Abstract

It is a challenge to teach students how to think in chemical terms and to promote their scientific competencies. Fostering students' activities focused on the development of questions, creation of models and argumentation from the discipline are, specifically, the base for the development of the goals of science instruction for the 21st century. For this purpose, we have developed an activity that requires the students (12-14 years old), to design a new periodic table, which has to keep a logic structure. Besides, the design has to meet other requirements a) it has to keep the principles and rules of the original table, b) its structure has to follow a logic criterion, in other words, the students have to offer a new presentation but it has to be related to the chemical notions studied, c) it has to include the fundamental calculation for the subatomic particles and, also, the symbol and name of the elements, d) it has to be original: each group of students in the class has to show a unique and creative instrument according to its level. The female students made the proposal which resulted in a wide variety of periodic tables, all having a different presentation and based on different strategies; some as games and others as an original presentation and with structures based on the group's own criteria. After the activity the students showed appropriate knowledge of the subject studied. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center.