Michael J. Kelly, Editor

70 Pine Hill Road, Chelmsford, MA 01824

Some Thoughts on Getting Ready to Teach About the Periodic Table

Michael J Kelly

Editor’s note: To enjoy the challenges of “Puzzle Corner”, you will want to try the puzzles on page 5 before reading this article.

For me, teaching about the periodic table is not something to which I tend to devote either a whole unit of work or a full test grade. My students first encounter the table when they are asked to learn a given number of elements along with their symbols. I find that the table gives them a visual orientation/aid in this task.

My first worksheet is one which asks them to think about the names and symbols in a variety of contexts. It consists of the following questions.

1. What letters of the alphabet are not used in any of the atomic symbols.

2. Find pairs of elements such that the letters of the symbol for the first element when reversed will give the letters for the symbol of a different element. (For example, aluminum has the symbol Al-if the letters are reversed, you will get La which is the symbol for lanthanum).

3. Find the names of all elements:

a. such that the letters of their symbols are two consecutive letters in alphabetic order. (For example, the symbol for cadmium is Cd);

b. the symbols for which consist of two consecutive letters in reverse alphabetical order. (For example, the symbol for barium is Ba).

4. Find the names of all elements the symbols of which consist of only vowels.

5. Find the names of all elements for which the symbols are:

a. valid English vocabulary words. (For example, beryllium has the symbol Be.);

b. when reversed, valid English vocabulary words. (For example, the symbol for nickel, Ni when reversed becomes in.).

6. Find the names of all elements for which symbols are:

a. legitimate state postal codes. (For example, the symbol for mendelevium is Md, the postal code for Maryland.)

b. when reversed would give a legitimate state postal code. (For example, the symbol for technetium is Tc, when reversed the postal code for Connecticut.)

Students like to play with puzzles and working with the above sheet helps them to learn symbols and relative positions of elements in the table.

When students are asked to learn atomic masses, an additional optional exercise is provided:

ð The students are asked to take a 20 by 20 grid and place in this grid the names of as many elements as they can in a Scrabble-like format.

ð They can begin with any element and any position in the grid.

ð The names can not be placed so that they run into each other or are side by side so that an element name cannot be made.

ð Points are awarded for the names according to the rounded off values for the atomic weights.

ð The student with the highest number of points will get one extra point on the quarter grade. (Other properties of the table can be used in this way, such as atomic number, electronegativity, and boiling point.)

While doing some research on materials dealing with the history of the periodic table, I came across a relatively small book of about 150 pages. The book, titled The Periodic Kingdom and written by P.W. Atkins was published by Basic Books in 1995. I would suggest that if you are teaching about the periodic table or learning about the periodic table this book should be read. It takes a look at the table from the viewpoint of the table being a geographic land form, much like North America, seen from the air and commented upon by the author, as companion, while you travel over this land by air. The book is broken down into three major sections.

The first section, Geography, describes the table as a land having at its eastern boundary the noble gases and the halogen range of mountains, at its western boundary the alkali metals and the alkaline metal range of mountains. Between these two you have the western desert of the transition metals and to the south the southern island or the block of actinides and lanthanides. There are also the two major lakes: mercury and bromine. Atkins describes the major products of the various regions in terms of compounds and their usefulness to society. He ends by taking three-dimensional views of the land in terms of specific physical properties.

The second section, History, begins with the elements with no known discoverers and then moves on to the discovery and the naming of new regions (elements). Atkins deals with names being given because of the mythology of the land, then according to the person who discovered the new land, and finally by the naming being given over to committees. This is followed by the origin of the land in terms of the ‘Big-Bang’ theory. He ends this section by reviewing the cartographers of the land, those people who gave it a visual representation, and the advantages and disadvantages of the various maps that were produced. Included are some of the newer three-dimensional maps.

The third and final section is titled Government and Institutions. Here the laws of the interior (atomic nucleus), and the laws of the exterior (electrons) are discussed. From these regional administration follows. The formation of cations and anions is derived as well as the relationships of various groups. Liaisons and Alliances treats the formation of chemical bonds. Ionic and covalent bonding is discussed in conjunction with the formation of compounds and the properties of ionic and covalent compounds.

An extensive background in chemistry is not really needed for this book, but you gain a greater knowledge for having read it. This is a journey worth taking. If you have summer reading for students, this is a must.

There is an abundance of web sites available for periodic table learning. (See also section 5A in Judy Douville’s column in this issue.) Most contain the fundamental data available on the more popular paper forms. The distinction is in the differences. I have reviewed many of these sites and found a few favorites.

