Electron Arrangements Page 4

Electron Arrangements

Lewis Dot Structures

• Valence electron – an electron in an atom’s highest occupied energy level

• Steps for drawing an electron dot structure for an atom

• Step 1| Identify the symbol for the element and its number of valence electrons using the periodic table.

• Step 2| Place the corresponding number of electron dots around the symbol. Imagine that the symbol has four

sides: top, right, bottom, and left. Begin by assigning one dot per side, moving clockwise around the symbol. Then,

if there are still more dots to assign, start adding a second dot to each side until all of the valence electrons have

been accounted for.

Chemistry 3.4 – Electron Arrangements

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