The Elements ...a quick 5 minute lesson

What do we know about the elements? How many are there? What’s the most common element? How do they exist? What’s the deal with the Periodic Table? Any other questions?

How many are there? As of now there are 118 elements. There’s some dispute over how many exist “naturally.” Some say 91 or 92 elements are found naturally (although recently some elements have been found in very tiny amounts so that number can be heard as 98). Scientists expect more will be synthesized in the future…..but that may take a while as they’re hard to make

2. What’s the most common element? In the Universe? Hydrogen (H) accounts for about 75% of the Universe’s normal matter. On Earth? Iron (Fe) makes up an estimated 35% of the Earth’s mass. Oxygen (O) accounts for 46.1% of the Earth’s crust and 30% of the mass of the entire Earth. In Humans? Oxygen (O) makes up about 65% of our total body weight (mostly found in water)

3. How do they exist? Long story short, the lightest five elements, hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium and boron, were mostly created in the Big Bang that started the universe. Anything heavier had to be made inside stars through fusion. But many of the elements in the periodic table are instead made in the intense environment of an exploding star or "supernova". When scientists want to make new elements, they have to use particle accelerators to boost colliding atoms to enormous speeds, perhaps a tenth of the speed of light.

4. What’s the deal with the Periodic Table? As Theodore Grey said, “The Periodic Table is the universal catalogue of everything you can drop on your foot” Although at times it looks pretty dull up there, the Periodic Table is one of the greatest achievements in Science. We’ll be learning a lot more about how it is organized later in this unit. For now, we’re going to explore some of the different elements.

You will collect the following information on your “Info Sheet” and include it on your Google Slide: o Name of the element o Symbol o Atomic Number o Atomic Mass o Melting point o Boiling point o Normal phase at room temperature (solid, liquid, gas) o Cost per gram o Who? Where? When was it discovered? o A list of common uses (minimum of three) o Find some bizarre fact about your element - something you believe is unique and relatively unknown by the general population. o A picture of the element o A picture related to one of the element’s uses. o An original poem, pun or slogan related to your element Your task Objective: During this class, you will have the opportunity to adopt and become an expert on one of the 118 elements of our universe. This information will be presented on a Google Slide that the class will share.

Rubric for Activity