1. What do all of these items have in common?
Pottery glaze
Saphires
Gemstones
Hair colour
What do all of these items have in common?
Emeralds

2. Answer:
They are all coloured by a type of element belonging to the TRANSITION METALS (shown in yellow). They need to form a compound with another element to produce the colour.
Draw the rough shape of this periodic table in your books, and colour in the transition metals

3. Use the samples and a periodic table to complete this table
Name of metal compound
Is the metal a transition metal?
Describe the colour

4. So, the transition metals form very colourful compounds with other elements.
Draw the samples of transition metals and colour them to the correct colour. Make sure you label them.

5. Transition metals have these properties
They are hard and strong
They make good electric cables
because they are good conductors
They are good catalysts.

6. What’s a catalyst?
A catalyst is a chemical which speeds up a reaction.
Hydrogen peroxide breaks down to water and oxygen over time. But adding a catalyst speeds it up.

7. Questions 1. Find Manganese on the periodic table. Where is it found?
2. What happened when you added manganese oxide to hydrogen peroxide last year?
3. Why did this happen?
4. What did this catalyst do to the reaction?

8. Which three of the following are properties of transition metals?
Hard, tough and strong
Low density
Low melting point
React quickly with water
Used as catalysts
Used in making electrical cables