Student Interactve Alexander Arrangement of Elements
for whole class student data entry, take-apart, assembly, and for keeping as reference

Order the
Student Interactive
$74.25 for 36
plus 2 DeskToppers





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




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




Making a
Student Interactive
...adding a dimension to the periodic table - physically and intellectually




How Boys Learn
- and Don't
...action is the answer - don't make me sit here, let me do something!




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





Back

Next

Click to Order a Classroom Set of the
Student Interactive Alexander Arrangement of Elements

The Student Interactive model of the Alexander Arrangement (AAE) is especially useful as a hands-on project prior to the point in your curriculum where normally the periodic table is introduced.

Priced for today's school budgets, at $74.25, each set consists of a package of three dozen hands-on periodic charts (with atomic numbers only) printed in black on white 11"x 17" index stock, die-cut for separation and assembly into 3-D AAE models - a process for students to build 'ownership' of the periodic table literally and figuratively. Two free DeskToppers are included - a $14.95 value.

The Student Interactive provides a student with a creative connection to every element for the most thorough, hands-on learning experience available for in-depth understanding of the elements, blocks, connections, and value of the periodic table without the confusion of the flat table's "breaks" and "discontinuities", as Mendeleev called them.

Only the element's atomic number is printed in each of the boxes. Entry of color and other data adds kinetic learning to the abstract, and the participation activity can be an individual or team effort. The surface will accept a variety of media.

The construction of the three-dimensional chart has been made relatively easy by careful design of the slots and tabs, by die-cutting all that needs cutting, and providing recently upgraded carefully tested and illustrated instructions.

Depending on the amount of data to be recorded, a ball-point pen may be right for the task, or students can get creative as they wish, using color markers or varied materials and graphic images glued to the boxes, limited only by the size of the element boxes and their imagination.

While most class time will be spent in the element data entry portion of the project, students learn of the block's borders by scoring at their ends, holding them in their hands, and doing the connections while building a periodic table of their very own - to take home for reference and remember the fun of the class project at the very beginning of his or her understanding of Chemistry.

At the same time, as they see the flat table returning to the three dimensions envisaged by the developers of the first periodic tables, Alexandre Emile Beguyer de Chancourtois and Lothar Meyer, but learning for themselves that, while, as the world globe is the starting point for cartography, the 3-D table is the beginning of chemistry.

It also becomes clear that, as map projections are, the flat table is a far more convenient form, and that imposing gaps and jumps are necessary to keep it flat and convenient to carry and print.

At right are photos of steps in the process of
correcting the 2-D periodic table by returning it to 3-D
in a modern version of the original Periodic Table.

© 1995- 2012 AlexanderDESIGN, 4851 N. Washtenaw Ave., Chicago, IL 60625  773.271.0318
last update 02/02/12