Periodic Table Project Element Card Sketches

Transcription

1 Kensington Woods High School Name: Chemistry/Art Periodic Table Project Element Card Sketches In this project, we will use graphic design skills to redesign the periodic table. You are challenged with redesigning the periodic table in a way that educates others about it and chemistry by the layout of your new periodic table and good design choices. Up to this point You have researched your elements You have decided on new layout of the table, based on creative, educational ways that the elements can be reorganized to educate your chosen audience. You chose specific categories/qualities in which to organize your table by to educate and create design interest, based on your research. You considered layout and color choices that create separation and organization as well as design interest. You chose shapes (symbols) and color for the individual element that represent your elements and layout of the table We ve talked about what design is and its role in our society Remember: Good design helps educate and inform the viewer while at the same time looks good. But all design choices should be specific, have a reason and help communicate information to the viewer! The next steps Now that you know what the entire table will look like, it s time to think about the individual elements. Your next task is to sketch plans for each of your individual element cards. These individual element cards will make up your final table. The elements you sketch should be the ones you personally researched. Your sketches for your element cards should meet the following expectations: Your element card should contain ALL of the following: o A visual symbol that represents something important about your element that is related to the categories you have chosen for your table organization. Consider the discussion we had the other day about what symbols are (simple images that visually represent something) and the examples we looked at (pictographs, company logos, etc.). The symbol can be realistic or abstract or a combination of both! Consider what symbol will communicate what you want to communicate best! o Element name o Element symbol o Atomic Mass o Atomic Number o Additional information about the element related to the categories you have chosen for your table organization (at least one type)

2 Should be drawn on the shape of the shape of the element from your table (for example, if all of your individual elements on your table are circles, draw your element card in a circle shape) Be colored (with what color you table layout includes and any other additional colors needed). Consider your colors carefully. What colors will communicate what you want to communicate best? Consider your typeface (font) carefully. What type of font will communicate what you want to communicate best? Should be well thought out Should be creative and unique Your sketches are due at the start of class on Monday. Please note, if for some reason your group does not have all of your elements researched, please divide them up amongst the group so that the research and sketches are completed. Periodic Table Examples Below please find some examples of redesigned periodic tables (not all are with traditional elements). Consider how they use layout of the table, shape, color, symbols, typeface and other design elements to convey their message!

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6 Periodic Table of how Children Play

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8 Caption from Life Magazine where this Periodic Table was placed. The irregular spiral above is a systematic arrangement of the 92 natural elements, the four new elements so far created by man and eight more elements which is theoretically possible to create. It is called the periodic table of the elements. The sequence begins with hydrogen (at the center of the spiral), which is the first and simplest element. Under its name appears its chemical symbol (left), its atomic weight (right) and a larger numeral which gives the total number of electrons in its atom. It is on the basis of this number that the elements are arranged in sequence: after hydrogen, with its single electron, come helium with two, lithium with three, beryllium with four and so on around the spiral. The colors and construction of the table express another kind of relationship among the elements: the repetition, at regular intervals, of the chemical properties of the first few. Characteristics are thus repeated periodically in the progression form the simplest to the most complex. The table is so organized that elements whose chemistry is almost identical are grouped together in blocks of connected by solid arrows (all the inert gases helium, neon, etc. fall in the single gray block at the left). Broken arrows relate groups of elements which are similar in most respects but differ in a few of their properties. All related elements are given different shades of the same color. The key to this similarity among elements is found in the arrangement rather than the number of the electrons in their atoms. Only the electrons in the outer shell affect an atom's chemical nature. Therefore all elements whose atoms have identical outer shells are chemically related, regardless of the total umber of electrons which each of them may possess. For example, lithium, sodium and the other elements in the red segment at left all have one electron in their outer shells and are therefore similar though they differ in the total number of their electrons. Each complete circuit of the table starts with one of these elements and ends with an element in the adjacent gray segment whose atom's outer shell is complete. This table, like all attempts to reduce the basic phenomena of nature to a simple pattern, falls somewhat short of its objective. For one thing, there are variations in the sequence of elements which do not fit readily into its graphic form. For another, it is not so much a simplification as an orderly presentation which specifies the relationship between elements but leaves much about them to be explained... Yet in expressing this relationship the table reveals the extraordinary symmetry and order which underlie the universe.