2 The Periodic Table

Read the history of the Periodic table, Chapter 2 of Ellen McHenry's The elements course

Look at the periodic table at Popular Science; the elements pop up if you click on them.

Find elements on Web Elements. Here's Magnesium.

You might like some video introductions; the BBC have taken off their programme from Youtube, so until someone puts it back up, try others. This one?

(And you can always laugh at Mr Bean.)

1 The elements

Look over the next 8-week chemistry course. How many elements can you list from your head?

Do we have, in the house...
calcium
chlorine
copper
flourine
iodine
iron
magnesium
sodium
zinc

Look on the labels for cereal, toothpaste, tinned goods, dried foodstuffs. Check out mama's headache tablets and your Calpol.

See if you can work out or find out what these are:

NaHCO3
SiO2
Mg3Si4O10
Au
FeS2

I can help with one of those. Try gold.

Review week!

We've reached the end of the course!

Review Carbon Chemistry. Go back through the folder, find an experiment, check out a link, play one of the board games, answer the quiz questions, read the materials, make up a chemical with toothpicks and marshmallows...

Next week we start to explore more elements in detail.

11 Carbon Oxides and the Carbon Cycle

Carbon attached to 1 oxygen makes carbon monoxide.
Carbon attached to 2 oxygens makes carbon dioxide.
Carbon attached to 3 oxygens makes a carbonate ion.

This week you're finding out what each of these compounds do.

Plenty of explanations of the carbon cycle : cartoon video ; with a focus on CO2 ; I liked the crumpled paper background.

And here's a list to research: the limestone caves you'd like to visit around the world. For tours of all types of caves, try here and here.