How to Make a Model of a Halite

Use half of the plain white styrofoam balls to represent sodium. Paint the other half of the balls red, or another color of your choice, to represent chlorine. Let the paint dry before continuing to build your model.

Make a row of four balls, which represent atoms, alternating white-red-white-red. Connect the balls with the popsicle sticks by inserting a stick into the side of a ball and placing the other end of the same stick into another ball. You will end up with a straight row of four balls. The sticks show a bond between the sodium and chlorine atoms. When these two atoms combine, they share an electron and become ions, which are charged particles. The chlorine atom will have a negative charge and the sodium ion a positive charge; this opposition attracts the ions together with a strong bond.

Make another row of four atoms that alternate red-white-red-white connected with sticks. As with the first row, there will be three sticks in between four balls, and you will have a straight row. Place this row beneath your first row and connect with sticks to the first row. There should be one stick between the top ball and bottom ball, and the bottom balls should be directly beneath the top ones. The two rows will run parallel with each other.

Make another two rows. The first alternating white-red-white-red, identical to your first row, the second red-white-red-white, identical to your second row. Place the third row beneath the second and the fourth row on the bottom. Attach each row with the popsicle sticks. You now have one side of your halite model.

Add new rows to make a T with the first side, starting with the bottom row. Alternate colors throughout. For example, the first atom in your bottom row is red. Use popsicle sticks to finish the row with white-red-white, so you have a full row of four atoms that alternate red-white-red-white. Continue until you have four rows for each level that make a T with your first side.

Finish by connecting all the atoms with connector sticks. You should have a cube-shaped figure. No two balls of the same color should be next to each other. Each side should be four rows long and four rows wide, with four atoms in each row.