Download File - A. Hall Teaching Site

Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching
Title of Lesson: The Atomic Story
UFTeach Students’ Names: Dianet Falcon and Anna Hall
Teaching Date and Time: 1:45, November 1st
Length of Lesson: 50 minutes
Grade / Topic: 8th grade advanced science, history of the atomic theory
Source of the Lesson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO9CKkbLUiI, Physical Science textbook by
Glencoe/McGraw Hill (Florida Edition)
Appropriateness for Middle School Students: This lesson engages the students’ natural preference to stories,
since this is more of a history topic. The lesson also reinforces the idea that scientific theories are developed
and changed over time through debate and experimentation by the scientific community. Students will be
actively engaged in the lesson as they will be seeing if they can figure it all out for themselves before being
told specifically the material. The students will also work on communication skills as they work together
throughout the lesson in collaborative groups. Several learning preferences will be addressed including visual
(the banner is a graphic organizer), auditory (talking about the facts), and interpersonal (working in groups).
The students will be further engaged in the exploration due to the physical movement and competitive aspect
of the exploration.
Concepts: The atomic story starts with Democritus. He named the atom with the word atomos when he first proposed
the idea of matter being made up of tiny particles. He determined that atoms cannot be divided, created or destroyed.
He also determined that there is empty space between atoms.
Democritus held the unpopular opinion of the time. The very influential philosopher Aristotle’s theory about the
atom was more accepted. He believed that matter was made up of fire, water, air, and earth rather than atoms.
Democritus’s theories were ignored for hundreds of years until Dalton decided to take a better look at his ideas.
He was a school teacher in England at the time. Through tests, Dalton realized that atoms of one element cannot be
converted into atoms of another element. He also realized that atoms of one element are identical to each other but
different from atoms of another element. The last thing he added to the atomic theory was that atoms combine in
specific ratios.
Thomson was next to add to the theory. He discovered electrons and protons as well as the plum pudding model
of the atom. He did this by using the cathode ray tube experiment.
Rutherford furthered the atomic theory with his gold foil experiment. With this, he discovered that atoms have a
nucleus as well as that the electrons travel around the free space surrounding the nucleus. This disproved the plum
pudding model of the atom. Rutherford also determined that the nucleus holds most of the mass in the atom.
Chadwick discovered the neutron.
Bohr studied hydrogen atoms to come up with the energy level theories of atomic structure. This led to the
knowledge of different energy levels of electrons within the electron cloud that have different amounts of energy.
Florida State Standards (NGSSS) with Cognitive Complexity:
Benchmark Number
Benchmark Description
SC.8.N.1.6
Understand that scientific investigations involve the
collection of relevant empirical evidence, the use of
logical reasoning, and the application of imagination in
devising hypotheses, predictions, explanations and
models to make sense of the collected evidence.
Cognitive Complexity
Level: 2
Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching
Performance Objectives: Students will be able to:
 Compare and contrast two different models of atoms.
 Describe how the scientific community worked to develop the atomic theory.
Materials List and Student Handouts
 Big Banner or banner paper. Three poster boards also work. Just put two scientists on each.
 28 Smaller card stock rectangles (about 1/3 the size of a letter sized sheet of paper) – needs to be in 6
different colors
 Sticky tack
 3 Red cardstock x’s and 14 green card stock check marks. Should not be too big, but needs to able to
be seen clearly from the around the entire classroom.
 Candy
 Enter/exit tickets
 Notes work sheets
Advance Preparations
 The banner needs to have each of the contributors’ (of the atomic theory) names spread out across the
top. Then, there should be enough rectangles the size of the small rectangular sheets of paper drawn
under each contributor’s name for each of the facts being presented about him and his work.
 Little globs of sticky tack needs to be put on each end of the drawn rectangles on the banner so that
the cardstock rectangles can be stuck onto the banner. Sticky tack should also be applied to the back of
each x and check mark.
 Each rectangle of paper needs to have a fact about a contributor and/or his work on the atomic theory.
There should be 6 groupings of these facts. The facts in each grouping should not all be about the same
scientist, but rather be a random assortment from all the scientists. Each grouping of facts needs to be
on the same colored paper.
 Photocopy Enter/Exit tickets and notes worksheets. 1 per student.
