The Atomic Dating Game
Dake Junior High school
West Irondequoit Central School District.
The Atomic Dating game is a lesson that is designed to allow students to determine patterns for atomic bonding and chemical reactivity. It is a standards based, hands-on, interactive lesson that motivates students by using a dating analogy to learn how atoms form ionic and covalent bonds.
New York State Standards:
- Standard 4 (Physical setting), Key Idea 3: Matter is made up of particles whose properties determine the observable characteristics of matter and its reactivity.
- Standard 6: Use models to study processes that cannot be studied directly. As students cannot see individual atoms, using a dating model will help students to visualize bonding at an atomic level.
|Day 1||Day 2|
Lesson Format: During a brief mini lesson, students are taught the octet rule- that atoms are stable with 8 valence electrons or a full energy level. Students begin a work period by creating an atomic model of Mr. Sodium. The dating game begins as students meet the eligible bachelors and bachelorettes. Students have until the end of Beyonce's song, "Single Ladies" to find an appropriate bachelorette for Mr. Sodium. This serves as the class model before students can work independently or in flexible groups to create additional couples. At the end of this lesson, all students must answer the same essential question based off of New York State Standards. Students could also begin to look for patterns between the elements that were "dating."
|Lesson Format: Prior to this lesson,
while learning about atomic models, protons, neutrons and electrons,
students created an atomic poster for a specific element.
Students begin the second day by incorporating these posters that they
have created. Students work with their posters to establish
additional bonding relationships. In the end, students analyzed
these relationships and worked collaboratively to create definitions of
ionic and covalent bonding based on the patterns they identified.
To demonstrate their understanding of bonding and relationships,
students created a Facebook page for an element of their choice.
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