenience of not having to search each individual compound to determine its structure or to check many homework assignments.
Child Friendliness
This app is intended for high school students and older. There is a ratings pop up as well as a system to contact developers to submit Lewis Dot diagrams and information for compounds not yet included in their database.
- NO social media
- NO 3rd party ads
- YES “rating” pop-up