Safety
 Remind students not run or push each other as they complete the exploration so as not to accidently
hurt one another as they move about the class room.
Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching
5E Lesson:
Engagement
Time: 10 minutes
What the Teacher Will Do Teacher Directions and Probing Questions Student Responses/Possible
Misconceptions
Hand the students their
“Hello, everyone! As you come in you may
enter tickets as they walk start working on your enter tickets”
through the door
Present the video
Today we will be talking about the
[Rutherford did the Gold Foil
imitation of Rutherford’s
different scientists and their discoveries.
Experiment]
Gold Foil Experiment
First of all, who will tell me the name of
the Scientist who made the Gold Foil
Experiment?
Discuss the discovery of
What did Ernest Rutherford discover with That there are alpha
the nucleus through the
this experiment?
particles. There isn’t empty
Gold Foil Experiment
space in the atoms.
[There is a nucleus in the
center of the atom ]
Tell the students to think Now we’re going to show you a video.
about how this video
Think about how this video relates to the
relates to the gold foil
gold foil experiment.
experiment.
Discuss how this video
What represents the alpha particles in this [Alpha particles=Balls
relates to the Gold Foil
video? The gold foil? The alpha particle
The Gold Foil=The Human
Experiment
source?
Alpha Source=Ball Thrower]
Exploration
Time: 10-15 minutes
What the Teacher Will Do Teacher Directions and Probing Questions Student Responses/Possible
Misconceptions
Introduce the activity.
We have a bit of a surprise for you guys.
There is going to be a competition for you
to be in with a team about the atomic
story.
Put the students into six
Now, let’s split up into our teams. Mrs.
What team am I on? Where
team, one per scientist.
Freeman will tell you what team you’re on. do I sit? Will I need a pencil
for this?
Explain the directions for Each group will receive some pictures or
the competition.
facts that relate to the contributors to the
Put up introduction slide
atomic theory. Your job is to talk to your
of the PowerPoint.
teammates and place these in the correct
location on the banner we have up on the
board. They should just attach with the
sticky tack already on the banner. It will
work best if you decide what goes where
and then send one person up to put the
pieces on the banner.
Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching
Check the students’
understanding of
instructions.
Explain the prize!
Teacher will circulate and
ask probing questions.
Somebody please repeat the directions for
the class.
(repeats directions)
The group with all of the papers in the
correct place first get a prize! (Candy—for
the Halloween Spirit) That being said,
remember that there is absolutely no
running or pushing in the classroom.
Give hints to students if they appear stuck
such as “Does that make chronological
sense?” or “Do we think to be true today?
If so, should it before or after this fact that
we don’t believe to be true anymore in the
timeline?”
How will we know if we
won?
We can’t figure it out.
Did we get ours right?
Explanation
Time: 20-25 minutes
What the Teacher Will Do Teacher Directions and Probing Questions Student Responses/Possible
Misconceptions
Pass out note taking
We are passing out a paper for you to take Do we have to notes? (yes)
papers.
notes on as we continue on in the lesson.
Begin by explaining the
You have already been introduced to the
conditions of the early
idea of atoms, and know what they are.
philosophers
That means you are already ahead of the
contemplating matter.
philosophers of Greece. That is where our
history of the atom will start.
Put up PowerPoint slides
One of the first people to publish ideas
Students will take turns
with the information
about the atom was a man named
reading the facts as the
about each scientist.
Democritus. Who would like to read one
lesson goes on.
Progress through the
of the facts about Democritus we have up
PowerPoint as you
on the banner?
progress through the
scientists.
Have students share what
they collectively put on
the banner for
Democritus.
How did you decide that that fact goes
Students will explain their
there?
reasoning behind each fact
placement as the lesson goes
on.
As the students read each (Named the atom) Democritus indeed
[He had the earliest, mostly
fact and explain their
named the atom. His name for the tiny
accurate theory about the
reasoning, expand upon
little things he believed the universe to
atom.]
the information each fact made up of atomos. Why did we decide to
contains.
keep his name for the atom?
Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching
(Atoms cannot be created, divided, or
destroyed.) We know most of this is true
today. However, one of these
characteristics of atoms ended up being
disproved. Which characteristic was later
disproved?
