HOW DO YOU RECOGNIZE AN ELEMENT?

AN ELEMENT IS A BUILDING BLOCK OF MATTER. AN ELEMENT IS A SUBSTANCE THAT CAN NOT BE BROKEN DOWN INTO SIMPLER SUBSTANCES.

EACH ELEMENT IS GIVEN A SYMBOL. THESE ARE SHOWN IN THE PERIODIC TABLE.

THE PERIODIC TABLE IS THE COLLECTION OF ELEMENTS ARRANGED IN A SERIES OF ROWS AND COLUMNS. ELEMENTS WITHIN THE SAME ROW ARE SAID TO BE IN THE SAME PERIOD. THE ELEMENTS FOUND IN THE SAME COLUMN IN THE PERIODIC TABLE ARE SAID TO BE IN THE SAME FAMILY OR GROUP.

AN ELEMENT SYMBOL IS A CAPITAL LETTER OR A CAPITAL LETTER FOLLOWED BY A LOWER CASE LETTER. THE SECOND LETTER OF A SYMBOL IS USUALLY THE SECOND OR THIRD LETTER FOUND IN THE NAME OF THAT ELEMENT. SOMETIMES THE ELEMENT SYMBOL IS BASED ON THE LATIN WORD FOR THAT ELEMENT NAME.

WHEN YOU WRITE THE SYMBOL OF AN ELEMENT IT MEANS ONE ATOM OF THAT ELEMENT. SO, FE MEANS ONE ATOM OF IRON, F MEANS ONE ATOM OF FLUORINE AND SI MEANS ONE ATOM OF SILICON!

ACTIVITY

LOOK AT A COPY OF THE PERIODIC TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS. FIND THREE ELEMENTS WHOSE SYMBOL CONSISTS OF THE FIRST AND THIRD LETTER OF THE ELEMENTS NAME.

SEARCH THE INTERNET TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PERIODIC TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS AND ELEMENT SYMBOLS. DO YOUR OWN SEARCH OR CHECK OUT THE SITES BELOW:

1. ONE

2. TWO

3. THREE

ASSIGNMENT

IT IS IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO RECOGNIZE THE NAMES OF COMMON ELEMENTS AS WELL AS THEIR SYMBOLS. ALSO, WHEN YOU WRITE AN ELEMENT NAME YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO SPELL IT CORRECTLY. TO HELP YOU BUILD THIS SKILL, DO THE TWO EXERCISES BELOW.

TRANSLATE ELEMENT SYMBOLS TO ELEMENT NAMES

TRANSLATE ELEMENT NAMES TO SYMBOLS

ASSESSMENT

YOUR FUTURE ASSIGNMENTS AND EXPERIMENTS WILL REQUIRE THAT YOU WORK WITH ELEMENT NAMES AND OR ELEMENT SYMBOLS. YOUR UNIT TEST WILL ALSO REQUIRE YOU TO SHOW THIS SKILL.