More of Reality
The Chemical Element System Model of the Alexander Arrangement of Elements
Most kids feel that if you can touch it: It Is Real.
The Chemical Element System Model is illustrated by what kids already know is real,
objects made of the simple substances of elements,
and itself portrays what chemists know is real, the Periodic Law.
Students have been there already - and waiting. The amount of abstract knowledge students bring to class is dwarfed by their experience with reality.
As Theo Gray (provider of element photos for theCES) says, a periodic table contains "everything you can drop on your foot", and then some. Students arrive in class with a memory of some of these experiences in mind and have (literally) bumped into plenty more.
The Chemical Element System Model (CES) does not attempt to communicate solely by numbers, letter symbols, and unfamiliar words, but by reaching into the experience of the students with what chemists like to call 'simple substances'. Atoms in aggregate. Stuff. Things.
It doesn't use a chart format do the job of nature, but shows recognizable things instead of another new abstraction to take on faith.
Students can pass all the element blocks of the CES from one hand to another and visually trace the sequence of atomic numbers - with visual representations of what they look like in one form - round and round - bent, looped, seldom flat, but never broken, and the the property groupings intact as well ...without exception!
Assessing CES introduced student perceptions on how well they believe they "understand", or how "confident" or "comfortable" they are with a standard periodic table, might reveal knowledge and trust greatly in excess of what might be normally expected without the 3D model.
Assessing CES introducing teacher perceptions on how much they appreciate that the Periodic Law is finally modeled, and relieves expectations that the Periodic Law can be thought of as arranging the elements in order, when the order is broken 13 times and one entire block of elements has been, might reveal a great satisfaction for starting their students with a coordinated display of logic and accuracy instead of questioning and excuses.
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