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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2008  > September  >
In the Classroom
Forecasting Periodic Trends: A Semester-Long Team Exercise for Nonscience Majors
John Tierney
Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University–Brandywine, Media, PA 19063
Cover
September 2008
Vol. 85 No. 9
p. 1215
Abstract
Team learning is an effective means of teaching that can contribute toward increased student interest. This article describes a team learning exercise developed for a course for nonscience majors. Students are randomly assigned numbers (atomic numbers) the first day of class. Each student builds a portfolio of information for their element. In the third week of the course the students meet in their teams and identify any trends that they observe from the collective data. The following week the teams present their data to the class. Between weeks three and six, the students in a team use Excel to plot a number of relationships—or example, atomic number versus atomic mass and atomic number versus atomic radii—for their chemical group. Each team uses curve fitting and statistical capabilities of spreadsheet software to produce a best-fit equation for each plot. In the second phase of the project, the formulas obtained are then used to predict missing data, such as first ionization energy, density, and so on, for elements at the bottom of their group. Further, the same sets of equations are used to complete a full profile of properties for elements yet to be discovered in the periodic table. The exercise culminates in the 12th week of the semester when, in a second student PowerPoint presentation to faculty and peers, the students demonstrate the calculated physical properties for the new elements.
Supplement
Directions for plotting graphs in Excel; graphing exercises; directions for preparing PowerPoint presentations; peer evaluation forms; Detailed analysis of student plots and discussion
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Citation
Tierney, John. J. Chem. Educ. 2008, 85, 1215.
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Keywords
Atomic Properties / Structure; Collaborative / Cooperative Learning; Computational Chemistry; Curriculum; First-Year Undergraduate / General; High School / Introductory Chemistry; Inquiry-Based / Discovery Learning; Interdisciplinary / Multidisciplinary; Main-Group Elements; Metals; Nonmetals; Periodicity / Periodic Table; Problem Solving / Decision Making; Student-Centered Learning
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History
Created:
Last Updated:
8/4/2008
8/4/2008
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