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Building words from chemical elements: a fun and inclusive approach to introduce the periodic table

  • Taweetham Limpanuparb ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Weerapat Chiranon ORCID logo und Methin Intaraprasit ORCID logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 13. Juni 2024
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Chemistry Teacher International
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Abstract

A program for writing words (or personal names) by combining chemical element symbols is developed in the context of classroom activity to introduce the periodic table, properties of elements, and periodic trends. We provide multiple examples and possible ideas to improve student engagement and create an inclusive environment in the classroom. Common confusions and mistakes made when learning the periodic table are tabulated and discussed. In addition to spelling words and creating graphics using element symbols, the program can display and print out properties of elements as part of the word-building game.

Keywords: general chemistry; puzzles/games; periodic table; atomic properties; nomenclature/symbols

1 Introduction

The internationally accepted set of symbols for chemical elements is the basic common language of chemistry. Learners are often encouraged to memorize the chemical symbols as part of their lesson – in some cases from as early as primary school. While most symbols are intuitive to English speakers, at least 11 can be challenging as their symbols are not consistent with their names, given their Latin (Na, K, Fe, Cu, Ag, Sn, Sb, Au and Pb), Greek (Hg) and German (W) origins (Library of Congress (Science Reference Section), 2020).

In recognition of this as rote learning for young audiences, variations of games, puzzles, and activities have been developed (Bayir, 2014; Cady, 2012; Capps, 2008; Eichstadt, 1993; Franco-Mariscal & Cano-Inglesias, 2007; Franco-Mariscal & Cano-Iglesias, 2011; Franco-Mariscal et al., 2012, 2015, 2018; Garrigos et al., 1987; Granath & Russell, 1999; Hara et al., 2007; Helser, 2003; Hoffman & Hennessy, 2018; Joag, 2014; Kavak, 2012; Kuntzleman et al., 2013; Larson et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2016; Levine, 1990; Martí-Centelles & Rubio-Magnieto, 2014; Melaku et al., 2016; Montejo Bernardo & Fernández González, 2021; Moreno et al., 2014; Palmer & Brosnick, 2005; Rodríguez-Blas et al., 2021; Sevcik et al., 2008; Tejeda & Palacios, 1995; Woelk, 2009, 2015; Yenikalaycı et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2022). Basic materials (Eichstadt, 1993; Hara et al., 2007; Lee et al., 2016; Levine, 1990; Palmer & Brosnick, 2005; Sevcik et al., 2008) can address the memorization of symbol/atomic number/name, while advanced materials (Bayir, 2014; Cady, 2012; Capps, 2008; Franco-Mariscal et al., 2012; Hoffman & Hennessy, 2018; Joag, 2014; Kavak, 2012; Kuntzleman et al., 2013; Larson et al., 2012; Martí-Centelles & Rubio-Magnieto, 2014; Melaku et al., 2016; Montejo Bernardo & Fernández González, 2021; Moreno et al., 2014; Tejeda & Palacios, 1995; Zhang et al., 2022) aim to teach properties of elements and periodic trends or even linking it to other topics e.g. geography/map (Franco-Mariscal et al., 2018; Franco-Mariscal & Cano-Inglesias, 2007; Woelk, 2009), postage stamps (Garrigos et al., 1987), human bones (Franco-Mariscal & Cano-Iglesias, 2011), zoo animal (Helser, 2003) chemical formula (Rodríguez-Blas et al., 2021) and molar mass (Woelk, 2015). It has been shown that students remember names and symbols of chemical elements better when they learn through puzzles (Franco-Mariscal et al., 2018). A brief review of these materials can be found in previous works (Franco-Mariscal et al., 2015; Yenikalaycı et al., 2019).

