Engage
Mystery Message
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Students engage in decoding a message. Later in the lesson, students will compare the decoder tool to the Periodic Table. The decoded message should read “Letters are to words as elements are to compounds.” Students will be asked to explain this analogy later in the lesson. Throughout this lesson, the Periodic Table is shown as a tool to help “decode” compounds and elements. |
Explore
Getting the Know You
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Student are introduced to and given examples of elements and compounds through the video They Must Be Giants—Meet the Elements. |
Explain 1
Anticipation Guide
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Students begin the Explain by completing the Before Learning section of the Anticipation Guide. The Anticipation Guide helps students focus on the important differences between elements and compounds. |
Explain 2
Elements and Compounds
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Students watch a video that explains the differences between elements and compounds. Teachers are encouraged to help students understand the differences between compounds (chemically combined) and mixtures (physically combined). Mixtures are included in the grade 3, 4, and 5 TEKS. The terms atoms and molecules are introduced to students. Students should be encouraged to take notes in their journals. Students revisiting the anticipation guide and complete the After Learning column. The anticipation guide and an answer key are available in Related Items. |
Explain 3
Characteristics of Elements and Compounds
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Students work through an interactive card sort, sorting element and compound descriptors. |
Elaborate 1
Decoding Symbols and Chemical Formulas
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Students watch a video that models decoding the elements found in compounds and introduces the use of models to represent elements and compounds. Students are shown that subscripts represent atoms of each element, but this is not the focus of the lesson, nor should students determine the number of atoms in a compound in sixth grade. After viewing the video, students complete an interactive activity to determine the number of elements in different compounds and to identify the elements found in the compound. Students should use their Periodic Table during both the video and activity. |
Elaborate 2
Decoding Table and Periodic Table
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Students are asked to recall the Engage activity and relate it to the Periodic Table. Students should consider compounds are made up of a variety of elements, just like words are made of letters. There are simple and complex words, just like there are simple and complex compounds. The number of letters in words varies, just like the number of elements in a compound varies. Letters found in a word can be rearranged to form a new word. The same is true for elements and compounds. |
Evaluate
Assessing Your Learning
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Students assess their learning using several multiple choice questions and a Venn Diagram. |