Visual Elements <http://www.chemsoc.org/vis elements/pages/pertable_j.htm> contains a brief but cogent history of the development of the table, as well as alchemical symbols for the metals of alchemy. It also contains artist representations of the landscapes discussed in P.W. Atkins’ book reviewed above. Each of these can be sent as an electronic postcard. Additionally, several of these have been animated with musical accompaniment. Graphics and artwork are the strengths of this site.

The site Chemistry: Elements of Life: Periodic Table <http://www.elements-of-life.org/periodic table/ periodic table of elements.html> contains an interactive timeline from 1886 to the present dealing with primarily commercial applications of the elements and their use in developing various classes of compounds.

A student interactive site, It's Elemental - Periodic Table of the Elements, <http://education.jlab.org/its elemental/> contains a series of puzzles of various types such as Concentration, Hangman, and Crossword Puzzles by chemical group that the student can complete on screen.

A helpful site which allows students to take quizzes on screen is Periodic Table of the Elements Quizzes, <http://www.1001-periodic-table-quiz-questions.com/>. Questions are geared for grades 3-12 and are batched by various categories. There are many questions dealing with element-symbol recognition. Those that I found interesting were those involving sections of the table taken 6-8 blocks at a time where all but one of the elements were present and the student is asked to provide either the name or symbol for the missing element. In general, the questions are not as foreboding as the titles of the quizzes, and they provide excellent review for exams.

There are also a number of sites there for just fun such as: The Comic Book Periodic Table of the Elements <http://www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/>, The Periodic Chart of the Rejected Elements <http://www.periodictable.com/pages/AAE_RejectedPT.html>, and The Periodic Table of Poetry <http://www.superdeluxe.com/elemental/>.

As you continue to periodically teach the periodic table, keep in mind that there are many ways to have students be actively involved in the process.

Answers to the worksheet questions and answers for Puzzle Corner are presented on the next page.

Answers to the Worksheet

1. J,Q

2. Aluminum, lanthanum Argon, radon

Actinium, calcium Silver, gallium

Astatine, tantalum Bromine, rubidium

Cesium, scandium Erbium, rhenium

Francium, rutherfordium Indium, nickel

Einsteinium, selenium Thallium, meitnerium

3 a) Cd, Mn, No b) Ba, Fe, Hg, Po, Sr

4. Au, Eu

5. a) He Be b)aN aT

As In iS oH

At Ra iT uP

Ho No iN mA

Am Pa I sO oN

6.a)

Aluminum-Al-Alabama

Argon-Ar-Arkansas

Calcium-Ca-California

Cobalt-Co-Colorado

Gallium-Ga-Georgia

Indium-In-Indiana

Lanthanum-La-Louisiana

Mendelevium-Md-Maryland

Manganese-Mn-Minnesota

Molybdenum-Mo-Missouri

Meitnerium-Mt-Montana Mexico

Neodymium-Nd-North Dakota

Protactinium-Pa Pennsylvania

Scandium-Sc-South Carolina

b)

Aluminum-Al-La-Louisiana

Actinium-Ac-Ca-California

Cadmium-Cd-Dc-District of Columbia

Silver-Ag-Ga-Georgia

Lithium-Li-Il-Illinois

Nickel-Ni-In-Indiana

Americium-Am-Ma-Massachusetts

Manganese-Mn-Nm-New Mexico

PUZZLE CORNER ANSWERS

Dave Olney

djolney@rcn.com

Puzzle #1 - Their symbols all have just one letter in them. All others have two.

Puzzle #2 - The first letter of its symbol is NOT the first letter of the element’s name. It’s no accident that most of these have been known since ancient times, so that their symbols come from their Latin or Greek or Nordic root names.

Puzzle #3 - The property is having a vowel in its symbol, instead of all consonants. Eu and Au have two vowels. By the way, 48 have at least one vowel, while 63 have only consonants. Only four of the post Uranium symbols contain a vowel.

Puzzle #4 - It’s hard to get this one without an up-to-date periodic table! We count twelve:

₉₆Cm (the Curies) ₉₈Es (Albert Einstein)

₁₀₀Fm (Enrico Fermi) ₁₀₁Md (Dimitri Mendeleev)

₁₀₂No (Alfred Nobel) ₁₀₃Lr (Ernest Lawrence) ₁₀₄Rf(Ernest Rutherford) ₁₀₆Sg (Glenn Seaborg)

₁₀₇Bh (Niels Bohr) ₁₀₉Mt (Lise Meitner)

₁₁₁Rg (Wilhelm Roengten)

and the only one from elements 1-92, Gd honoring a Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin.

Puzzle #5 - Those in the first group have symbols that match the Postal Service abbreviation of one of the fifty states. For example, Cobalt’s symbol is Co, and the abbreviation of Colorado is CO. The second group of element symbols do not match any state.