In the It’s in the Cards! Periodic Table Guided-Inquiry Kit, students play chemical solitaire using a deck of unidentified element cards. Students arrange the cards based on trends in properties and discover the nature of the periodic law.
Recreate Mendeleev’s discovery of the Periodic Table using this open-ended, inquiry-based activity. Students play chemical solitaire using a special deck of 32 element cards. The cards summarize the properties of the elements, but not their names or identities. As students arrange and rearrange the cards based on logical trends in the properties of the elements, they soon discover for themselves the nature of the periodic law. Students also find, just as Mendeleev did, that there are “missing” elements. They must then decide where their missing element belongs and predict its properties. Your students will not just learn about the Periodic Table, they will own the table—because they have discovered it!
Includes six decks of 32 element cards, reproducible student handouts and worksheets, detailed background information and complete Teacher Notes with sample data and answers to all questions.
Super Value Kit is complete for 24 students working in groups of four. All materials are reusable!
Correlation to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
Science & Engineering Practices
Developing and using models Planning and carrying out investigations Analyzing and interpreting data
Disciplinary Core Ideas
MS-PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter HS-PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter
Crosscutting Concepts
Patterns Systems and system models
Performance Expectations
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.