Process

The Process: The Atom – Then and Now!

To accomplish the task of understanding the history of the atom, you will need to do research to discover what has led us to our current model of the atom. The final product pf each team will be either a Power Point presentation or a book. (If your team has another idea on how to present your findings, please talk to me about it.)

1. First you’ll be assigned to a team of 3 or 4 students.

2. Each team member is expected to contribute equally to the project.

3. Each team will decide among themselves as to what each team member is going to do. Remember that each person on the team is expected to understand all the parts of atomic history, not just the part they researched.

4. Each team will be expected to present their project to the class.

One way to organize your information is by scientist:

· Democritus

· Dalton

· Thomson

· Rutherford

· Bohr

· Schrödinger

Some questions that might help you get started:

In the Beginning

¨ Who came up the term atom?

Democritus (when? who? chemist, physicist, mathematician, teacher, philosopher, etc.)

¨ What was the main difference between Democritus and “the others” that came after him?

¨ What part did Aristotle have in the atomic development?

Dalton (when? who? chemist, physicist, mathematician, teacher, philosopher, etc.)

¨ What is the difference between a model and a theory?

¨ What was Dalton’s atomic theory?

¨ What was his atomic model?

¨ What did he say about compounds and chemical reactions?

¨ What was the problem or issues with this model?

Thomson (when? who? chemist, physicist, mathematician, teacher, philosopher, etc.)

¨ What was his model?

¨ What did it contain?

¨ Did his model have a special name?

¨ What particles does his model have?

¨ What was the problem or issues with this model?

Rutherford (when? who? chemist, physicist, mathematician, teacher, philosopher, etc.)

¨ What was his model?

¨ What led him to make his theory?

¨ What experiment did he do and why was he so astonished?

¨ What was significant about his discovery?

¨ What particles does his model have?

¨ Who discovered the proton?

¨ What was the problem or issues with this model?

Bohr (when? who? chemist, physicist, mathematician, teacher, philosopher, etc.)

¨ What was his model?

¨ How did he explain the main problem with Rutherford model?

¨ How are the energy levels thought of?

¨ What does quantized mean?

¨ What is an orbit?

¨ Can electrons move from energy level to energy level?

¨ What was the problem or issues with this model?

Schrödinger (when? who? chemist, physicist, mathematician, teacher, philosopher, etc.)

¨ What was his model?

¨ How does this model describe the atom?

¨ Why is it better than the Bohr model?

¨ What is an orbital and how is it different than an orbit?

Key thinks you need to include:

B The Plum Pudding Model

B The Planetary Model

B Electrons

B Protons

B Neutrons

B Nucleus

B Quantum Mechanics

B Wave Equation

B Fixed Energy Levels

Below are links to websites that you will help you complete this project. Many of the websites contain more information than just one topic. In the classroom, there are various chemistry textbooks that you might find helpful and of course, you may use your chemistry textbook. Also, a copy of my notes from last year will be available for you to look at. But, no one source will give you all of the information you need. So, you will have to use a variety of resources to complete this project. In fact, you want to look at more than one source in order to not miss important information and to verify the accuracy of the information.