This unit introduces students to the the periodic table. They will learn that the periodic table is not just a list, but a pattern-rich guide to the properties of the elements. In this week’s Reader’s Theater, four friends are looking at a phone app that gives information about the periodic table. They learn that different regions of the periodic table have elements with similar properties, and they think about some examples that connect the different useful properties of different substances to different areas of the periodic
table.

In Speaking Scientifically, students learn about how Dmitri Mendeleev first organized the elements into a table. They learn that his organization of the elements was not arbitrary: when he lined the elements up in order of increasing “relative atomic mass,” he perceived
cycles—or periods—in their behavior that led to his tabular organization. The periodic table, in turn, allowed Mendeleev to predict the existence of undiscovered elements. Students do an exercise where they predict missing geometric figures in a table to help them understand the idea of periodicity and the predictive power of a periodic table.

In Inside, and Between, Atoms, students learn that atoms are made of subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. They learn that how many protons an atom has  determines what element it is, and that atoms bond with each other by sharing electrons.
In Setting the Periodic Table, students learn that if you organize atoms in a table according to their subatomic structure, you get the same table Mendeleev created based on the chemical behavior of the elements. The layout of the periodic table is a remarkably efficient notation of both the atomic structure and the chemical behavior of the elements.

In ELA, students learn about the name origins of some elements. In math, they get a very basic introduction to how chemists count atoms by weighing them. In social studies, they get a short introduction to the history of alchemy, the prescientific ancestor of chemistry.

(Teacher notes are available here.)