The periodic table and its fundamental properties

Rhenium

Rhenium is a chemical element with symbol Re and atomic number 75. It is a silvery-gray, heavy, third-row transition metal in group 7 of the periodic table. With an estimated average concentration of 1 part per billion (ppb), rhenium is one of the rarest elements in the Earth's crust. 

NA (Sodium)

Sodium is a chemical element with symbol Na (from Latin natrium) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table, because it has a single electron in its outer shell, which it readily donates, creating a positively charged ion.

Molybdenum

Molybdenum is a chemical element with symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The name is from Neo-Latin molybdaenum, from Ancient GreekΜόλυβδος molybdos, meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lead ores. Molybdenum does not occur naturally as a free metal on Earth.

Zinc

Zinc is a chemical element with symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is the 24th most abundant element in Earth's crust.

Tantalum

Tantalum is a chemical element with symbol Ta and atomic number 73. Previously known as tantalium, its name comes from Tantalus, a villain from Greek mythology.[5] Tantalum is a rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion-resistant.

Vanadium

Vanadium is a chemical element with symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, ductile, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature

Bismuth

Bismuth is a chemical element with symbol Bi and atomic number 83. It is a pentavalent post-transition metal

In today’s session, the periodic table and its fundamental properties were introduced to the students. The trends of properties such as atomic radius, ionization energy, and electron affinity were shown on the table.

Elements were categorized as metals, transition metals, and non-metals.

Lastly, the electron was introduced not as a particle, but as a combination of four quantum states. This is an advanced concept that the kids were able to grasp. An electron is defined by four quantum numbers: the principle quantum number, the angular momentum quantum number, the magnetic quantum number, and the spin quantum number. The integer values these numbers can have define the state an electron is in. The periodic table beautifully shows these states – it’s what makes the periodic table so fundamental and stunning in its seeming simplicity.

As an experiment, we carried out the reaction of sodium in water first at room temperature and then with near boiling water. When placed in water, elemental sodium is oxidized (it loses an electron) to form sodium chloride and hydrogen gas. (Hydrogen is reduced). This reaction is great because without telling the kids what the products are, they were able to deduce them based on observations. The gas rising from the water was correctly ruled not to be water vapor, but instead hydrogen gas, which comes from water molecules. The sodium metal disappeared, which means it must have changed into something that dissolves. By looking at the periodic table, the kids deduced that sodium “wants” to lose an electron, so it probably changed to Na+1, which readily dissolves in water. As it turns out, the kids were spot on! As a bonus, we added sodium metal to very hot water to show the explosiveness of the reaction. Just a tiny amount of sodium produced flying sparks!