This interactive periodic table shows the relationships among the elements and illustrates the electron configurations responsible for each element's chemical properties. In the "Mystery Elements" section, students identify and place unknown elements in their correct location on the table, based on their physical and reactive characteristics.

An interactive periodic table that provides not just the basic information, but also information about where the element can be found and how it is used.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 8th Grade Science. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 8th Grade Science. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 8th Grade Science.

In this activity, students are reminded that the Universe is made up of elements and that the heavier elements are created inside of a star, as they learned in the "Elements and You" activity. They are introduced to the life cycle of a star and to the way in which a star's mass affects its process of fusion and eventual death. Students discuss the physical concept of equilibrium as a balancing of forces and observe an experiment to demonstrate what happens to a soda can when the interior and exterior forces are not in equilibrium. An analogy is made between this experiment and core collapse in stars, to show the importance of maintaining equilibrium in stars. Finally, students participate in an activity which demonstrates how mass is ejected from a collapsed star in a supernova explosion, thereby dispersing heavier elements throughout the Universe. This activity is part of a series that has been designed specifically for use with Girl Scouts, but the activities can be used in other settings. Most of the materials are inexpensive or easily found. It is recommended that a leader with astronomy knowledge lead the activities, or at least be available to answer questions, whenever possible.

In this lab activity, students will be asked to observe and then test the properties of several different elements. In their observations they will be looking for the physical state, whether it is shiny or dull, and whether it appears malleable or brittle. For some of the elements they will also test the conductivity, malleability, and reactivity with dilute acid. From their data, they classify each element as a metal, a non-metal or a metalloid. Results will be color coded on a periodic table (e.g. Blue for metals, yellow for non-metals, and green for metalloids). They will use this to determine trends for metallic properties of the elements.