This week we were talking about chemistry so I decided that it would be nice to do a little research on items that are available on the internet to describe trends on the periodic table. The first one that I found was the Periodic Table Song (www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFIvXVMbII0). There are a few other ones that have Spongebob singing them or other more exciting characters. Another good resource is to use the comic book periodic table (www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/) where references to the periodic table are made by comic book heros. Trends on the periodic table can easily found with a little searching, one good one is chemistry.about.com/od/periodictableelements/a/periodictrends.htm. Teachers have made a nice little presentation of different properties of elements on the periodic table at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T9IAOeb0qo. A good overall website can be found at http://www.chemicool.com/ where a lot of questions can be answered about almost any topic having to do with elements.
Using the internet to find solutions to questions and problems allows a student time to look for the answers themselves which can help with their overall understanding and make the learning experience more hands on. It can also teach them valuable research tools and computer skills. These will all aid in developing their 21st century technology skills.
An example of a lesson using the www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/ website might be to give students time to look over the periodic table and answer a worksheet on atomic number, atomic mass, electron configuration, and symbols. After this they would be given a "fake" element that has not yet been discovered that they would have to make up their own comic for using a comic generator like Make Beliefs Comix (http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/) selecting the appropriate atomic number, mass, electron configuration, and inventing their own name and symbol for the element. This should demonstrate if students have grasped the concept of atomic structure, organization on the periodic table, and their tie in to atomic number and mass. Since we could run this as an authentic task where we are role playing the finding of a new element it should be able to spark students' interests. The major issue with this type of assignment is just trying to find the time and computers for the entire class. This can be overcome in my school by scheduling the time in the computer lab at least two weeks before we need to use the lab.
