A Fresh Look at the Periodic Table

Define and Discover:

The Science community has challenged us to establish a new way to organize and layout the periodic table, so that it is less time consuming and easier to navigate individual elements that seem to be difficult to quickly find. We must come up with an original design that is both creative and practical, and use our knowledge on Solution Fluency and Collaboration Fluency to aid us in the process.

1. How many elements are on the periodic table?
2. What are the different families on the periodic table?
3. How can we utilize colour coding on our periodic table?
4. Does anyone in my group have any ideas on how to make our project original?
5. How do we want to present our project?
6. How much in class time will we have to work on this project?
7. How can we demonstrate our understanding of patterns and properties of elements?

Dream:

The original periodic table organizes the elements in a way that includes a lot of patterns. The atomic number increases by one as you go from left to right, and to the left there are metals, while to the right there is non-metals, and the metalloids separate them. We could make the periodic table easier to navigate by using different shapes and pictures. Drawings of each individual element could help those who have trouble reading the names, since they could just look at the pictures instead. We could also have brail on the periodic table that spells each of the elements name, symbol, and atomic number, so those who are visually impaired can also easily read the periodic table without having to get someone to read it to them.  Colour coding could also be used to our advantage, since every individual element could also be assigned their own colour to be able to easily find the element you are looking for. Every family/group could be allocated their own base colour, such as blue, purple, or red, and within that group, each element could have a different shade of the groups colour. For example, is the halogens were given purple, Chlorine could be a light purple, while Fluorine is a dark purple.  The shade of the colour could get darker as the atomic number increases. For groups such as transition metals, we could assign each row a different colour within it, since there wouldn’t be enough shades of any colour to be able to colour each element. We could also create a song, or even a video game version of our periodic table, so that if younger students are learning about chemistry, these creative ideas might entice them or interest them in learning more about the periodic table.

Design:

The periodic table will be divided into its families (hydrogen, alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, transition metals, metalloids, non-metals, halogens, noble gases, lanthanide series, and actinide series) and each family is assigned their own colour. Along with providing the information of the name, symbol, atomic number, and atomic mass of each element, we are also including the Lewis Symbol for each element as well. We are also adding what state of matter each element is in at room temperature, although we aren’t writing it down. Instead we are surrounding the element in a specific shape that corresponds to the element’s state of matter, which can either be a solid, liquid, or gas. If the element is a solid, we are drawing a square around it. If the element is a liquid, we are drawing a raindrop around it. If the element is a gas, we are drawing a gas bubble around it. We thought this would add a creative touch to our project, as well as show our understanding of each elements properties. The format of our periodic table will be very similar to the original, however instead of the families being connected with one another, we have separated them, and for families such as metalloids, we have placed the elements in a vertical line instead of having them scattered.

Deliver: 

Our periodic table is very similar to the original periodic table in the terms of the layout, and we can explain why we chose to keep most of the format the same. Scientists, as well as scholars and students, have been studying off of the original periodic table since Dmitri Mendeleev first organized the periodic table in 1869. If we were to change the order and shape of the periodic table’s layout, everyone who menorized where the elements were or even were familiar with where a few elements were located, would find it way harder to locate the element they need to find. None of the elements wouldn’t be where they had remembered it to be. If we changed it, it wouldn’t make it easier to navigate certain elements, it would just make it harder. Although, we did separate the different families located within the original periodic table so they were easier to distinguish. The different families are hydrogen alone (since it doesn’t belong to any other family), alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, transition metals, metalloids, non-metals, halogens, noble gases, lanthanide series, and the actinide series. Each family was also given their own colour so you can visually see where the different families are located. For example, let’s say you are trying to find calcium on the periodic table, and you know it is an alkaline earth metal. Instead of glancing over 117 elements before finding the one you need, you can just go to the alkaline earth metals section and locate it out of the 6 elements in that family. By colour coding the different families, you can easily tell what element is part of what family. In the original periodic table, the metalloids were scattered and it was hard to tell where they were. On our periodic table, you can just go to the metalloids family and it will have all the metalloids in order of atomic number. We also included the amount of valence electrons of each element along with what state it is in at room temperature. Instead of including these details in writing, which would crowd the other important information, we added a Lewis Symbol of each element’s atom and we used shapes to show what state the element is at room temperature. If the element is a gas at room temperature, we surrounded the information of the element in a gas cloud shape, if a liquid we used the shape of a raindrop, and if a solid we used a square. If you were looking for Bromine, and you knew it was a liquid at room temperature, there are only two elements that have this property, so it would be very easy to find it. Within each family, we placed the elements in order of atomic number going from lowest to highest to make it quicker to glance over the elements and find the one you need. In addition, we also added a legend at the top that described what colour represented what family, what the shapes depict, and explained the Lewis Symbols so people can fully understand our changes.

Debrief: 

I am proud of the outcome of my group’s periodic table, which was successful since we managed to complete it on time and hand it in on the due date. We had tried very hard to construct our periodic table while considering the fact that we had to make it easier to read. Lots of times we wanted to add more details and information, however we had to stop ourselves, since too much detail could make our project too confusing to read. I really like the way we laid out our project, and how we incorporated colour and shapes, although, there is definitely some aspects that we could have improved or added to our project to make it stand out better and be more creative. First of all, I think it would have been very creative to mold our periodic table into a scientific shape to make it more visually appealing. We kept the format of our periodic table basically the same as the original, since we are trying to make it easier for people to read. If we have it in a different order than the original, it will confuse people who used the original beforehand, since they memorized elements in certain areas, so if we change it, they wont know where to look. Putting our periodic table into the shape of a tree or another form of nature would have made our project more imaginative since all elements are found in nature, and the tree would represent that concept. Also, there is a group known as the post-transition metals on the periodic table, which include Aluminium (Al), Gallium (Ga), Indium (In), Tin (Sn), Thallium (Ti), Lead (Pb), Bismuth (Bi), and Flerovium (Fl). However, we hadn’t learned about them yet, so we placed them in the transition metals family. If we were to complete this project again, I would like to create a space for the post-transition metals, since they technically aren’t transition metals. In addition, I would also like to leave more space between the families. The size of our poster board limited the amount of space we had to draw our periodic table. It’s a little hard to tell, but if you were to observe our periodic table, we left space in between the families to make it easier for someone to find a certain family, since it’s hard to find what your looking for when it’s all clustered together. We also assigned each family a colour so you no one gets confused. If we were to establish another periodic table, I would prefer to spread out the families so that they are farther apart, since that will make the layout of our periodic table clearer.