Often, it is easier to remember difficult concepts by creating analogies and/or little stories to help you understand them better…

Example:

            CONCEPT: What are atoms?

ANALOGY:  “Atoms are the building blocks of matter” 

MEANING: Helps you realize that atoms, when all put together, make up the material world.  They are a very basic unit of matter found in everything.

In our introduction to atoms and the periodic table, we can better understand the “invisible world” of atoms via analogy.  Complete the blank areas below:

 

(1)   CONCEPT:

 

 

 

ANALOGY:  After Rutherford saw the results from his experiment, he said the following: “ It was as if you had fired a 15 inch artillery shell at a piece of paper and it bounced back at you!”

 

      MEANING:

 

 

 

 

(2) CONCEPT:  Matter is made of very tiny particles, even though you can’t see them.

 

      ANALOGY:

 

 

 

      MEANING:

 

 

 

 

(3)  CONCEPT:

 

 

 

 

      BAD ANALOGY:  Atoms are like little solar systems where the electrons are planets

 

      WHY IS THIS A BAD ANALOGY?:

 

 

 

 

(4) CONCEPT: The size and scale of the atom.  (It’s mostly empty space)

 

      ANALOGY:

 

 

 

 

      MEANING:

 

 

 

 

 


(5) CONCEPT:

 

 

 

 

      ANALOGY:  The periodic table is like a calendar, where the days tell you “what the atom is like.”

 

      MEANING:

 

 

 

 

 

 

(6) CONCEPT:

 

 

 

 

 

      ANALOGY:  The “rings” around a Bohr model of the atom are like floors in an apartment building…

 

      MEANING: