Higher:
I can explain how the periodic table can be useful in chemistry and produce a fact file on an element.
Middle:
I can describe what the periodic table is used for.
Lower:
I can give examples of some features of the periodic table.
Higher:
I can explain why it is important for the periodic table to be ordered in the way it is.
Middle:
I can describe patterns in the way the elements are arranged.
Lower:
I can identify groups of element on the periodic table.
Higher:
Middle:
Lower:
Show children the starter slide. Ask them if they can find gold on the periodic table? What is the abbreviation for gold?
You could create a quiz here.
Presentation - starter slide.
Expore the story / presentation and learn about the periodic table and the work of Mendeleev.
Talk Partners - Think scientifically. Explain to your talk partner why the periodic table would be useful to a scientist.
Memory Game - Ask the children to look at a copy of the periodic table. Give them two minutes to study the first 10 elements and their symbols. Take the copies away, ask them to return to their seats and write down the first 10 elements and symbols in two minutes. Tell them to use the Handout for this task (which gives them the name of the first one).
In this part of the lesson, the children share what they have learnt in the last exercise and in the presentation. Introduce a teacher-led Q&A session in which the teacher can add information from Teacher Mastery and answer questions children may have.
Answer questions and take part in activities during the presentation.
Presentation
Today's film is with Professor Sunetra Gupta who lectures at the Oxford of University and specialises in epidemiology.
Presentation - expert film.
Element Fact File
Watch the Mission Assignment film for more help with this activity.
Ask the children to choose one of the first 10 elements of the periodic table and create a fact-file using page two of the Handout. Ask them to come up with a five question quiz to ask the other children, based on the information they have created.
Quiz one another using fact files.
Mission to Write - What If?
Today's extended writing task asks children to consider 'what if' an element in the periodic table didn't exist. Children can use the element they created a fact file on, or another element of their choice.
Encourage them to plan then write an extended piece of prose, which really considers what we would do without oxygen or hydrogen, or gold, for example.
Children should also be challenged to use the word bank offered in the Handout, and to check their spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Handout
Books / internet for research
Handout - Mission to Write! What If?
Quiz
With their talk partners, the children are to go through the quiz at the end of the presentation and answer the questions.
Quiz in presentation
What can we use instead of the element's name?
What information does the periodic table tell us?
How many elements are on the periodic table?
How is the periodic table organised?
The chart of symbols for chemical elements is called ... (the periodic table)
The Science Behind the Science
Dimitri Mendeleev was born in Russia in 1835. He studied in St. Petersburg where he obtained his degree and his masters qualification. He became a professor of chemical technology at the University of St. Petersburg in 1865. Two years later, he was appointed professor of general chemistry at the university and remained there until 1890.
During his research into inorganic chemistry, Mendeleev noticed that certain chemical elements shared similar properties and that there was a progression in the atomic weight of elements. He arranged the elements by their atomic weight and thus discovered the periodic law (i.e. that there are specific patterns in the properties of the chemical elements).
His discovery was met slowly at first, but after Mendeleev correctly predicted the existence of gallium, scandium and germanium, the periodic table was widely recognised and acclaimed. Mendeleev was given many distinctions and awards for his discovery on an international level.
The periodic table is arranged into groups and periods. Groups are the columns (going from top to bottom) and periods are the rows (going from left to right).
The group an element is in will tell us how many electrons are in its outer shell. For example, carbon is in group four and so it has four electrons in its outer shell. Some periodic tables number all the columns, and so will number carbon in column 14. As a rule of thumb, take 10 from tables that show this to work out the number of outer shell electrons.
The period an elements is in can tell us how many shells, or orbitals, an atom has. For example, hydrogen is in period one and has one electron shell. Potassium is in period four and has four electron shells. The first shell of every atom will only have two electrons in it, all of the others will have a maximum of eight before it needs to make a new electron shell.
Materials - Properties and uses of substances - I have developed my knowledge of the Periodic Table by considering the properties and uses of a variety of elements relative to their positions. SCN 3-15a
The study of the properties, behaviours and uses of materials, both natural and human-made; the origins of human-made materials and how they are manipulated to suit a purpose.
Grade 5 - Matter. Learn about the periodic table.
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