Literacy in Science

I chose to create an infographic as a visual learning tool to help teach some of the basic ideas of chemical elements. The topic of elements is not a simple concept for all students to grasp. Telling a student that all matter is created by basic elements is an abstract idea for students. This can cause confusion by what an “element” is.   An example of a possible misconception would be for a student to think- well, my desk is made of wood therefore wood is an element. By utilizing simple pictures of atomic structure and showing that each element is made up of its own atoms, the students will begin to understand that atoms are not visible.     I put a lot of thought into how I wanted the infographic to appear. I decided to use brighter colors and a “comic” or “graphic” feel to appeal to my young student audience. I used bright colors to attract attention to the alphabetic text on the page so the eye wouldn’t only scan the images. Graphic novels are currently v...

An element is a substance that cannot be broken down into simpler chemical substances. There are about 90 naturally occurring elements known on Earth. Using technology, scientists have been able to create nearly 30 additional elements that do not occur in nature. Today, chemistry recognizes 118 elements—some of which were created an atom at a time.  The subject of  elements includes  many different topics to teach students about What I know about  can be summarized here , (libretexts.org) and here , (Valley City State University). Where I want to go is deeper into atom structure , (UC Davis).  Video on elements for my students ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy0m7jnyv6U Resources on elements  include: https://chem.libretexts.org http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/elements-of-chemistry-the-periodic-table.cfm acs.org