Periodic Table

[louculhane]

Hi there,
I am looking for an easy way to teach my son the periodic table, if there is one! He is in second year of secondary and he suffers from dyslexia so any suggestions would be really welcomed.

[cathfromsaron]

there isn't really a rhyme o know of, but why not learn one 'column' each week and make up his own rhyme relevant to him?

cath x

[HowardKennitby]

I am not sure what you mean by 'teach him'.
It is not something that is usually committed to memory, you just need to know how to use it and what the similarities between elements are.

[jake-the-peg]

There is - prize if you can learn it though!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFIvXVMbII0

[bobthefisherman]

It's not easy to explain, but I used a system of linking a picture or a memory to each one...
eg - Potassium (K) - I pictured my dad planting POTatoes - his first initial is K...
hope this makes sense....
bob.

[jomifl]

This or something similar might help

[HowardKennitby]

Ah! Tom Lehrer. They don't make them like that any more.

[Jonathan-Joe]

I found this http://www.funbrain.com/periodic/index.html
A search for "periodic table game" might show others.
But I doubt whether your son is expected to know all about the periodic table at second year level. Can you not look at his text books and homework and help him learn the symbol and Atomic Number of those elements that feature in lessons, perhaps with the characteristics shared by elements in each column? Can you speak to his chemistry teacher for advice?

[woofgang]

I agree, he needs to learn to use it and a bit about it but its not like multiplication tables, you don't need to recite it.

[echokilo]

Not sure if this will help but will be fun to try!!

[factor-fiction]

I still remeber the first 20 elements or so from 35-40 years ago. I learnt the chant H He Li Be B C N OF Ne Na Ma Al Si P S Cl Ar K Ca (H- He li beb cnof nena mag alsi... )

[HowardKennitby]

for Factor30

I wouldn't brag about that if I were you :-)

[Annna]

I got an periodic Table mouse mat for Christmas. I think they had it made, so when ever I am on the computer I take a look its a lovely colourful one, make sure that the full names are written underneath if you go for one, and that it is nice and colourful. x

[Lborobrewer]

In my personal opinion it is better to learn the elements by column, rather than the rows, as they are chemically similar, e.g. the alkali metals: Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium and Caesium; or the halogens: Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine and Astatine. The transistional elements are the most difficult to remember.

[Bert]

A lad at school noticed that the FeCoNiCuZn could be pronounced as a word, and that set me off to learn the elements up to krypton, element 36 - H-HeLiBeBCNOF, NeNaM-gAlSiPSCLAr, CaSc-TiV, CrMn, FeCoNiCuZn, GaGe-AsSe, BrKr. After that it gets unpronounceable. [CrMn pronounced 'crumun', GaGe pronounced 'gaggy', AsSe pronounced 'assy']
I had learned the symbols for most of the elements in my first year of chemistry.
I don't know what I did yesterday or last week, but I've remembered the first 36 elements for 50 years! And, no, it's never come in handy.

[louculhane]

Thanks everyone for your great advice I really appreciate it. Going to look through his books now and go through them as they come up. Plus a column at a time sounds good. Thanks again :)

[David H]

I'm late to the party but we had it on the wall in the school lab and as I was there every day for 2 years looking straight at it could hardly not pick up the elements at least. The second way to bring it alive was Time Life's book showing a picture and description of every element which I could work through and then relate a picture to a name.

The columns should follow next certainly for GCSE as each below has similar properties but more so, the sodium group being the easiest to remember as they all explode in water to some extent and pretty hard not to recall a small piece blowing up in water followed by potassium etc. The really dangerous ones can be watched on Youtube and blow the container apart as well. The noble gases are easy as they all do pretty much nothing and have ON at the end.

Then the magnesium group burn nicely with very bright flames and can learnt the colours from white to red etc (all used in fireworks so something else to relate to) and the halogens which are corrosive and highly reactive coloured smelly gases like chlorine and fluorine. The basis of reading the table on the wall for a year or two combined with familiarity with the commonly used elements will form a pretty good foundation, and can then add the rare earths like Yttrium, Ytterbium etc which are all very similar and group together, the unstable elements, the precious metals (gold, platinum, indium, silver etc) and you've pretty well covered all the main ones the exams use and more. The early set 1-16 or so also need to be memorised as hydrogen to carbon and nitrogen and between are exam favourites as most of them are in air and our bodies so pretty important, and can eliminate boron and beryllium just to know they exist.