ACTIVITY pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Elemental B-O-Ne-S Antonio Joaquín Franco-Mariscal*,# and María Jose Cano-Iglesias† #
I.E.S. Juan Ramon Jimenez, Malaga 29006, Spain A rea de Ingeniería de los Procesos de Fabricacion, Departamento de Ingeniería Civil, de Materiales y de Fabricacion, Escuela Politecnica Superior, Universidad de Malaga, Malaga 29071, Spain
†
bS Supporting Information ABSTRACT: A puzzle for high school students about the most important bones of the human body and the chemical elements is presented in this article. This puzzle uses the chemical symbols to spell the names of 35 bones. Underlined spaces and the names of the elements serve as clues. To solve the puzzle, pupils must find the symbols that correspond to the elemental names and rearrange them into the bones’ names.
KEYWORDS: High School/Introductory Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Humor/Puzzles/Games, Nomenclature/Units/Symbols
Win the World Cup”8 students learn advanced concepts related to the periodic table by playing on a chemical soccer team (e.g., UNiTeD STaTeS) in the World Cup. With this perspective in mind, an educational tool, a puzzle, was designed for secondary education students who have not covered themes related to periodic table. The main goal of this puzzle is to help students learn the names of the elements and their symbols in a fun, engaging manner.
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tudents may think that learning about chemistry is boring. Presenting chemical concepts through fun, practical activities is one of the creative trends in chemical education especially for high school students. Puzzles, games, or toys are excellent means for students to acquire chemical knowledge. Bartell1 indicated that puzzles that challenge the imagination of students make lectures more dynamic and convey ideas in a way that makes them stick with students longer than direct statements of fact and principle. Several educational puzzles have been developed by authors to have students become more familiar with the periodic table and to help them learn the names and symbols of chemical elements. For instance, Palmer and Brosnick2 proposed an activity where students use element symbols to write either their names or a common word and then print the words in periodic table-style boxes onto T-shirts using iron-on transfer paper. Helser’s “Elemental Zoo”3 is an activity in which students join sentences to tell a story about animals in a fictional zoo. In “Elemental Food for Thought”,4 pupils match element names with their chemical symbols to spell familiar foods or food-related items. “Playing with the 50 States and the Chemical Elements”5 reinforces students’ knowledge of chemical elements through states names. In “Elemental Chem Lab”6 pupils practice the chemical elements and their symbols while learning about chemical lab equipment. “The Presidential ‘Periodic Table’”7 is an engaging activity that encourages high school chemistry students to match the names of the elements with their chemical symbols to spell the names of the 43 U.S. presidents. Finally, in the educational game “Elemental, We Copyright r 2011 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
’ THE PUZZLE This puzzle uses the chemical symbols to spell the names of 35 bones of the human skeleton. Underlined spaces and the names of the elements serve as clues. To solve the puzzle, students must find the symbols that correspond to the elemental names. For that purpose, pupils may use a periodic table. In some cases, elemental symbols may be used two or more times to form the required names. The number of symbols needed is inserted before the elemental names. Then, students rearrange chemical symbols into the bones’ names and place them on underlined spaces. One or more letters are included in some bone names because those portions of the clues could not be dealt with using the existing symbols in the periodic table. An example of how to construct the terms of the puzzle is shown in Figure 1. The puzzle is shown in Figure 2 and the answer key in Table 1.
Published: September 06, 2011 1551
dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed200231g | J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88, 1551–1552
Journal of Chemical Education
ACTIVITY
Figure 1. An example of how to construct the terms in the puzzle.
Figure 2. Bones of the human body puzzle.
Table 1. Answer Key (1) FrONTAl
(8) ThORaCIC VErTeBRa
(15) TiBiA
(22) ZYGOMAtIC
(2) NaSAl
(9) LuMBAr VErTeBRa
(16) FIBULa
(23) CErVICAl VErTeBRa
(30) METaCArPUS
(3) SPHeNOID
(10) ILiUM
(17) TAlUS
(24) CLaVIClE
(31) PHAlANGeS
(29) CArPUS
(4) MAXILLa
(11) SAcRuM
(18) CAlCaNeUS
(25) STErNUM
(32) PaTeLLa
(5) MANDIBLE
(12) ISCHIUM
(19) PArIETAl
(26) HUMErUS
(33) TArSUS
(6) SCaPuLa
(13) CoCCYX
(20) TeMPORAl
(27) RaDIUS
(34) METaTArSUS
(7) RIBS
(14) FeMUR
(21) OCCIPITAl
(28) ULNa
(35) PHAlANGeS
’ ASSOCIATED CONTENT
’ REFERENCES
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(1) Bartell, L. S. J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78, 1067–1069. (2) Palmer, J.; Brosnick, L. J. Chem. Educ. 2005, 82, 517. (3) Helser, T. L. J. Chem. Educ. 2003, 80, 409. (4) Cady., S. Sci. Teacher 2005, 72 (6), 58–61. (5) Franco-Mariscal, A. J.; Cano-Iglesias, M. J. Geog. Teacher 2007, 4 (2), 10–12. (6) Franco-Mariscal, A. J. J. Chem. Educ. 2008, 85, 1370–1371. (7) Franco-Mariscal, A. J.; Franco-Mariscal, R. Sci. Teacher 2008, 75 (6), 69–73. (8) Franco-Mariscal, A. J. Aula Innov. Educ. 2006, 153 154, 85–95.
Supporting Information
The blank puzzle on one page for easy photocopying for students and the solution separated out on a second page. This material is available via the Internet at http:// pubs.acs.org.
’ AUTHOR INFORMATION Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. 1552
dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed200231g |J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88, 1551–1552