In addition to game-based teaching, there is a series of software (Banks & Holmes, 1995; Banks et al., 1999; Banks & Jacobsen, 2009; Feng & Moore, 1986; JCE staff, 2008; Kotz, 1989) that descriptively provide elemental data, initially as text, numbers, and graphs based on CRC handbook data and later as videos of interesting reactions such as alkali metal in water and hydrogen explosion (Banks & Jacobsen, 2009). In the span of decades since the 1980s, “KC? Discoverer” (Feng & Moore, 1986; Kotz, 1989), “The Periodic Table CD” (Banks & Holmes, 1995) and “Periodic Table Live!” (Banks et al., 1999; JCE staff, 2008) were among the most popular resources used by chemistry teachers.

It is also important to note that the periodic table of elements was not static (Meija, 2014) until IUPAC made recommendations for official names of the remaining elements in the seventh row (Öhrström & Reedijk, 2016) in 2016. Not only names but the arrangement (Besalú, 2013; Chaverri, 1953; Clark & White, 2008; Hawkes, 1999; Hoffman & Lee, 1999; Jensen, 2008; Kurushkin, 2017; Laing, 1989, 2009; Sanderson, 1954; Ternstrom, 1964) was debated at length and textbooks were found to contain inconsistent versions of the table (Clark & White, 2008).

With the settling dust on the name and arrangement of elements in the periodic table, we propose the activities of building words from chemical elements as a fun and inclusive approach to introduce the periodic table. Our distinct contributions to the literature are described below.

  1. Systematic analysis of the Latin alphabet in the periodic table and recommendations for missing letters

  2. User friendly and open-source computer program to spell words and create stickers and cards

  3. Our unique approach to promote inclusion and incorporate more advanced materials into the game

Activities are assisted by Mathematica code that can be customized further to suit the needs of instructors and students in a different context. The inclusion aspect of the activity is achieved by relevant storytelling and production of braille on tactile materials (Zhang et al., 2022). The materials discussed in this paper are suitable for introducing the periodic table at any educational stage (secondary school, undergraduate or general public).

2 The Latin alphabet in the periodic table

Upon analyzing letters in the modern periodic table with our script in Mathematica, case-insensitively, (Supplementary Material), 24 out of 26 letters in the Latin alphabet can be found (with J and Q missing). Among the 24 letters found in the periodic table, 14 letters can be represented by one-letter symbols, while the other 10 letters (ADEGLMRTXZ) must be extracted from two-letter symbols. Some letters can be represented by historical/temporary symbols (Meija, 2014), for example, J (Jod in German) for iodine (Eichstadt, 1993), Uuq for element 114 (deprecated temporary name for element 114 which were never used by researchers in the field) (Hoffman & Lee, 1999). Isotope names such as D for Deuterium (Franco-Mariscal & Cano-Inglesias, 2007) and T for tritium may also be used.

While there is a potential for students to engage with historical naming, we recommend a faithful reproduction of the element symbols from the modern periodic table distributed by the IUPAC (IUPAC, 2022) to avoid confusion. It is also understood that any symbol for a rejected element can never be used again (Scerri, 2014). With that, we consider rotating existing letters to form the missing letters (Wikipedia Contributors, 2023). Letters J and Q can be obtained from the 180° rotation of lowercase letters f/r and b, respectively. The extraction of a letter from two-letter symbols such as D from Dy and T from Ti accommodates the group of 10 letters mentioned earlier. This proposal of a new and systematic approach for a complete set of 26 letters is summarized in Table 1 and is the main scheme of the paper. It fills the gap from previous work which accepted or even ignored the fact that many words cannot be spelled with elements (Palmer & Brosnick, 2005) or allowed missing letters to be skipped (Rodríguez-Blas et al., 2021; Woelk, 2015). Additional possibilities for rotation of letters are listed at the end of the table. Following the scheme of rotation and extraction described here, a minimum of nine elements, Cf, Kr, Na, Og, Pb, Si, Th, W, and Xe, are needed to represent all 26 Latin alphabets. Alternatively, 13 elements, Cf, K, Lv, Md, Na, Og, Pu, Si, Th, W, Xe, Yb and Zr can represent 24 Latin letters (excluding J and Q) without the need to rotate. If the 14 one-letter symbols and the extraction of the first letter from two-letter symbols of lowest possible atomic number are preferred, 25 elements are required. These are shown in Figure 1.

