This lesson is quite descriptive. It's keyed to a periodic table, showing elements 1 to 99, which appears on nearly every display.
Chapter 1 is a tour of the table. It shows how the table is organized in rows, based on the atomic number. The rows are of length 2, 8, 8, 18, 18, 32 and 32. In a quiz, the student must point to the element, given Z, and is required to get five right. The various classes of elements are described: representative, transition, lanthanide, actinide and the better-defined families, as well as the division into metals, nonmetals and semimetals. Note that, in accordance with modern practice, the Zinc group is considered to belong to the representative elements, not the transition elements.
The chapter ends with fairly detailed descriptions of the properties of the Easy Dozen: H, He, Na, Ca, Al, C, N, O, Cl, Mn, Fe and Zn. Each is representative of a class of similar elements. They are described in terms of their positions in the table and their relationship to important groups of similar elements.
Chapter 2 takes one inside the atom. It introduces mass number, charge number, nucleus, electron shells, shell occupancies, sizes and energies, noble gases, cores and valence electrons. There are brief quizzes to establish comprehension. One sees that the elements close to the noble gases have well-defined numbers of valence electrons. In a quiz, the student must deduce the numbers of valence electrons in these elements from their position in the table. The chapter ends with a survey of the pattern of numbers of valence electrons, with some discussion of the elements in the middle of the table whose numbers of valence electrons are not simply correlated with position in the table.
Chapter 3 allows the student to explore the periodic table. Click on an element and some of its important properties are described.
Chapter 4 is the final review quiz. The student may elect to be examined on the Fundamental 44, the Superior 66, or the Great One (all 99). Ten elements are chosen from the student's selection. Given the element symbol, he/she must name the element, locate it on a blank periodic table, and give its number of valence electrons.
The quiz is scored out of 100. The score is entered in a dataset. In Chapter 5 the student may see the best scores (up to 15) and a histogram of all scores so far.
Home page | Index of lessons | Next lesson (Electron Configurations) | Previous lesson (Solution Concentrations)
Updated July 24, 2000