For first-year college students, undergraduate chemistry courses can feel daunting. Even for science majors, the jump from high school to college chemistry can be mountainous. And yet, one of the first lessons typically taught is how to interpret the periodic table of elements, which, at its best, is visually intimidating.
Now, Gregory Watson and colleagues have found a way around that. The professors have been able to increase their students’ comprehension of the Periodic Table of Elements by using “pseudo” periodic tables filled with superheroes, foods and iPad apps.
“Presenting the periodic table in a memorable and familiar manner reduces stress, reinforces knowledge-building and motivates and increases determination to succeed, which are vital factors in student success,” the authors explain in their paper, recently published in ACS’ Journal of Chemical Education.
Wanting to move away from presenting the table in a complex historical manner, the researchers focused instead on creating a series of tables with familiar—even fun—topics. The pseudo periodic versions replaced elements with single items to demonstrate one or more concepts needed to understand the trends and layout of the real chemical one.
For example, a superhero table featuring characters such as Superman, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern prompted in-class discussions on how to group the icons by ability, strength, gender and other properties—just as the elements are arranged by similarities in the real periodic table.
Meanwhile, the Table of iPad Apps illustrated color coding and grouping of objects/apps, and the Table of Meat demonstrated groups, numbering, abbreviations and color-coding. The Table of Fruit and Nuts, pictured above, demonstrated that objects can be placed based on physical characteristics and trends.
“In this case, transitions across the table, from left to right, become less fruity and ‘more nutty’, or from right to left, less nutty and ‘more fruity’, which is an analogy to transitioning from metallic to nonmetallic elements across the periodic table,” the researchers write. “As well, transitioning down the table, results in an increase in size, which is an analogy to atomic size changes in the periodic table. Transitioning across the table from left to right results in objects also becoming smaller in size.”
In feedback surveys, more than 75% of students said the pseudo tables were extremely useful, very useful or somewhat useful in helping to understand the real Periodic Table of Elements. Specifically, they found lessons on grouping elements together using color coding and trends across and down the periodic table to be helpful. Less than 5% of students said the pseudo table lessons were not useful.
This novel approach to the Periodic Table of Elements is now in its fourth iteration and delivery at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. Comparing scores on a mid-semester exam from before the teaching strategy to after showed over a 15% increase in correct answers—from 68% to 84%.
While the alternative teaching method was developed at the collegiate level, the researchers say delivery of the tables could be adapted to any level of the education system.
Photo: A fruit and nut pseudo periodic table was used to explain trends across and down the periodic table of elements. Credit: Adapted from Journal of Chemical Education 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c01143