Table 1:

Analysis of Latin alphabet in the periodic table by alphabetical order.

Letter Location of the letter in a chemical symbol
Single letter First letter Second letter
A – Ac, Ag, Al, Am, Ar, As, At, Au Ba, Ca, Ga, La, Na, Pa, Ra, Ta
B B Ba, Be, Bh, Bi, Bk, Br Db, Nb, Pb, Rb, Sb, Tb, Yb
C* C Ca, Cd, Ce, Cf, Cl, Cm, Cn, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu Ac, Mc, Sc, Tc
D* – Db, Ds, Dy Cd, Gd, Md, Nd, Pd
E – Er, Es, Eu Be, Ce, Fe, Ge, He, Ne, Re, Se, Te, Xe
F F Fe, Fl, Fm, Fr Cf, Hf, Rf
G – Ga, Gd, Ge Ag, Hg, Mg, Og, Rg, Sg
H H He, Hf, Hg, Ho, Hs Bh, Nh, Rh, Th
I I In, Ir Bi, Li, Ni, Si, Ti
J* – – –
K K Kr Bk
L* – La, Li, Lr, Lu, Lv Al, Cl, Fl, Tl
M* – Mc, Md, Mg, Mn, Mo, Mt Am, Cm, Fm, Pm, Sm, Tm
N* N Na, Nb, Nd, Ne, Nh, Ni, No, Np Cn, In, Mn, Rn, Sn, Zn
O O Og, Os Co, Ho, Mo, No, Po
P* P Pa, Pb, Pd, Pm, Po, Pr, Pt, Pu Np
Q* – – –
R – Ra, Rb, Re, Rf, Rg, Rh, Rn, Ru Ar, Br, Cr, Er, Fr, Ir, Kr, Lr, Pr, Sr, Zr
S S Sb, Sc, Se, Sg, Si, Sm, Sn, Sr As, Cs, Ds, Es, Hs, Os, Ts
T* – Ta, Tb, Tc, Te, Th, Ti, Tl, Tm, Ts At, Mt, Pt
U* U – Au, Cu, Eu, Lu, Pu, Ru
V* V – Lv
W* W – –
X – Xe –
Y* Y Yb Dy
Z* – Zn, Zr –
Total 14 letters, 14 elements 21 letters, 104 elements 21 letters, 104 elements

  1. *These letters may be produced by rotating other letters. C is the 90° clockwise rotation of U. d is the 180° rotation of P/p (and vice versa). J is the 180° rotation of r/f. L can be considered the 180° rotation of T. M is a the 180° rotation of W (and vice versa). N is the 90° (counter-)clockwise rotation of Z (and vice versa). q is the 180° rotation of b (and vice versa). U is the 90° counter-clockwise rotation of C. V is the horizontal half of W. y can be considered the 180° rotation of h. The list is not exhaustive. Please refer to the code in Supplementary Material for a complete list and possible customisations.

Figure 1: Top: All 26 alphabets can be represented by selected sets of 25, 13 or 9 elements. Bottom: Examples of the phrases “Our idols C V Raman Tu Youyou” and “I love chemistry”. Mathematica’s default colors for elements were used. Random rotation of up to 5° in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions were applied for cosmetic effect. Lateral inversion of the image can also be produced by the program. This is helpful for decoration on glass.
Figure 1:

Top: All 26 alphabets can be represented by selected sets of 25, 13 or 9 elements. Bottom: Examples of the phrases “Our idols C V Raman Tu Youyou” and “I love chemistry”. Mathematica’s default colors for elements were used. Random rotation of up to 5° in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions were applied for cosmetic effect. Lateral inversion of the image can also be produced by the program. This is helpful for decoration on glass.

