Handouts are available below

Big Idea

Today, I want to share this resource with you – an activity I’ve been using every year for the past 18 years of teaching. It’s an activity that teaches students about Mendeleev’s Periodic table. If you’re looking for an activity that teaches students that elements on the periodic table are grouped vertically by similar properties, this worksheet is for you.

But First…

A big thank you to the person who created this activity, which I copied and pasted onto a worksheet. I found it online 20 years ago during my practicum – in the early days of Google and before we could download files easily. And, I’ve been using it every year since I’ve been employed. Even my practicum advisor, who still teaches in the classroom beside me, uses it as well as other Chemistry teachers in the school. It’s that good. So, thank you, person or person(s) who created this – unfortunately, I never got your names.

Mendeleev’s Periodic Table Activity

As for the activity itself, there is a front and back side of this worksheet. On the back side, there’s a partially complete periodic table. The periodic table is vertically grouped by properties. For example, column one has lithium, sodium, and potassium. And, if we look at the properties, lithium is a soft metal, a good conductor, and reacts with water. Looking down at sodium, we see the same, and the same for potassium as well. There are also blanks on this periodic table – and so did Mendeleev’s table. That’s why Mendeleev’s table was so amazing – it left blanks that predicted other elements. On the front side, there’s a table of unknown elements A, B, C, D, etc., and we place these unknowns onto the table. We do so by looking at the properties of each unknown and seeing which vertical column those properties would match with. For example, G is a solid that is soft, a good conductor, and explodes in water. That sounds like it belongs in the same column as sodium, potassium, and lithium. However, which blank would it be? To determine that, we can look at trends – for example, the melting point of each metal seems to decrease as we move down the column. Thus, the unknown with the same properties as the other elements in this list and with the lowest melting point would be at the bottom. That’s what I like about the worksheet as well: small trends that students need to observe. Students usually take about 5-10 minutes to complete and then we discuss.

If you’ve tried or am trying this with your colleagues, please email me and let me know! 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

Resources

Handout(s): Mendeleev’s Periodic Table Activity

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