Thanks for the shout out, Dan! When I wrote this activity, I taught about the periodic table early in the school year. Now that I use Modeling Instruction, we just recently used it since I have been following the suggested timeline of topics. I actually don't spend time discussing the trends or related terminology until after the card sort portion of the activity is complete aside from helping them understand what the ratios of X and O along with X and F mean. One thing that we end up doing that I had not included in the original lab is that when I pull out the magnesium and the calcium for the lab portion, we end up discussing the fact that when we talk about Ca, Mg, Na, Fe and other elements in our diet that they are not really the pure metal that we need for our bodies, but that those metals are part of a variety of compounds. I have bottles of iron and calcium supplements in my cupboard to show them examples. Seeing the Ca react with water brings the point home as well.
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Comment on Trendsetter: A Target Inquiry Activity
Thanks for the shout out, Dan! When I wrote this activity, I taught about the periodic table early in the school year. Now that I use Modeling Instruction, we just recently used it since I have been following the suggested timeline of topics. I actually don't spend time discussing the trends or related terminology until after the card sort portion of the activity is complete aside from helping them understand what the ratios of X and O along with X and F mean. One thing that we end up doing that I had not included in the original lab is that when I pull out the magnesium and the calcium for the lab portion, we end up discussing the fact that when we talk about Ca, Mg, Na, Fe and other elements in our diet that they are not really the pure metal that we need for our bodies, but that those metals are part of a variety of compounds. I have bottles of iron and calcium supplements in my cupboard to show them examples. Seeing the Ca react with water brings the point home as well.