Unit 2: Atoms, Molecules, and Ions

Lab: PhET - Build an Atom

Lab: PhET - Isotopes and Atomic Mass

Radioactive Decay

BBC Documentary Atom: The Clash of the Titans

Nuclear physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the story of the greatest scientific discovery ever - that everything is made of atoms.

As scientists delved deep into the atom, into the very heart of matter, they unraveled nature's most shocking secrets. They had to abandon everything they believed in and create a whole new science, which today underpins the whole of physics, chemistry, biology and maybe even life itself.

PhET Lab/activity: Build an Atom

Notes/Handout

01b: (Lab): PhET - Build an atom & Isotopes

Build an AtomBuild an atom out of protons, neutrons, and electrons, and see how the element, charge, and mass change. Then play a game to test your ideas!

PhET Lab/activity: Isotopes & Atomic mass

Notes/Handout

(Lab): PhET - Isotopes

Isotopes and Atomic MassAre all atoms of an element the same? How can you tell one isotope from another? Use the sim to learn about isotopes and how abundance relates to the average atomic mass of an element.

Lab/activity: Isotopes of Pennium

Performance Objectives

Students should be able to:

Average atomic mass (atomic weight)
text

Notes/Handout

Lesson 02c: Lab - Isotopes of Pennium

The 2,400-year search for the atom

How do we know what matter is made of? The quest for the atom has been a long one, beginning 2,400 years ago with the work of a Greek philosopher and later continued by a Quaker and a few Nobel Prize-winning scientists.