The Manufacture of the Periodic Table

A WebQuest for 11th Grade (Physical Science/Chemistry)

Designed by

Genie Leake

Last updated on July 31, 2001

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Teacher Page

Introduction

The periodic table was developed over time by scientists who compiled information from the past and the present.  Why are those elements placed where they are?  Why do some elements have symbols different than their full names and others do not?  As a class, we are going back to the year 1869 to learn how the current periodic table was "made" and answer these and other questions you didn't even realize you have about the Periodic table.

Since these questions are ones that beginning science students have about the periodic table,  we are not going to be selfish with our knowledge.  As a class, we are going to share it with the world.  The final product will be an online webpage book for elementary children explaining what we will discover about the periodic table and how the current form of the periodic table was manufactured.

First:  Let's get some data on those elements so we can see how to organize it ourselves.  Then we'll check later with "experts" to see how well we did.

Second:  Let's check with the experts to see what they did and how close we are to their results.  Reproducibility in research work is very important, in order to make the research believable. 
 

Third:  Now let's fill in the blanks with information we know about the periodic table we use today. 

Fourth:  Let's share with the kids what we have found out and publish our book on line. 

As you have seen through history, ideas can change as new information and technology is used to find that information.  The Periodic Table is an "experiment" still going on, as more scientists gather data similar to the way the class collected data over the Internet.  Perhaps, our webpage book will provide some data for another change in the Periodic Table.  Only time will tell.

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 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 of biographies for various people. 
   The links on the pages are only for  those involved in the project. 
    This is "all purpose" URL to get to that website: 
    http://www.xrefer.com/entry 

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