Summary

In this activity, students choose from a number of activity options in order to best display their understanding of atomic structure. The RAFT model will be followed for this assignment, which means the students choose their assignment and may modify the assignment based on Role, Audience, Format, and Topic.

Grade Level

Middle or high school

NGSS Alignment

This activity will help prepare your students to meet the performance expectations in the following standards:

• MS-PS1-1: Develop models to describe atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.
• HS-PS1-1: Use the periodic table as a model to predict the relative properties of elements based on the patterns of electrons in the outermost energy level of atoms.
• Science and Engineering Practices:
  • Developing and Using Models
  • Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Objectives

By the end of this activity, students should be able to

• describe the structure of an atom, including all subatomic particles.
• understand that different atom types contain different amounts of subatomic particles
• define an isotope  and explain how the relationship to a parent atom.
• identify the scientists Niels Bohr and John Dalton and describe their contributions to atomic structure.
• understand vocabulary related to atomic structure.

Chemistry Topics

• Atomic structure
• Atoms
• Subatomic particles
• Isotopes
• Atomic history

Time

Teacher Preparation: 15 minutes

Lesson: Two 60 minute classes

Materials

• Laptops for students making a PowerPoint presentation
• Poster board for students making posters
• 11X14 plain white paper for students making comic strips
• Notecards for students making the matching game
• Colored pencils/markers/crayons
• Glue sticks/tape

Safety

• No specific safety precautions need to be observed for this activity.

Teacher Notes

• Make sure to emphasize to students that they are creating the assignment based on the aspects of RAFT (Role, Audience, Format, and Topic). The Audience they are creating for can be at the discretion of the teacher. Feel free to change the audience types based on your students, some suggestions are included below.
  
  
• Make sure that students who are going to create the poster understand they need to pick an element larger than #10. Also have these students discuss their idea for their poster with you before they start drawing. I have students explain why they chose their idea and how it will relate to the structure of the atom.
  
  
• Students who create the PowerPoint should create it as if they were teaching this subject matter to the class, as their audience. Be sure that they create an original presentation.
  
  
• Students who decide to write the story about the life of an atom should be given an audience for their story. I tell my students to write the story for 3^rd-4^th graders, but you can pick the audience type that you think will work best for your students.
  
  
• For the memory game, make sure that students understand that they need to create two cards for each word (the words I have listed are the ones I have chosen, you can decide what vocabulary words work best with your students). They also should understand that one side of the card is the word with a colorful picture and on the other side is the definition or explanation.
  
  
• Allowing 60 minutes for the design of the student’s activity option of choice should be sufficient, but teachers can allow more time if needed. Teachers should also allow an additional 60 minutes for student presentations.