Exploring the periodic table

Find out how one secondary school teacher created a lesson using Science Learning Hub resources to explain the periodic table and its uses.

I find this a very exciting and new way that I can learn.

Rights: The University of Waikato

Periodic table element groups

Numbers in the squares of the periodic table are atomic numbers – to avoid clutter, only some have been included to show the basic pattern.

The periodic table is not a dead thing, it’s still growing, growing and growing. I think [students] can see the relevance, that science isn’t stable.

Teacher

The lesson, Exploring the periodic table, incorporated three Science Learning Hub activities to facilitate student learning. The activities came from Investigating elements, Strange liquids and Nanoscience.

The observed lesson was with a year 11 top stream class of 23 students. The lesson was held in the school’s computer lab. The teacher guided the students to the Science Learning Hub website and then to the Investigating elements introduction page. Students worked through activities to do with the history of the periodic table (Development of the periodic table). The students then read the article States of matter to find two additional forms of matter in addition to solid, liquid and gas. Next, they read the introduction to the nanoscience resources and viewed the timeline From Faraday to nanotubes to explore the development of nanotechnology and consider how it might influence the future.

Students told the researcher they found the website easy to use and the activities interesting. One student said, “I find this a very exciting and new way that I can learn.”