Introduction

Students will be using the information gathered from Internet sources to construct a Periodic Table in a similar manner as Mendeleev did.  The target audience for this task will be high school students in courses for physical science or chemistry.

Learners

This project would be appropriate for students who are in a physical science or chemistry course.  Previous topics that would be built upon with this unit would be matter and its properties along with atomic structure. The project could be modified to accommodate younger learners or learners with less ability. This list of objectives may useful when writing the webpage book.

Listing of objectives and learning outcomes

Curriculum Standards

Delaware State Science Standards that will be addressed by this project:

Standard One:  Nature and Application of Science and Technology. 
Standard Two:  Materials and Their Properties.
Standard Five:  Earth's Dynamic Systems

Delaware State Science Performance Indicators

National Technology Standards

National Science Standards

Process

The instructor will need to set guidelines for group work and decide how the group members will be selected:  same groups throughout the project or vary the members of the groups.  In addition, view the websites listed with the each step as to appropriateness of reading level.  There may be a need to limit the websites or even using search engines.  If this limitation seems needed, do so with caution as part of the objective of this project is for the students to discover how and why the periodic table was structured in the way it was.  In a sense, the Internet will serve as their "lab" for gathering data for subsequent conclusions about various ideas discussed during the project.  In so seeing the process, the students will better understand the structure and organization concepts associated with the topic of the "periodic table".  All of these guidelines need to be decided ahead of time, not while the students are in the process of investigating.  Clicking on the words within each part of the student page will bring up instructions for each part of the project.  The icons on this page will bring up teacher information about each section; the words are linked to the student information pages.

First part  -  Elemental data and making Our Periodic Table

Second part - Checking with the "experts"

Third part - Filling the blanks

Fourth part - Publishing our "book"

Variations:  These are described with each process step.

Resources Needed

Computers with internet access (Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer) for each group to do their work during class.

Suitable link for one computer to present group results during various presentations throughout the project.  This link should go through a television or a LED panel placed on overhead.  An LED present problems, however, but it is option, if there is no link equipment available for a television (eg., "tvaider").  Should neither option be available, overhead transparencies could be used to present summaries with the important ideas.  Also, poster board or "post-it" easel paper could be substituted for group presentations; however, students will miss out on the opportunity to use technology to present their work.  Powerpoint software could, also, be used if there are computer device links for this presentation to be seen by the entire class.

Webpage space on a server adequate to meets the needs of your classes (If a webpage book will be the final product--20m.com provides free websites, but these have ads with them).  A website could be started for each class and utilized for other activities through the school year.

Dreamweaver software to write the webpages for the children's storybook. If Netscape Navigator 4.7 is used as the browser, this has Netscape Composer for webpage use.

Email support would be helpful for students to receive feedback for their posted webbook.

The Discovery Channel video, "Elements":  It gives background about many elements the students will be investigating, songs, poems, along with background about the development of the Periodic table. (optional)

Separate disks for each student group

Index cards for the elements for the class periodic table.
 

Evaluation

Analytical scoring rubric
 

Conclusion

This project will help the students to look at how the periodic table has been evolved over time and what was involved in its manufacture.  The students will have a higher appreciation for the importance gathering data and reflecting on what is necessary to prove an idea.  They will see that there were no special instruments to measure this data; and they were able to collect their data in a different way:  through the Internet.  They will see the necessity of working together as a team within their groups and within their class.  The pride in their periodic table which they "manufactured" in the classroom, similar to Mendeleev those many years ago, will be obvious.   The children's book that they will construct on the web to show how well they understand the Periodic Table itself, its structure and organization, along with how this important tool even came to be will be a demonstration of true understanding of the Manufacture of the Periodic Table.

Credits & References
The template for this page was obtained from: The WebQuest Page
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html

The project evaluation rubric was designed from:Teach-nology.
http://www.teach-nology.com/

For content information, these websites were specifically used:

For information about the scientist's research:Classic Chemistry
The site used was a webpage that listed various historical papers:  http://webserver.lemoyne.edu/faculty/giunta/papers2.html#periodic

For information about the scientist's biographies:  xrefer
The site was a search for various people.  The links on the pages are only for those involved in the project.  This is  an "all purpose" URL to get to that website:  http://www.xrefer.com/entry.  Once there, use the "search" to find information about various individuals.

This Webquest project idea was modified from another Webquest: Periodic Poster Project
http://www.northwestern-wayne.k12.oh.us/zody/index.html

The sites for the various standards and performance indicators are:
Delaware Science Standards
http://www.doe.state.de.us/Standards/Science/science_toc.html

National Science Standards
http://books.nap.edu/html/nses/html/6e.html#csb912

National Educational Technology Standards
http://cnets.iste.org/index2.html

The animation and clipart are from these websites: 
     Clip Art Warehouse 
      http://www.clipart.co.uk

     Bill's Clip art server 
     http://www.barrysclipart.com/index.html