The submitter of our highlighted lesson received a $50 honorarium. See our guidelines to submit your lesson plan!

Subject: Science, Ed. Technology, Vocational Ed, Computers
Grade: 6-8

Brief Description

Using a Web site about the periodic table of elements, students create spreadsheets representing elements and their properties. Students also create graphs that compare the physical properties of the elements.

Objectives

Students

• enter elements into spreadsheet
• create graphs illustrating the physical properties of different elements
• copy their graphs into a word processing program.

Keywords

elements, periodic table of elements, spreadsheets, graphs

Materials Needed

computer(s) with spreadsheet software, word processing program, and Internet access

Lesson Plan

• Students visit the Web site Chemical Elements.com to gather information about ten elements. Students click on the element symbol and compile the data on the Basic Information page for each element. The information gathered will include the following: abbreviations, boiling point, melting point, number of protons, number of neutrons.
• Students create spreadsheets using the information gathered about each element.
• Students then create graphs illustrating and comparing some of the information they entered on the spreadsheet. For example, students create graphs illustrating and comparing the boiling points, melting points, and number of protons for the elements studied.
• Students copy and paste their graphs into a word-processing program.
• End the lesson by having students write paragraphs about the results of their research.

Assessment

Grade students on how well they collect data, create spreadsheets, paste the information into a word processing program, and write paragraphs about the results.

Lesson Plan Source

Submitted By

Nisa Peek , Hickory Middle School, Chesapeake, Virginia

The submitter of our highlighted lesson received a $50 honorarium. See our guidelines to submit your lesson plan!