A Fresh Look at the Periodic Table

  Periodic table

(Second photo is the legend)

Define:

– How did the elements get their atomic symbol? 

– How did the elements get their spots on the table? 

– Why is hydrogen by itself?

– Why is there a disconnection with the Lanthanide and the Actinide series? 

– Why is hydrogen on both sides of the periodic table?

– What is the rarest element?

Dream:

The periodic table tells us:

– Where each type of metals is located.

– How many protons, electrons and neutrons there are in each element.

– What family each element belongs in.

– The rows and periods, the mass and atomic number of the elements.

– The state of matter.

–  The smell.

Deliver:

On my group’s periodic table, we used hexagons instead of squares. We wanted to try and form a big hexagon using the hexagons. We arranged the table by the element numbers.  Here is how we color coded the elements:

  • Orange for hydrogen
  • Blue for metals
  • Yellow for non-metals
  • Aqua for actinides
  • Pink for lanthanides
  • Green for metalloids
  • Purple polka dots for alkaline metals
  • Red polka dots for alkaline earth metals
  • Pink polka dots for noble gases
  • Dark blue for undiscovered elements

Debrief:

I think before drawing our periodic table out, we should’ve chose a better shape instead of hexagons. We overlapped the hexagons so there were some tiny skinny diamonds in the middle of the elements which (in my opinion,) looked a bit messy and made the table hard to read. If we drew a periodic table with octagons, maybe it could make the layout look more neat and easier to read.