(here's one I prepared earlier at http://www.ausetute.com.au/pertable.html )
This activity is designed to let students have some fun while they use a Periodic Table to extract information about elements (names, symbols, atomic number and atomic weight).
Ask the students a question.
Students use a Periodic Table find the answers.
After doing a few of these, the students will usually start making up their own questions and answers.
They can try out their questions/answers on their fellow students (and you!).
Names from Symbols
1. Question: What is candy made of?
Answer: calcium, nitrogen and dysprosium (Ca N Dy )
2. Question: What ingredients do you need to make chocolate?
Answer: carbon, holmium, cobalt, lanthanum, tellurium (C Ho Co La Te)
3. Question: What elements make up a body?
Answer: boron, oxygen, dysprosium (B O Dy)
4. Question: What makes up the atmosphere?
Answer: astatine, molybdenum, sulfur, phosphorus, helium, rhenium (At Mo S P He Re)
5. Question: Prove that these elements are compounds!
- xenon (It's made up of xenon, nobelium nitrogen, Xe No N)
- neon (It's made up of neon, oxygen, nitrogen, Ne O N)
- iron (It's made up of iridium, oxygen, nitrogen, Ir O N)
- copper (It's made up of cobalt, phosphorus (twice), erbium, Co P P Er)
- silver (It's made up of sulfur, iodine, livermorium, erbium, S I Lv Er)
- arsenic (It's made up of argon, selenium, nitrogen, iodine, carbon, Ar Se N I C)
6. Question: What is the most negative element?
Answer: nobelium, it always spells No
Symbols from Names
1. Question: What fruit is made up of 1 part barium and two parts sodium?
Answer: Ba Na Na
2. Question: Can you use potassium, nickel and iron to cut an apple?
Answer: Yes because they make a K Ni Fe
3. Question: If you add some fluorine, uranium and nitrogen to a game, what will happen?
Answer: It will be more F U N !
4. Question: What natural fiber is made up of lithium, neon and nitrogen?
Answer: Li Ne N
5. Question: What sort of jokes do chemists make out of cobalt, radon, and yttrium?
Answer: Co Rn Y jokes.
Symbols from Atomic Numbers (crack the code)
1. Code: 1,18,15
Clue: A heavenly musical instrument?
Answer: harp, H (Z=1), Ar ( Z=18), P (Z=15)
2. Code: 66, 7, 95, 53, 52
Clue: Explosive stuff!
Answer: dynamite, Dy(Z=66), N(Z=7), Am(Z=95), I(Z=53), Te(Z=52)
3. Code: 20, 28, 10
Clue: What a cat is afraid of?
Answer: canine, Ca(Z=20), Ni(Z=28), Ne(Z=10)
4. Code: 1, 85
Clue: Head covering?
Answer: hat, H(Z=1), At(Z=85)
5. Code: 67, 8, 19
Clue: Somewhere to hang your coat?
Answer: hook, Ho(Z=67), O(Z=8), K(Z=19)
Molecular Weight from Symbols
1. Question: What is a Chemist's favourite number?
Answer: 315.02 because it is Lu C K Y (175 + 12.01 + 39.1 + 88.91 = 315.02)
2. Question: What is the molecular weight of a gene?
Answer: 92.82 because it's made up of Ge and Ne (72.64 + 20.18 = 92.82)
3. Question: What is the value of life?
Answer: 62.791 Li Fe (6.941 + 55.85 = 62.791)
4. Question: What does a boy weigh?
Answer: 115.72 B O Y (10.81 + 16.00 + 88.91 = 115.72)
5. Question: How heavy is a phone?
Answer: 68.158 P H O Ne (30.97 + 1.008 + 16.00 + 20.18 = 68.158)
Words You Can Make Using the First Twenty Elements Only
- Al O Ne
- Ar C
- Ar K
- B Ar
- B Ar K
- B Ar N
- Be Ar
- B Li N K
- B Li S S
- B O Ar
- B O Ne
- B O O K
- B O S S
- Ca B
- C Al F
- Ca N
- Ca N Al
- Ca Ne
- Ca N O N
- Ca P
- C Ar
- C Ar B O N
- Ca S H
- C H O O K
- C H O P
- C Li C K
- C Li F F
- C Li N K
- Cl O C K
- Cl O Ne
- C O B
- C O Ne
- C O O K
- C O S H
- F Ar
- F Li C K
- F Li P
- F O Al
- H Al F
- H Al O
- H Ar K
- H Ar P
- He Al
- He Ar
- H O C K
- H O N K
- H O P
- K Na C K
- K N O B
- K N O C K
- Li Ar
- Li C K
- Li Ne
- Li N K
- Li P S
- Li S P
- Na B
- Na P
- Ne O N
- Ne P Al
- N O O K
- O Ne
- O P Al
- P Al
- P Ar
- P Ar K
- P H O Ne
- P O P
- S Ca N
- S C O Ne
- S He
- S He Ar
- Si C K
- Si N
- Si N K
- S Li C K
- S Li P
- S Na C K
- S Na P
- S O B
- S O C K
- S O N Ar
- S P O O K
