Episode 18: Inside the Unit- Periodic Table Trends

🎙️ Episode: My Go-To Periodic Table Unit -Activities, Trends, and Timing Tips

A practical walkthrough of my Periodic Table unit—history hooks, must-teach trends, hands-on labs, and lots of low-prep practice to cement understanding.

Episode Description

In this episode, I run through exactly how I teach the Periodic Table in Chem I and Honors: how I hook students with music and history, scaffold core periodic trends (atomic radius, ionization energy, electronegativity, ionic radius), and build fluency with smart practice and a few fan-favorite labs. You’ll hear when and why I bring back electron configurations, how I use Coulomb’s Law to make trends click, and the specific resources I pull in (POGILs, Flinn activities, and quick videos) to keep the unit moving without overwhelm.

Whether you’re about to start Periodic Table or already past it, grab ideas to pin for next year—plus a couple of time-saving grading and pacing moves. 

Key Takeaways

Start with a hook: A song + a short Mendeleev history video builds buy-in fast.

Teach the “big three” trends first: atomic radius, ionization energy, electronegativity; add ionic radius (and electron affinity if time).

Revisit electron configurations: Use the table layout to reinforce patterns students already learned in the electrons unit.

Use Coulomb’s Law as the backbone: Keep focus on nuclear charge and distance to explain trends consistently.

Hands-on > heavy lecture: “It’s in the Cards,” POGILs, and a simple reactivity lab (alkaline earth metals) anchor the concepts.

Reps matter: Build in multiple rounds of “which is bigger/smaller?” practice to cement intuition before assessment.

Pacing tip: Some activities now take two days—spreading them out lowers stress and raises understanding.

Assessment flow: Practice test → Unit test; hand out the next unit’s prerequisite sheet on test day to keep early finishers engaged.

Resources Mentioned

Periodic Table Song https://youtu.be/rz4Dd1I_fX0?si=0gWuX15YbijZrk3F

TED-Ed: Mendeleev & the Periodic Table https://youtu.be/fPnwBITSmgU?si=LLjxiFUzig005e1K

Periodic Table Basics notebook activity (Science Spot) https://sciencespot.net/Media/ptablebasics.pdf

Sodium in water demonstration video (safe classroom alternative) https://youtu.be/dmcfsEEogxs?si=bhJP_FlqlX8uCwIu