How to find the Valence Electrons for Oxygen (O)

There are two ways to find the number of valence electrons in Oxygen (O). The first is to use the Periodic Table to figure out how many electrons Oxygen has in its valence shell. To do so, look at the Group number (groups are the columns). Oxygen is in Group 16 (also called 6A) and therefore Oxygen has six valence electrons (note that this method doesn’t work for the Transition Metals).

You can also look at the electron configuration to determine the number of valence electrons for Oxygen. The number of electrons in the highest energy level gives you the number of valence electrons. Using this method we’ll also determine that Oxygen has six valence electrons.

Helpful videos:
• Finding Valence Electrons (element): youtu.be/x1gdfkvkPTk
• Finding Valence Electrons (molecule): youtu.be/VBp7mKdcrDk
• How to Draw Lewis Structures: youtu.be/1ZlnzyHahvo

Another element with the same number of valence electrons as Oxygen is Sulfur.

Drawing/writing done in InkScape. Screen capture done with Camtasia Studio 4.0. Done on a Dell Dimension laptop computer with a Wacom digital tablet (Bamboo).