Easy Way to Memorize The Periodic Table of Elements
Published:
March 6, 2020
Contributor:
Bonnie Rose Hudson
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There are 118 elements currently on the periodic table. Each has a name, a chemical symbol, an atomic number, a group, uses, and more. That’s a lot of information to remember! Help your students absorb the information they need with this Easy Way to Memorize The Periodic Table of Elements.
How to Memorize the Periodic Table
I can almost guarantee that, unless your student is wild about chemistry, sitting down and studying all 118 elements in one sitting is going to be too much! You need an Easy Way to Memorize The Periodic Table of Elements. The best place to start is by breaking it down into chunks of content to work on at a time.
One way you can break down the periodic table is by group. Scientists arrange the elements in the table into groups such as:
- alkali metals
- alkali Earth metals
- transition metals
- other metals
- metalloids
- nonmetals
- halogens
- noble gases
- lanthanides
- actinides
The Periodic Table of Elements Cheat Sheet
Cheat sheets such as this are great ways to drill information and keep it available for review at a glance. No more hunting through text books and getting distracted. All the pertinent information is at your fingertips.
There are other ways you can break down the periodic table, so we’ve put a few of those ways together for you as well. You can study them alphabetically or in order by number with The Periodic Table of the Elements: Fact Cards and Cheat Sheets.
The Periodic Table of Elements Fact Cards
This fun unit also includes 118 printable fact cards that students can use to drill information about each element including:
- atomic number
- chemical symbol
- group
- mass
- notes/uses
Printable Cards for The Periodic Table of Elements
They can explore everything from hydrogen and helium to tennessine and oganesson. From learning about critical parts of the air we breathe to artificially produced and radioactive elements, there is a world of information waiting to be discovered!
These fact cards allow students to arrange the elements in any order they like for studying. They can sort them alphabetically, by atomic number, or by group as mentioned above. Or maybe they want to arrange them by mass or put the chemical symbols together in a way that’s easier to remember.
In Conclusion
The secret is, whatever you do, try to have fun with it. Argon’s symbol is Ar, which also happens to be the abbreviation for Arkansas. Meitnerium is Mt, which is also Montana. Molybdenum is Mo, also an abbreviation for Missouri. Are there more states you can associate elements to? Dive in and find out!
The world that we can see and touch is made of elements. Just as you wouldn’t try to tackle all of world geography in one day, don’t be afraid to break the world of elements into pieces, too. The result will be a better understanding of the world around us and less frustration for you and your students.
Learn more about The Periodic Table of the Elements: Fact Cards and Cheat Sheets.