DeskTopper version of the Alexander Arrangement of Elements

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POP–UP MENU

the Lesson before
THE lesson
...when the Alexander Arrangement provides clarity and appreciation of the standard table

Inventing
3D Periodic Tables
...from de Chancourtois and Mendeleev to the 20th Century interpreters

Making a DeskTopper
...adding a dimension to the periodic table – physically and intellectually

DeskTopper as Caddy
...doing double duty – forever(?)

How Boys Learn
– and Don't
...action is the answer – don't just sit there, do something!

Lesson plan –
Scaffolding
...using prior knowledge, piqueing interest, motivating – "...involve me and I'll understand."

Lesson plan –
Inquiry Based
...using prior knowledge, piqueing interest, motivating – "...involve me and I'll understand."

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The DeskToppers are the quick and easy form of the Alexander Arrangement of Elements (AAE), especially useful in a full classroom, hands–on lesson just prior to the lesson in your curriculum that normally introduces the periodic table.



Working with parts of the printed sheet, students learn of the blocks and the connections by holding them in their hands and doing these connections while building a periodic table of their very own – a welcome change from books, especially for boys. At the same time they see the flat table build into the three dimensions envisaged by the developer of the first periodic table, de Chancourtois. Students can clearly learn the foundation of all flat periodic tables: continuity (of atomic number sequence) and contiguity (of chemical similarities – families), because the AAE, of all periodic tables, depicts them accurately and completely.

Arranging all the elements in order (with successive elements touching), while still keeping the accepted groups and families, is possible only because of the limitations of 2–D having been removed.

The motivation gained by the unique & attractive shape and strict adherence to the Periodic Law is a great aid in atttracting the new student to the extraordinary importance of the periodic table.

Teachers, inserting the DeskTopper or the larger Illustrated versions into the curriculum just prior to trends lesson with a flat chart, will find that by initiating students to a more correct form of the flat table - obeying the the Periodic Law - will speed and improve learning by adding credibility to the flat table.

Inquiry based lessons lend themselves admirably to aid teaching speed, ease, and clarity.

No worries about students carrying a 3D table around, as it can be made flat as can be without losing the reference qualities and be zapped back into 3D in a minute!

Click to an Alexander Arrangement of Elements

How Boys Learn ... and don't



pre–Periodic Table Teaching



DT as Caddy



the Roadkill DeskTopper