C4 Chemical patterns
For students and teachers
Periodic tables
- www.webelements.com/webelements/scholar/index.html
WebElements is the outstanding periodic table on the Internet. It is an excellent source of chemical data as well as information about all the elements. - www.chemsoc.org/viselements/pages/periodic_table.html
The Visual Elements website from the Royal Society of Chemistry has good pictures of the elements with plenty of chemical data about each one plus some general information. The main periodic table is highly recommended. You will also find a section giving the history of the periodic table. - chemlab.pc.maricopa.edu/periodic/periodic.html Latest news: this website is currently unavailable and the periodic table is awaiting repair.
The pictorial periodic table gives you numerical data and a photograph of most elements. There are lots of links to other websites covering the periodic table on this site. You can view pictures of unusual forms of the table as well as finding out something about its history. You will also find the lyrics and audio to Tom Lehrer's 1952 song The Elements.
Alkali metals
- www.chemtopics.com/elements/alkali/alkali.htm
This page contains brief profiles and pictures of each of the alkali metals, and the characteristic flame colours for their compounds.
Halogens - chlorine
- www.eurochlor.org/aboutchlorine
www.c3.org/
These two sites go beyond the needs of the specification. The y show how concerned the chlorine industry is about its reputation with the public. By exploring these sites you can find out more about the uses of chlorine and the impact of chlorine compounds on the environment. The sites use the traditional chemical names.
Halogens – bromine
- www.bsef.com/bromine/what_is_bromine/
A site with an illustrated summary of the uses of bromine. Click on 'Bromine and brominated fire retardants', then start with 'Bromine's many uses'.
Balancing equations
- www.wfu.edu/~ylwong/balanceeq/balanceq.html
This site has an online tutorial that leads you through the stages of balancing symbol equations. There are also exercises for practice.
Origins of spectroscopy
- dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/webdocs/Chem-History/Kirchhoff-Bunsen-1860.html
This web page is an English version of the paper by Kirchoff and Bunsen in which they discuss the possibility of chemical analysis by observation of spectra as published in Annalen der Physik und der Chemie , 1860. The paper is short and accessible with a diagram of the spectroscope. - www.chemheritage.org/classroom/chemach/periodic/bunsen-kirchhoff.html
The Chemical Heritage Foundation tells the same story on its site.
Line spectra of the elements
- www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/quantumzone/index.html
This web page is part of a tutorial site about atomic structure. It includes a drop-down menu that allows you to select an element and then see its characteristic line spectrum. - http://members.misty.com/don/spectra.html
Another site with line spectra.
Discovery of helium
- nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1904/ramsay-bio.html
The Nobel prize website describes the work of Sir William Ramsay. - www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/He/hist.html
There is more about helium and its discovery on the WebElements site.
For teachers
Teaching resources
- web.channel4.com/learning/main/netnotes//sectionid100664922.htm
This Channel 4 web page gives details of the video ‘Mendeleev’s dream’ in the Science in Focus series. - www.planet-science.com/sciteach/online_resource/is_there_life/index.html
Periodic Table Bingo is available in the ‘Fun-size’ section of the online version of a CD-ROM produced by the ASE during Science Year. - www.chemsoc.org/networks/learnnet/social-hist.htm
Selected sections of the ‘Atom detectives’ with a PDF file of student activities are available from the RSC LearnNet website. - www.classroomvideo.co.uk
The video Atoms and Their Electrons is distributed by Classroom Video - www.rm.com/Secondary/Products/Story.asp?cref=PS741017
Multimedia Science School is now distributed by RM. - www.mutr.co.uk
www.mutr.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1141
The jigsaw kit for modelling ionic formulae called ‘Chemical Jigsaws’ is supplied by Middlesex University Teaching Resources for the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme.