Nomenclature Made Practical: Student Discovery of the Nomenclature Rules

The chemical nomenclature of inorganic compounds is typically introduced early in many introductory chemistry courses at both the university and secondary school levels. From the perspective of the student, chemical nomenclature is a series of complex rules and situations involving unfamiliar concepts, such as, transition-metal oxidation states and polyatomic ions. Herein we present a method to teach chemical nomenclature to students in an introductory chemistry course that utilizes the discovery-learning model. Inorganic compounds are grouped into four categories: binary ionic compounds of the main-group elements, binary ionic compounds containing variably charged cations, ionic compounds containing polyatomic ions, and binary compounds of the nonmetals. The formal introduction of each category of compounds is handled as a separate activity and is interspersed throughout the first semester to provide context and to avoid confronting the student with all of the nomenclature rules at once. Through these discrete and manageable units, the student discovers the patterns of the nomenclature rules by examining a series of named inorganic compounds and the corresponding chemical formulas. This approach is highly adaptable to different chemistry curricula, promotes student-centered learning, and helps the student to better understand and retain the nomenclature rules.