ALEX Resources

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] PSC (9-12) 1 :

1 ) Use the periodic table as a model to predict the relative properties and trends (e.g., reactivity of metals; types of bonds formed, including ionic, covalent, and polar covalent; numbers of bonds formed; reactions with oxygen) of main group elements based on the patterns of valence electrons in atoms.

Students will construct 3-dimensional representations of each known element of the periodic table using cereal-sized boxes as their mediums. By creating these models, students will gain an in-depth understanding of their chosen element's discovery, history, unique properties, and place on the Modern Periodic Table. Students will also be able to identify and describe basic periodic trends.

This lesson was created as part of the 2016 NASA STEM Standards of Practice Project, a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] PS8 (8) 1 :

1 ) Analyze patterns within the periodic table to construct models (e.g., molecular-level models, including drawings; computer representations) that illustrate the structure, composition, and characteristics of atoms and molecules.

[SC2015] PSC (9-12) 1 :

1 ) Use the periodic table as a model to predict the relative properties and trends (e.g., reactivity of metals; types of bonds formed, including ionic, covalent, and polar covalent; numbers of bonds formed; reactions with oxygen) of main group elements based on the patterns of valence electrons in atoms.

[SC2015] CHEM (9-12) 3 :

3 ) Use the periodic table as a systematic representation to predict properties of elements based on their valence electron arrangement.

a. Analyze data such as physical properties to explain periodic trends of the elements, including metal/nonmetal/metalloid behavior, electrical/heat conductivity, electronegativity and electron affinity, ionization energy, and atomic-covalent/ionic radii, and how they relate to position in the periodic table.

b. Develop and use models (e.g., Lewis dot, 3-D ball-and-stick, space-filling, valence-shell electron-pair repulsion [VSEPR]) to predict the type of bonding and shape of simple compounds.

c. Use the periodic table as a model to derive formulas and names of ionic and covalent compounds.

In this lesson, students learn the meaning of the term element and discover that all elements on Earth were formed in stars. They examine the structure of atoms and discover that scientists' understanding of this structure has changed over time--and will likely be refined even further. Lastly, they begin to explore the sometimes strange arrangement and behavior of electrons and to connect these characteristics to the chemical properties of elements. This activity is the second of three lessons. The first, The Periodic Table of the Elements, explored the origin of the periodic table. The third, Repeating Patterns: The Shape of the Periodic Table, shows how quantum electron structure determines the arrangement of elements in the periodic table.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] PS8 (8) 1 :

1 ) Analyze patterns within the periodic table to construct models (e.g., molecular-level models, including drawings; computer representations) that illustrate the structure, composition, and characteristics of atoms and molecules.

[SC2015] PSC (9-12) 1 :

1 ) Use the periodic table as a model to predict the relative properties and trends (e.g., reactivity of metals; types of bonds formed, including ionic, covalent, and polar covalent; numbers of bonds formed; reactions with oxygen) of main group elements based on the patterns of valence electrons in atoms.

[SC2015] CHEM (9-12) 1 :

1 ) Obtain and communicate information from historical experiments (e.g., work by Mendeleev and Moseley, Rutherford's gold foil experiment, Thomson's cathode ray experiment, Millikan's oil drop experiment, Bohr's interpretation of bright line spectra) to determine the structure and function of an atom and to analyze the patterns represented in the periodic table.

[SC2015] CHEM (9-12) 3 :

3 ) Use the periodic table as a systematic representation to predict properties of elements based on their valence electron arrangement.

a. Analyze data such as physical properties to explain periodic trends of the elements, including metal/nonmetal/metalloid behavior, electrical/heat conductivity, electronegativity and electron affinity, ionization energy, and atomic-covalent/ionic radii, and how they relate to position in the periodic table.

b. Develop and use models (e.g., Lewis dot, 3-D ball-and-stick, space-filling, valence-shell electron-pair repulsion [VSEPR]) to predict the type of bonding and shape of simple compounds.

c. Use the periodic table as a model to derive formulas and names of ionic and covalent compounds.

This lesson--the third in a series of three lesson plans about the Periodic Table of Elements--explains why the elements exhibit periodicity, why the periodic table of elements is shaped the way it is, and how we are able to predict the characteristics of elements yet to be discovered or created. Students create electron configuration diagrams that describe the arrangement of electrons around the nucleus. This lesson is the third of three lessons and is intended as an enhancement activity following the completion of the first two lessons. The first lesson, The Periodic Table of the Elements, explored the origin of the periodic table. The second lesson, The Strange World of the Electron, described the structure of the atom.