Correct. (Put a check on the correct
characteristics and an x on the incorrect
one on the banner. Continue doing this
throughout the lesson.) What happens
when we do split an atom?
(There is empty space between atoms.)
Was Democritus correct in this?
Democritus also believed that different
types of matter came from different types
of atoms with similar properties. For
example, how do you think Democritus
would describe matter made out of
smooth atoms?
We’ll talk about how accurate he was
about this later.
Have students share what
they collectively put on
the banner for Aristotle.
Have students share what
they collectively put on
the banner for Dalton.
The next scientist in our story is Aristotle.
Who would like to read the first Aristotle
fact?
(Matter is made of the four elements.)
This was the popular idea of the time. Was
it true?
(Was a very influential philosopher.)
Democritus and Aristotle were alive about
the same time. As you can see, they
disagreed greatly about the properties of
matter. Aristotle also contradicted
Democritus on whether or not empty
space even exists. Why did Aristotle’s
ideas win out over Democritus’s for 200
years?
Let’s move onto the next scientist: Dalton.
Atoms can be created
because we can bond them
together to make molecules.
[Atoms can be divided.]
Nothing.
Creation of new atoms
[Huge explosions.]
[Yes!]
Rough
Solid
liquid
[smooth]
[No!]
Aristotle was smarter.
Democritus didn’t publish
his findings.
[Aristotle a was more
popular philosopher than
Democritus, so people were
more likely to believe him]
[Democritus didn’t have the
technology to perform
experiments that could
prove his theories]
Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching
(Was an English Schoolteacher.) Dalton
taught math, but he was also very
interested in meteorology. And of course,
he was interested in atomic structure. He
started to look into Democritus’s ideas.
This time, there was enough technology
for him to start proving these ideas.
(Atoms of one element cannot be
It had something to do with
converted into atoms of another element.) the elixir of life.
Who has heard of alchemy?
[Alchemy is turning rocks
into gold.]
Does this idea disprove the theory of
[Yes! Because alchemy
alchemy?
meant that the atoms had to
change to form the different
elements, but Dalton
disproved that.]
(Atoms of one element are identical to
each other but different from atoms of
another element.)Democritus also thought
this when he was talking about smooth
atoms producing smooth materials, but
Dalton refined the idea to what we think
today. We now know that all atoms look
mostly the same, but have different
numbers of protons and neutrons.
(Atoms combine in specific ratios.)What
Bonding
do we get when we combine atoms?
[Compounds]
[Molecules]
Have students share what
they collectively put on
the banner for Thomson.
JJ Thomson also added to the atomic
theory. Let’s talk about what he did.
(Used cathode rays.)
Describe the set-up of the experiment.
What were the rays made of?
(There are smaller particles than atoms!)
Somebody please name the subatomic
particles.
(Discovered Electrons and Protons)
Thomson noticed that the rays were the
same no matter what metal he used to
produce the ray. He put this together with
the fact that the tubes were made up of
tiny particles to come up with idea of
negatively charged particles. Do atoms
Light
atoms
[Electrons]
[Proton, neutron, electron]
[No, they do not. Ions have
charges, not atoms]
Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching
have charges?
Thomson also knew this. He then realized [Protons]
that there must also be positively charged
particles in an atom. What did he call
these particles?
(Developed the Plum Pudding Model.)
[No! There is empty space
Putting all of these ideas together,
inside the atom.]
Thomson created the plum pudding
model. It said that an atom was a whole
bunch of positively charged material in the
shape of a sphere with the little electrons
spread out in it. It looked like pudding with
raisons in it, hence the name. Was he right
about this?
Have students share what
they collectively put on
the banner for
Rutherford.
Now we are to Rutherford’s part of the
story!
(Did the gold foil experiment)
Thinking back to the video we watched at
the beginning of class, who would like to
describe Rutherford’s gold foil experiment
to the class again?
(Discovered the nucleus) Who will tell me
what is in the nucleus?
(Electrons travel in empty space around
the nucleus.) How did Rutherford decide
this?
(Most of the atom’s mass is in the
nucleus.) Do all of these findings still hold
true today?
Have students discuss the
information provided for
them about Chadwick.
The next scientist we will discuss wasn’t
on our banner, but if you look at the
PowerPoint, we have a couple of facts
about him. His name was Charles
Chadwick. Who would like to read the first
fact?
