Popular Resources For Teaching Atomic Structure

In this second article focusing on our most popular classroom resources, we will focus on new resources that could be used in an Atomic Structure unit plan.

The top resource used by teachers in their unit on atomic structure is the Periodic Trends I Simulation. Ionization energy is a difficult topic to cover and the ability to compare ionization energies of elements side by side and see the reason for the trend is a great support. The accompanying activity features an extension where students interpret atomic data from a graph.

If orbital theory is part of the curriculum, consider The Orbitals Animation, our second most popular piece of multimedia in this unit. The animation illustrates the shapes of the 1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p, 4s, and 3d orbitals and how they build up and overlap as each successive orbital is added. Use the accompanying activity to check for student understanding.

The Periodic Table Connect the Dots is a popular resource to gamify the unit, while teaching the core concepts of families, atomic number, number of protons, and average atomic mass. In this activity, students solve a series of clues about elements in order to uncover a message that has been hidden in the periodic table. Using the clues, students draw lines between identified elements on the table, which then connect to form the message. Two versions of this activity are available, varying the difficulty level of the clues.

We hope that these activities can help you to reinforce several of the topics covered in a unit about atomic structure. Most of these lessons were made possible by great teachers who shared their own resources. We need your help to keep the collection growing. Do you have a great demonstration, activity, or lesson related to this topic that you would like to share with the community? Please send it along for consideration.