Lesson 7:

Concepts conveyed | Materials | Procedure | Benefits

Concepts conveyed:

The purpose of this classroom activity is to teach students the names of and facts about various chemical elements. Students will also be required to learn basic skills in acquiring information from the World Wide Web (WWW).

Materials:

Give students a list of Websites for finding information on chemical elements.
Possible Websites:

• http://bvsd.k12.co.us/~stanglt/per/IE2/index.html
• http://www.cs.ubc.ca/elements
• http://mwanal.lanl.gov/CST/imagemap/periodic/periodic.html
• http://the-tech.mit.edu/Chemicool/
• http://klbproductions.com/yogi/periodic/
• http://www.shef.ac.uk/~chem/web-elements/
• http://PeriodicTable.com/

Procedure:

Assign each student one or more chemical elements from the periodic table. Ask students to find and write down various facts about their element using the WWW. For example, they should be able to find the discoverer, the date of discovery, the chemical symbol, the properties and reactions, applications and uses, and other interesting facts of the element. The instructor can use this information in lecture to help students begin to associate a symbol, fact, and other information with a particular element. This will help students to remember the different chemical elements and better understand the relevance the elements have to their lives. Instructors can also use this study of chemical elements as a precursor to the study of and introduction to compounds, molecules, formulas, and reactions. Some study guides for chemical nomenclature can be found at other websites.

Benefits:

• Students will be encouraged to appreciate the importance of using the World Wide Web (WWW) as a source of information.
• The written information that is turned in by the students can be used as a means to check attendance.
• The element that is assigned to the student can be used as a code name for reporting exam scores and grades.