Topic: Noble gases

Target group

Elementary school student (grades 7. and 8.)

Core curriculum:

Elementary school. Chemistry.

IV. Oxygen, hydrogen and their chemical compounds. Air. Pupil:

9 ) describes the physical properties of noble gases; explains why they are very little chemically active; lists their uses.

General aim of education

The student explains what the combustion reaction is

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• to indicate the location of noble gases in the periodic table of elements;

• to characterize elements belonging to the group of noble gases;

• to characterize the properties of noble gases;

• to give examples of the use of noble gases in the immediate vicinity.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• sheets of paper, markers.

Lesson plan overview

Introduction

1. The teacher hands out Methodology Guide or green, yellow and red sheets of paper to the students to be used during the work based on a traffic light technique. He presents the aims of the lesson in the student's language on a multimedia presentation and discusses the criteria of success (aims of the lesson and success criteria can be send to students via e‑mail or posted on Facebook, so that students will be able to manage their portfolio).

2. The teacher together with the students determines the topic – based on the previously presented lesson aims – and then writes it on the interactive whiteboard/blackboard. Students write the topic in the notebook.

Realization

1. The teacher asks students what neon is associated with. Probably the answer will be: a light advertisement. The teacher asks further questions that lead to the conclusion that neon is an element belonging to the group of noble gases. Asks the willing / selected student to indicate the neon in the periodic table of elements and read the remaining elements from this group.

2. Students discuss the location of noble gases in the periodic table and explain the properties flowing from this location. The teacher completes the information and initiates the discussion - he asks how the students think that the noble gas particles look like. The students give their suggestions and, if they wish, draw them on the board. The teacher conducts a conversation so that the result is the conclusion that noble gases do not form molecules (if the pupils do not fall into it themselves, they explain why).

3. Then the teacher divides the class into 4 groups. Each of them has 10 minutes to work out the assigned issue on the basis of information from the Internet. Issues for groups: color and smell of precious gases; solubility in water; combustibility; the number of valence electrons. After the time has expired, the representatives of the groups present the effects of work.

4. In order to verify the information provided by groups, the teacher displays an interactive widget from the abstract regarding the properties of noble gases.

5. The instructor divides the students into 6 groups. He informs that the task of each group will be to answer the question: What applications result from the properties of noble gases? He gives the students sheets of paper and pens and asks them to write the question on the sheets. He explains the rules of the 635 technique:
   a. Each group writes 3 proposals for the use of noble gases. Students can search for information in all available sources. They have 5 minutes for this;
   b. At the teacher's sign, the groups pass each sheet in a clockwise direction;
   c. Now groups are turning into expert panels, verifying colleagues' suggestions, completing and evaluating. They have 5 minutes for it.
   After completing the work, group leaders present the effects of actions using the wall‑telling technique.

6. The teacher asks students to independently perform interactive exercises included in the abstract.

7. If time permits, the teacher will familiarize students with information about oganesson.

Summary

1. The teacher asks a willing student to summarize the lesson from his point of view. He asks other students if they would like to add anything to their colleague's statements.

Homework

1. Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

2. Imagine that you have the opportunity to interview an academic - a specialist in the field of today's lesson. What questions would you like to ask him? Write them down.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Noble gases

The air components are argon and other elements forming the 18th group in the periodic table. Noble gases include: helium (He, Latin helios), neon (Ne, Latin neon), argon (Ar, Latin argon), krypton, xenon, radon. Stable electron configuration of valence shell ensures that these gases are the elements with the lowest chemical activity (noble gases). Therefore, although all of them are gases, their atoms do not bind into particles. They occur in the form of single atoms. Noble gases are used, among others, in medicine and in the lighting industry.

Chemists try to combine noble gases with other substances. In the 1960s compounds containing xenon, krypton and radon were obtained. It has recently been reported that argon - the most common noble gas - can permanently bond with fluorine and hydrogen. To this day, no bonding with helium or neon has been obtained.

In the group of the periodic table of elements there is also a synthetic element oganesson with the atomic number Z = 118. We owe this discovery to the experiments carried out in the Flerova Nuclear Reaction Laboratory (Dubna, Russian Federation) by a team of scientists from the United Nuclear Research Institute in the Russian Federation and the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. One ununoctium atom was obtained in the summer of 2002, and two more in 2005. In the past, it was thought that oganesson would be a gas under standard conditions, but current predictions indicate a constant state of aggregation under these conditions.

• Noble gases show the least chemical activity among all known elements. This property is related to the durability of the electronic helium configuration.

• Noble gases are used, among others in lighting technology.