One of my goals as an 8th grade physical science teacher is to show my students that the elements of the periodic table are not just symbols. I spend a lot of time sharing with them the ways that the elements are used in their lives. This is a poster that I do have in the classroom but now my students can have access to it online as well. Hopefully, I am making science real and when we move from memorizing the symbols for the elements into discussing the common compounds in their lives they have an appreciation for the materials that they continually interact with. I like to think that they find it interesting that gold, silver, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen are not the only interesting elements in their daily lives. A little Na in the car airbag, As in LED’s, and Zr (almost a girl’s best friend). Every teacher at every level would benefit from sharing this resource with their students. Use it in English to write an essay to convince the board of a company to keep this element on its shelves, have students use the symbols to spell real words with (COW-carbon, oxygen,tungsten), how many words can they come up with. Use your name and write it in elements (Alice- Al, I, Ce), and simple math games what is the sum of 2C and an O). I could go on and on. Have fun with this by jinging the elements and making trading cards at bighugelabs.
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/bpes_new/bpes_new_uk/STAGING/local_assets/downloads/secondary_resources/pt_preview_080409.jpg
