Build a Table

TEACHER NOTES BUILD A TABLE INTRODUCTION MATERIALS The Manhattan Project was what the government For Build a Table, the cards and the handout will named the huge program to develop a nuclear bomb. It be needed. You might want to print the cards on is hard to explain how amazing this program was. The cardstock and reuse between sections. program encompassed dozens of sites in the United States and Canada that employed tens of thousands. Leading this effort, Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie built nuclear reactors and giant centrifuges. That STANDARDS initiative produced three bombs powered by the fission of uranium and plutonium—all of this only five years NGSS 5 PS1-3 after the discovery of plutonium, seven years after the Make observations and measurements to identify discovery of fission, and 25 years after the discovery of materials based on their properties. the atomic nucleus. The project cost about two billion dollars in 1940s dollars—that’s about 40 billion today. NGSS MS PS2-5 Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended The main project sites were Hanford, Washington, structures. where the plutonium was produced in a reactor; Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where the rare Ur 235 was separated NGSS MS PS3-2. from the predominant Ur 238; and Los Alamos, New Develop a model to describe that when the Mexico, where the bomb design and mechanisms arrangement of objects interacting at a distance were made. The personnel included some of the most changes, different amounts of potential energy prominent physicists of the century, including Enrico are stored in the system. Fermi, Richard Feynman, and Ernest Lawrence. — Discussing a project that resulted in nuclear weapons This is one the most challenging conceptual can be challenging. Focus on the basic science and less developments for students from elementary to on the application at this grade level. middle school—the interrelationship of electricity and magnetism, and force at a distance. This activity Students at this age don’t need to know much about connects the design of motors to generators, and nuclear radiation or isotopes. However, the periodic radio transmitters to receivers. They mirror each other. table and atomic structure are relevant to most middle While working on their development of these concepts, school curricula. In addition, the separation of materials with its emphasis on diagrams, the activity helps by their physical and chemical properties is a very students with the Science and Engineering Practice important concept to teach from elementary grades up. of Developing and Using Models. It also engages in To separate isotopes, the project used their different the Crosscutting Concepts of Energy and Matter, and masses in diffusion and centrifuges. Systems and System Models. In Build a Table students will learn about the patterns of characteristics in chemical elements. They will take and then organize cards with features of the elements that Mendeleev used to build the first periodic table. 123 | REAL WORLD SCIENCE BUILD A TABLE ACTIVITIES STUDENT WORKSHEET NAME: DATE: BUILD A TABLE The 1800s were a time when scientists learned a great deal about the world. One of the fastest developing fields was chemistry. By 1863, chemists had identified 56 elements; today, over 110 elements have been discovered. An element is the basic building block of the universe. Other chemists had noticed a pattern to the elements if they were arranged by their masses. However, Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist, was the first to arrange them in groups and to organize them in a table. Mendeleev’s table was even able to predict several undiscovered elements by leaving spaces for these elements based on their properties. His accomplishment was very impressive, given how little the scientists of his time knew about atomic structure. For instance, they didn’t know there were electrons, neutrons, and protons all packed into the atoms of elements. The cards include all the information Mendeleev had about the chemical elements when he made the first periodic table. Make your own table of elements by making rows and columns with your cards. Arrange the cards using the properties of the elements and look for patterns. Draw here a diagram of your table (put only the chemical symbols and atomic masses). ACTIVITIES BUILD A TABLE REAL WORLD SCIENCE | 124 STUDENT WORKSHEET Se Br Rb Selenium Bromine Rubidium Gray or red solid Very reactive reddish liquid Reactive, soft gray metal Atomic Mass 79 Atomic Mass 80 Atomic Mass 85 Sr In Sn Strontium Indium Tin Soft silvery metal Soft silvery metal Silvery-white metal Atomic Mass 88 Atomic Mass 115 Atomic Mass 119 Sb Te I Antimony Tellurium Iodine Blue-white metallois, Silver-white metalloid, Reactive, purple solid semiconductor semiconductor Atomic Mass 127 Atomic Mass 122 Atomic Mass 128 B C N Boron Carbon Nitrogen Gray metalloid, Black solid (graphite) or Odorless gas, unreactive semiconductor transparent (diamond) Atomic Mass 14 Atomic Mass 11 Atomic Mass 12 H Li Be Hydrogen Lithium Beryllium Flammable Soft metal, reactive Grayish metal odorless gas Atomic Mass 7 Atomic Mass 9 Atomic Mass 1 125 | REAL WORLD SCIENCE BUILD A TABLE ACTIVITIES STUDENT WORKSHEET O F Na Oxygen Flourine Sodium Flammable, reactive Very reactive yellowish gas Soft, highly reactive metal odorless gas Atomic Mass 14 Atomic Mass 23 Atomic Mass 16 Mg Al Si Magnesium Aluminum Silicon Flammable gray metal Silvery metal Gray metalloid semiconductor Atomic Mass 24 Atomic Mass 27 Atomic Mass 28 P S Cl Phosphorus Sulfur Chlorine Spontaneously combustible Solid yellow powder Extremely reactive solid of variable color Atomic Mass 32 greenish gas Atomic Mass 31 Atomic Mass 35 K Ca As Potassium Calcium Arsenic Reactive soft metal Flammable silvery metal Gray metalloid Atomic Mass 39 Atomic Mass 40 Atomic Mass 74 ACTIVITIES BUILD A TABLE REAL WORLD SCIENCE | 126.

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