Materials: Secret Agent

SECRET AGENT
Materials
Copied materials: Secret Agent Man handout (copied to bottom of lesson plan,
also included is the answer key)
Other materials: scissors, glue or tape
Activities
Introduction (5 minutes)
To introduce the activity, the students will be informed that they will have the
opportunity to investigate as scientists did in the past. The teacher will explain
that they are to work in groups of three to organize and arrange a set of
pictures into rows and columns based on commonalities. After doing so, they
are to fill in the missing secret agent man and paste them on a sheet of paper.
To summarize their results and findings, as well as provide evidence for their
arrangement they need to list all the relationships found when looking down a
column and across a row. The teacher will let them know that this is similar to
the organization of the Periodic Table which is arranged in terms of columns
and rows. In addition, the teacher will hint that the activity they will be doing
has many relationships to the Periodic Table.
Organization of the Pictures and Discovery of the Secret Agent Man
(40minutes)
After introducing and explaining the activity, give each student a Secret Agent
Man Handout and place them in groups of three. Be sure the students are
clear of the instructions before giving them the supplies needed for otherwise
they will most likely become distracted. After they have all the necessary
materials, they can begin to cut and arrange the pictures.
As the teacher, survey the room and insure that the students are staying on task
and cooperatively working together with their partners. The teacher should not
provide help with the organization, patterns and trends, but can answer
questions on the instructions. However, the teacher can ask the students
questions to help them think about the activity and indirectly guide them.
Examples of such questions may include: Why did you place this picture here?
Can this picture be placed anywhere else on you table? What patterns do you
see here? etc.
During this time the students should be working on the activity while the teacher
is basically just observing and giving limited guidance. The teacher can also
use this time to ask questions and assess the students understanding.
Information on why and how the students are arranging the pictures can be
obtained by questioning to understand their students comprehension of
trends.
Conclusion (10 minutes)
Discuss the relationships and trends the students discovered while completing
the activity. What were the obstacles and difficulties of organizing the
pictures? How challenging was it to fill in the Secret Agent Man? Connect it
and draw parallels to the history of the Periodic Table and the way it emerged
over the years. Point out the advantage and ability of prediction that is possible
using the Periodic Table, similar to the predictability of the secret agent man.
Collect the activity to grade, but hold on to them to be used later in the chapter
when discussing the actual trends in the Periodic Table. Currently, they do not
know the trends and patterns present in the Periodic Table, but as they begin
to study them, this activity can easily be used to make connections. The
following is a list of trends in which this activity can then be used as a visual
aid to help the students understand:
Hair on head- Number of valence electrons
Fingers- Total number of protons/ atomic number
Arms- The row in which they belong
Marking on Chest- The column in which they belong
Size of Body- Atomic Radius
Smile- Electronegativity
Students will be reminded that they will have a quiz tomorrow on the first ten
elements and symbols.
Assessment
The assessment task for this lesson is the activity of organizing the Secret
Agent Men, finding the missing man, and the questions that come with it. Why
did you put this man here? What pattern are you using to make this row? How
did you come up with the missing man?
After the Lesson: Notes for Next Time
The lesson went very well. We used a template for the first class so that
they had an overall shape to make their arrangement into. This proved too easy,
so we didnt use it for the rest of the classes.

Materials: Secret Agent

Uploaded by

Materials: Secret Agent

Uploaded by

SECRET AGENT

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