Resources: Sticky notes and mini whiteboards. Materials for the Mission Assignment, such as building blocks - plastic connecting or polystyrene balls and cocktail sticks.
Core Handout: Handout contains space for students to draw their diagrams and answer questions.
Remind the students that atoms are the basic building blocks of matter and that they are the smallest unit of an element that retains the chemical properties of that element.
Ask the students how many different elements they know and what makes the elements different to each other. The students should discuss and have one minute to write down as many as they can.
Use the presentation slides to explain the difference between atoms, elements, molecules and compounds. The students should then build models of atoms, element and compounds using the provided resources and explain how the model represents an atom, element or compound.
Career Film: This is Chris Anwyl. Chris works as a Strategy Implementation Manager for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Expert Film: This is Chris Anwyl. Chris works as a Strategy Implementation Manager for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Listen to Chris as he explains the differences between atoms, elements and compounds.
The students will use building blocks to create simple models of atoms, elements and compounds. Once they have done this, they should draw diagrams of their models in the space provided on the handout and explain how they represent the three different definitions. They should then look at the diagrams below and answer the questions.
Support: The first sheet in the handout helps to explain key words that the students could use to help build their models.
Challenge: Task on handout - How do atoms, elements and compounds differ from chemical mixtures?
The students could draw examples of different mixtures, e.g mixture of elements, mixture of an element and a compound and mixtures of compounds.
The students should show the models that they have made and share their explanations. You could also show particle diagrams and get students to identify these as an atom, element or compound.
Everything is made from atoms. They are very, very small particles that are too small to even see under a microscope. The particles that make up the atom are known as electrons, protons and neutrons. Like cells, atoms have a nucleus at the centre. It is the nucleus that contains the neutrons and protons. Protons are positively charged, and neutrons don’t have any charge. The electrons are in orbit around the nucleus. They are attracted to the nucleus because of the positively charged protons. Electrons are negatively charged and way smaller than both the neutrons and the protons.
Elements are materials that are made up from only one type of atom. These cannot be broken down by chemical reactions into simpler substances. Examples include sodium, carbon, and iron. Elements are found in the periodic table and there are 118 known elements, although a few of these have only every been observed in a laboratory.
Compounds are substances that contain atoms of two or more different elements. These are joined together by chemical bonds that join the atoms together. Water is a good example. Water contains both oxygen and hydrogen. This means that it is made from atoms of different elements. This also means that it is a completely new substance. This means that its properties are different to that of the elements that were joined to make it. Let’s explore this, using sodium chloride as an example. Sodium chloride is a common compound. It is a salt which means that you probably consume it almost every day. However, if you break down the compound into their elements, it is a completely different story. Sodium on its own is super reactive and chlorine on its own is a very poisonous gas. So, you wouldn’t want to consume either of those. However, when they are joined together, they make the very edible salt.