How Boys Learn – and Don’t

Boys love to take things apart.

Most Moms attribute this to the basic destructiveness of the male animal, but that is not usually the case. It is to set up a situation where, having all the parts conveniently still at hand, one can put something together. The dismembering is the preparation for the creative act, while not completely original, (as one can remember that it was a functioning something once before,) at least a challenge to make something functional, and blessedly without need for instructions.

Being told what to do, for boys, is a pain. It is probably linked to the Y chromosome, as I understand that lost male drivers worldwide have similar difficulties asking for directions.

That being said, manually building a model, especially of the Periodic Table of the Elements will certainly appeal to more boys than observing the wallpaper style flat table.

The Student Interactive Alexander Arrangement of Elements provides the requirement to take something apart, and then the option to put it together again. Students approaching their very first standard Periodic Table Lesson (dreaded equally by student and teacher) have the opportunity to incorporate their prior knowledge – without real need for any – in an activity that transitions them to the understanding and acceptance of the flat periodic table that is at the core of the study of Chemistry. The segments of the AAE products are pre-cut on a single sheet, no instructions, blades, or scissors needed for removal. There is a separate instruction sheet, to be sure, for those willing to read them, and, of course, a series of assembly drawings for the less adventurous – not to mention photos of the final product.

After coloring the boxes and entering the element data - the truly important part of the lesson(s) - comes the fun of building!

Students learn about blocks visually, intellectually, and tactilly ...if there is such a word. The first two forming a tube like the first periodic tables - of de Chancourtois and Mosely - where both elements of the first period are connected with an extended Hydrogen "Crown" lending special status to this most basic atom, the original element of the universe.

“Fear of Periodic Table” has thus been defused, and, with a historical assembly sequence, the logic of the Periodic Law becomes obvious; “...if all the elements be arranged in order of their atomic weights, a periodic repetition of properties is obtained...”.
The elements are seen to be normally continuous and contiguous in atomic number as well as properties, for natural understanding, in the next lesson, of the flat-for-convenience-sake, standard periodic table that students will use from then on.

Back


taking apart the table and connectors


putting period ends back together


defining the blocks with bends

Hydrogen finds several homes

the central gap is closed


before the f-block is inserted

re-introduction of the f-block