Can you explain how periodic trends such as polarity or electronegativity affect ionic and covalent bonding? I'm just in high school so I don't need a super in depth answer. Just a general explanation. Thanks.

I'm not sure what you mean by polarity, but I think it's simpler through electronegativity.

Do you know the periodic trend of electronegativity?

Well, one theory suggests that the bond between two atoms depend on the difference between the electronegativities of the two atoms. When the difference is high, then an ionic bond is formed and when the difference is low, a covalent bond is formed.

Why is that so maybe you could ask? Remember that electronegativity is the ability of one atom to pull on electrons. The greater the difference means that one atom will be able to completely 'snatch' the electron of the other atom so that there is no more a sharing of electrons but a transfer of electrons, which is what ionic bonding is about. :)