Week 2 — Readings & Resources

Your primary reading is Chapter 2 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 63–71 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (20–22 min total)

• Cohesion, Adhesion, & Surface Tension — bionerdery
• Acids, Bases, and pH — Bozeman Science
• pH and Water — U.S. Geological Survey

① Bonds and the lopsided water molecule

Chapter 2, Section “Sort the three bonds: share, transfer, attract” · Session 1, Segment 2, “The three bonds and water's polarity” · Remember: covalent bonds share, ionic bonds transfer, and hydrogen bonds are a weak pull between molecules.

• Ionic and Covalent Bonds, Hydrogen Bonds, van der Waals - 4 types of Chemical Bonds in Biology — Socratica — a calm walk through the bonds that matter in living things, ranked from strongest to weakest; listen for share versus transfer, and treat its fourth bond type, van der Waals interactions, as an extra the chapter does not cover. (video, 9 min) (captions: creator)
• Water: A Polar Molecule — Bozeman Science — a whiteboard-style explainer on why oxygen's pull on the shared electrons makes water polar, and how that one fact leads to cohesion, high specific heat, floating ice, and solvent power; sketch the slightly negative oxygen and slightly positive hydrogens as you watch. (video, 9 min) (captions: creator)

② Why water behaves so strangely

Chapter 2, Section “Trace water's properties back to hydrogen bonds” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Water's emergent properties” · Remember: every property of water traces back to hydrogen bonds between its polar molecules.

• Cohesion, Adhesion, & Surface Tension — bionerdery — a short, sketch-as-you-go explainer on cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension, ending with transpiration, the way water is pulled up through a plant; pause after each property and name the everyday event the chapter pairs with it. (video, 7 min) (captions: automatic)
• Water - Liquid Awesome: Crash Course Biology #2 — CrashCourse — a fast, funny episode on hydrogen bonds, cohesion and adhesion, why ice floats, and heat capacity, with a short history detour you can skip; it moves quickly, so rewatch the ice segment if floating ice still puzzles you. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
• Adhesion and Cohesion of Water — U.S. Geological Survey — a short page that separates water sticking to water from water sticking to other surfaces, with droplets and plants as examples. This builds on Week 1's controlled experiment: use its idea of cohesion to explain why the penny held fewer drops of soapy water. (reading, 3–4 min)

③ Reading pH and trusting a buffer

Chapter 2, Section “Count the steps: reading the pH scale” · Session 2, Segment 4, “Counting pH steps” · Remember: low number, high acid, and every whole step on the pH scale is a tenfold change.

• Acids, Bases, and pH — Bozeman Science — an explainer on how more hydrogen ions mean a lower pH and a more acidic solution, and the reverse for bases; it uses the word hydronium for the same hydrogen ion the chapter counts. (video, 9 min) (captions: creator)
• What Is The pH Scale: Acids, Bases & Alkalis — FuseSchool - Global Education — a three-minute animated look at the 0 to 14 scale and at indicators that change color with pH; it says alkali where the chapter says base, and it is a good preview of how this week's red-cabbage lab reads a liquid. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)
• pH and Water — U.S. Geological Survey — a plain-language page on what pH measures and why each number on the scale is a tenfold change, with examples from rivers and streams; check its tenfold rule against the chapter's count-the-steps method. Use it while working through the Week-2 module overview. (reading, 4–6 min)
• What is Acid Rain? — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — a short page on how rain becomes more acidic than normal and how it is measured on the pH scale; read its part on the pH scale and count the steps between the values it gives. (reading, 3–5 min)
• Arterial Blood Gas (ABG) Test — MedlinePlus — a federal health page on a blood test that checks the blood's balance of acids and bases; read the opening section and the list of what the test is used for, where the lungs and kidneys both help keep that balance normal and bicarbonate helps control it, and connect bicarbonate to the base half of the chapter's carbonic acid / bicarbonate buffer. Skip the parts on how the sample is taken. (reading, 4–6 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

• Base Pair — National Human Genome Research Institute Talking Glossary — the course's free glossary of genetic terms, open at an entry that shows hydrogen bonds at work holding the two strands of DNA together; read the short definition for the hydrogen-bond idea and skip the related-term links. (reading, 1–2 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

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