Explains the experiment.
Smaller atoms
[Protons and neutrons]
[Because most of the
particles went straight
through the foil without
being deflected, meaning
they went through empty
space. They were only
deflected when they hit the
positively charges nucleus.]
[Yes!]
Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching
(was Rutherford’s colleague) He built upon [YES!]
Rutherford’s work. In fact, the atomic
theory was developed entirely by one
scientist building on another scientist’s
work. Is this true of the entire scientific
community and all of our scientific
knowledge?
(Discovered the neutron.) Where are the
Around the nucleus
neutrons in the atom?
[The nucleus]
Have students share what
they collectively put on
the banner for Bohr.
Our story ends with the chapter on Bohr.
Let’s talk about what he did.
(Discovered that some elements give off
different colors under a flame.) This is
called the flame test. It can be used to
identify different metals in solution. Bohr
found it interesting because he wanted to
know why the different colors were
produced.
(Studied hydrogen atoms) Why do you
think he studied a hydrogen atom?
(Electrons move in energy levels.) These
are circular orbits around the nucleus.
Does anybody know what all the energy
levels and orbits of an atom collectively
are called?
(Electrons closer to the nucleus have less
energy than electrons farther away from
the nucleus.) How do you think he tested
this theory?
Elaboration
There is a lot of hydrogen in
the world.
It is easy to see.
[It only has one electron,
making studying the
electrons easier.]
[The electron cloud]
He watched the electrons.
[He added electric energy to
the atoms, and observed the
behavior of the electrons.
When they had more
energy, the electrons
jumped to energy levels
farther away from the
nucleus.]
(Light is released when an electrons
[The different amounts of
returns to a lower energy level.)What does light is what produced the
this light have to do with the flame test?
different colored flames.]
Time: 5 minutes
Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching
What the Teacher Will Do Teacher Directions and Probing Questions
Ask students about the
kinds of tools we use to
study atoms today.
We have come a long way in discovering
what the structure of an atom is, but we
have also come a long way in our
technological advancements.
Who will remind everybody why
Democritus was not able to convince the
people of his time of his ideas about the
atom?
Unlike Democritus, we can prove our
atomic theories today because we have
the right kind of technologies available.
Who would like to name one?
Good! We now have a high powered
microscope called a scanning tunnel
microscope that lets us trace the surface
of a piece of matter and therefore see the
shape of the atoms on the surface.
Talk about the
As we have talked about today, scientists
importance of actually
proved the existence of atoms long before
seeing atoms even though we had the STM. What are some reasons
we have already proven
why it is important for scientists to be able
their existence.
to see atoms even after their existence
had been verified by scientific
experiments?
Evaluation
What the Teacher Will Do Teacher Directions and Probing Questions
Thank the students for
their participation and
give instructions for the
enter/exit ticket.
Student Responses/Possible
Misconceptions
[He did not have the
technology to prove his
theories.]
[Aristotle was more popular]
cathode ray tube
[A high powered
microscope(STM)]
[We are still discovering new
atoms]
[Scientists wanted to see the
shapes of atoms and how
they interact with one
another.]
Time: 5 minutes
Student Responses/Possible
Misconceptions
Thanks everybody for another great
lesson! Take out your enter/exit tickets
again and complete the exit ticket. When
you have finished, bring them up here
along with your note paper and put them
in the basket. You will get your notes back
next week to study with.
Attach any assessments and handouts as additional pages in this document. Do not submit
them as separate files!
Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching
The Atomic Story
Enter Ticket:
In the Venn diagram below, compare and contrast Democritus’ and Aristotle’s models
or ideas of the atomic theory. Include at least three facts on each side of the diagram,
and at least one fact that both scientists agreed on in the middle of the diagram. Make
sure to label your diagram!
How did the scientific community work to develop the atomic theory?
Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching
Exit Ticket
In the Venn diagram below, compare and contrast Thomson’s and Rutherford’s models
or ideas of the atomic theory. Include at least three facts on each side of the diagram,
and at least one fact that both scientists agreed on in the middle of the diagram. Make
sure to label your diagram!
How did the scientific community work to develop the atomic theory?
Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching
The Atomic Story
Note Sheet
Scientist
Notes
Step 1/2: Explorations in Mathematics and Science Teaching