Yup I said FUN! E9 has been doing a unit study on Marie Curie and he's gotten far enough to learn that she has been isolating some radioactive elements from an ore called pitchblende. She discovers polonium and radium and successfully isolates both.
Of course discussion of elements leads us to the Periodic Table of the Elements. Every chemist's dream and perhaps every chemistry student's nightmare!
I've done plenty of work with the table myself, but you know it is a fun tool especially if you really understand how it was put together and all the information about an element it can tell you. Just the placement of an element in the table tells you an awful lot about it.
The other day in the van on the way to get groceries we had quite a discussion on which elements are where and which ones are highly reactive and why they are right next to the noble gases (the elements that are super inert or non-reactive). Today E9 spent some time on this very cool site. Web Elements- is a site that allows you to interact with the table and if you click on an element, it gives you tons of facts about it plus a picture and it table information.
In the science reference above there is a wonderful two page layout of the Periodic Table and the quick links led us to web elements. This is definitely worth checking out if you are a fan of chemistry.
When I told Dan about it, he says he uses it at work to find out the resistivity of various elements. Can you believe he kept it a secret?
No comments:
Post a Comment