21st Century Learning Tools: Periodic Table

The most powerful resources that I found online that would help my students with their understanding of atomic theory and the periodic table were from Popular Science (http://www.popsci.com/files/periodic_popup.html) and the Dynamic Periodic Table (http://www.ptable.com/). The periodic table from Popular Science shows an interactive periodic table with photos of each element and provides information about each element. In addition, each information window for each element also has a link to more information about that element and pictures showing ways in which that element is used in everyday life. This would be helpful to my students so that they can see that the elements are the building blocks of all materials and how different elements are all around them in everyday life. It also drives home the point that the properties of elements can often be much different than the compounds that they can form. The Dynamic Periodic Table site provides students with an interactive periodic table that allows them to investigate the elements’ isotopes, properties, how changing temperature affects the state of the element, and the electron orbitals of the element. I especially like the temperature scroll bar because it shows the melting and freezing points of the elements in Kelvin, Celsius, and Fahrenheit.

I expect that these tools would help make students scientifically literate citizens because it allows my students to utilize technology to improve their knowledge and understanding of atoms. Using these websites also allows students to learn about the elements in a self-reliant way, investigate the elements of their choice, and inquire further about patterns that exist within the periodic table. Being able to understand the periodic table and the nature of the elements will allow my students to have future success in their chemistry and biology classes where knowledge of the elements and their interactions are critical.

One way in which I plan to use these resources in my classroom is by having my students investigate different trends and patterns in the periodic table. This would be a guided inquiry activity because I would simply be giving students the inquiry question (Banchi & Bell, 2008). To extend this activity, I would have my students investigate one element of their choice and complete an element poster on this element identifying certain criteria about their element. We would then gather the different posters from students within the class and make our own periodic table. When learning about electrons and electron configuration, the Dynamic Periodic Table can be put to use on my SmartBoard so that students can investigate the pattern of electrons and orbitals. I think that having this visual will be a valuable tool to my students in their comprehension and understanding of atoms and the periodic table.

Some potential problems I can foresee in using these tools is that the students will spend time "playing" and not necessarily in searching for trends and patterns within the periodic table. Another potential problem would be that students would all want to explore the same couple of elements (gold, silver, or platinum for example) and the periodic table that we create would be limited in its content. Getting all of my students to the computer lab for successive days would also pose a problem since computers are not available in my classroom.