A Child’s Elements
There are certain materials that are what they are, and are nothing else.They are not made of other things. They are elemental. They cannot be divided, dissolved or melted into anything else. Most of them occur naturally and are found in the Earth. They can be combined with each other to become chemically unique substances. An element can present in physically different forms and states of matter, but it cannot become other than what it is, without ceasing to be.
The elements are as much a part of the child’s natural world as are plants and animals, and for that reason, belong in a Montessori classroom. Elements belong in early childhood experience in the same way that stone, shell, wood, water and bone belong. They also belong in the formal, logical, sensorial way that colors and geometric shapes do. Further, elements have a profound effect in culture, history and geography. Elemental materials exist at one of the limits of the child’s direct sensory experience, as does light. Atoms and particles are beyond the senses and so, for the child, elements are the simplest things of which everything else is made. Sensory enhancement can be provided with a digital microscope and thermal imager.
Elements can be placed in a prepared environment in three forms: machined, refined and raw. A small group of affordable metals plus Silicon and Carbon make up a basic set of solids representing the periodic subgroups metal, metalloid and non-metallic. Sets can be found using search terms like “zinc samples metal element” at either Amazon or Ebay, and of course, the rest of the internet. This article contains a number of search links intended to make the process of assembling an equipment set easier to begin.
Machined shapes.
Uniform shape and size, say a set of cubes, isolate and emphasize other sensory aspects: color, texture, scent, density/weight. Keeping shape and weight constant and changing size presents mass/weight. Varying shape presents the idea that elements can be worked and formed. Sensory aspects of elements offer sort, order and match exercises. Basic shapes provide basic language: naming, discussing and describing, phonetic spelling, labeling, matching labels with images and objects. Simple elemental shapes are also instrumental in placing electricity and magnetism in the environment. Conductivity and attraction-repulsion are fundamental sensory experiences.
Naturally occurring structures
..are the way elements present when purified but not formed or machined. Basic samples. These afford extended matching exercises. They lay a basis in discussion for the idea of internal structure. There is something about elements, when divided so small that we can’t see, that makes them take on different shapes. Carbon is probably the best known element having two different internal structures.
Elements in Ores
…. in which they are typically found. Ores are mixtures, minerals are compounds. This is how elements occur in the earth, which leads again to thoughts of geography and the cultural effect of raw materials. Consider a set. or search specific samples one at a time.
Alloys and Minerals
…. are molecular combinations of elements. Minerals can be quite beautiful. Alloys present fundamental, deliberate combinations of elements. So important are they that alloys have been used to delineate periods of History. Presentation of alloys provides a great opportunity for creative expression in design of the environment. One of the goals is to enable recognition of elements and alloys in the everyday world and so a collection of examples can include anything.
You might have bronze, brass, stainless steel, carbon steel, alnico magnets, pewter, colored gold, coins, guitar strings, cymbals and bells, wires of all sorts, various crystals and glasses. As long as the content of the example can be named and related to examples or images of individual elements, anything goes. Sculpture, jewelry, musical instruments, paints and pigments, gears and springs, tools and utensils, pots and pans. We are literally surrounded by elements and alloys.
Liquid Elements do not belong in a primary classroom, as only two, Bromine and Mercury, are liquid at room temperature. One of them smells and both are toxic. Liquids must be addressed at the level of compounds of elements. Water, of course, is the basic fluid compound. Water meets Metal in the form of a voltaic cell, which is a cup for water and two electrodes.
Elemental gases are classroom manageable and conceptually important. They enable the suggestion of the molecular level, in a dynamic way. Combine electrodes, which can be a simple as tin foil paddles or pencils,
with water, alligator clip hookup wires and a battery and you have Electrolysis. Running a current through water breaks it into hydrogen and oxygen gases, which can be recognized by their different size bubbles. Using a simple electrolyzer is a process that requires dexterity, focus and order of steps. It is has self correction of error. It requires action and has interesting results, very much like using a simple electromagnet.
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Production of Oxygen and Hydrogen is reversible. A cell and collection bottles and tubing from a model fuel cell car kit provide a source that can power motors and lights, interact with a basic circuit set and is based on recombining the two gases to release Electricity. This transformation cycle directly connects Elements and Electricity through Chemical Reaction.
Other Inert Gasses. Helium is available at grocery store flower stands and is a useful demonstration tool. You can make things float while sitting in circle. Neon, argon and other inert gases can be purchased in tubes and bulbs that will glow in the presence of a plasma ball’s electrical field, which further associates the properties of Elements with Electricity.
The Periodic Table
There are a few basic images, representing basic ideas, that belong in every primary classroom. The electromagnetic spectrum, for instance, or the human circulatory system, or the Earth as seen from space.
One such image is the organizational chart of Elements, the Periodic Table. The table needs only to be present in the environment and be a topic of discussion and activity. There are at least three visually and conceptually useful formats: color grouped, photographic, and spectral.
A poster or place mat having photographs of actual samples enables matching with physical samples. Color coding categories builds the idea of subgroups, the actual organizational structure, and offers more matching with regard to atomic numbers found stamped or marked on metal samples. Spectra develop the idea that all elements radiate and each has a unique pattern, it’s own rainbow, if you will, as identifiable as a finger print.
The fact and concept of elemental materials is one of a number of fundamental scientific ideas and experiences that, like the difference between transverse and compression waves, should not be held back until upper elementary and secondary levels. These materials and ideas can be readily and affordably placed in the environments and experiences of early childhood.
A Child’s Elements is one of a series of articles presenting Physics at a primary level.
