After instruction on the basic structure of the atom, students can participate in this active model as a review or assessment.
Only use as many of each type of card as necessary for a given class.
Give students the following instructions:
We just learned yesterday about how an atom is built. Today you are going to build an atom, but you are not going to build it on your desks. YOU are going to be the electrons, protons, and neutrons!
Instructions to give orally:
Students will be instructed to complete the first trial of this activity.
After the students have found the location they believe is correct, review (with student input) the locations of the proton, neutron, and electron. The students may remember(from recent instruction) that the proton and neutron are in the nucleus and the electron is outside. Give students who are in the wrong place, time to adjust their position.
Trial 2: Have Students repeat this activity after passing the card to the person who normally sits to the right. If the seating arrangement in your room is such that this won’t work, use another method to make sure all fo the students have the opportunity to “be” each part of the atom.
Trial 3: Again, have students pass the card to the person who normally sits to the right. Repeat the activity.
After the 3rd round of the activity, have students sit down but keep the label they each have. Ask – Think about the part of the atom that you represent right now, what is it’s charge? Students will indicate which charge the subatomic part on their label has by lifting fingers as follows:
The instructor should assess quickly the accuracy of the answers students give, and review the charges as necessary. If time allows, have students pass the cards again (but this time to the right) and determine charge of the part of the atom with a new label. This may be repeated 3 times if time allows and deemed valuable. so that each student will review the charge of each subatomic particle.
High School
PS1- A Structure and Properties of Matter
This activity was adapted from the 8th Grade Science Fusion book (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015) by Paul Carlson, a student teacher, at TSBVI. Many thanks to Paul for sharing his ideas.
By Laura Hospitál
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