3 Pedagogical consideration

3.1 Importance and implications

Table 1 is not only helpful for writing words using symbols from the periodic table. It helps students recognize groups of symbols that are commonly mixed up with one another such as Ag/Ar, C/Ca/Cs, H/Hg, Mg/Mn, O/Og, and Ra/Rn. Instructors can also make use of the table to create multiple-choice questions of these groups of similarly looking symbols. In addition, the case of Y/Yb was the center of controversy (Dalton, 2001; Roy & Ashburn, 2001; Wu et al., 1987) of a seminal research on high-temperature superconductor ceramic leading to the 1987 Noble Prize for Physics. This epic can be discussed as a classical example to reinforce the importance of chemical symbols.

For teaching and learning of chemistry beyond the periodic table, ambiguous uses of letters for variables and abbreviations can be discussed. A letter or group of letters is often used as a variable (placeholder) or abbreviation to help simplify the text. For example,

  1. In organic chemistry, the use of –R for alkyl group, –X for halogen atom and –Ar for aromatic group is common. The first two are acceptable while the last one may be a violation of Ar symbol for Argon in the periodic table.

  2. For generic chemical structure (Markush structure) (Lorpaiboon & Limpanuparb, 2021) the placeholders are sometimes labeled as X, Y and Z. Both X and Z are legitimate but Y can be confused with Yttrium.

  3. In acid-base chemistry, many abbreviations are needed to simplify the discussion. HA and HB are sometimes used for two generic acids. HA is acceptable and helpful but, in light of the argument here, the use of HB may be reconsidered. Similarly, NADH for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, an important co-enzyme found in all living cells, and KHP for potassium hydrogen phthalate, a primary standard, are sometimes written in the context of chemical reactions. The first may be acceptable but the second can encourage us to rethink the following chemical equations,

KHP + H 2 O →   K + + HP −

HP − + H 2 O ⇌   P 2 − + H 3 O +

Abbreviations in science are rampant and are tolerated as long as they are defined. However, we would like to point out that when non-standard abbreviations are intermingled with internationally recognized conventions of chemical elements, they are prone to misinterpretation and confusion.

While there is no universally agreed standard to avoid symbol collision with chemical symbols, lowercase Latin alphabet (Datta & Limpanuparb, 2021; Limpanuparb et al., 2020; Lorpaiboon & Limpanuparb, 2021), Greek alphabet (Chinsukserm et al., 2019; Datta et al., 2023; Datta & Limpanuparb, 2020) or numerals (Arabic or Roman) have been used successfully in the literature as a placeholder. For abbreviations, as we learn from the few examples above, the issue will be an ongoing debate by the scientific community. As an instructor of chemistry, the awareness of potential issues here can save the trouble for our students at later stages.

3.2 Student names and spelling alphabet

While the periodic table may not be introduced as the first chapter in class, it is commonly on the cover of chemistry textbooks. It is possible to introduce chemical symbols and elements during the first class to coincide with introduction of students and instructor(s).

In a multicultural society, the classroom is becoming more diverse and the introduction session is the prime opportunity to get to know students. As some names are from different cultures care should be taken to recognize their unfamiliar spelling or pronunciation. This may also help students learn of the instructor’s name.

“KAEW”, a common name in Thailand, can be used as an example. Rather than using K-kilo-A-alfa-E-echo-W-whiskey (NATO/ICAO/ITU spelling alphabet) (NATO, 2016), this name can be introduced as K-krypton-A-gold-E-einsteinium-W-tungsten. This four-letter single-syllable name can be formed in many ways. According to Table 1, there are 3, 16, 13 and 1 possible elements to represent the letters K, A, E and W respectively, making up 624 possible combinations. The number of possible combinations grows exponentially and this is considered a feature rather than a bug of the activity. In many cases, the use of two-letter symbols “as is” will also add more possible combinations. If needed, our Mathematica code (Supplementary Material) can count or list them out. For example, the name KAEW can be represented by the list of four numbers {36.01, 79.01, 99.01, 74} meaning the first letter of Kr, the first letter of Au, the first letter of Es and the letter W. For each number, the integer part is the atomic number and the decimal part signifies whether the first or the second letter is used as well as how they are rotated (.01 – .15 are defined in the program). Further restrictions (e.g. Only use single-letter symbol if available.) can be placed to reduce the number of possible combinations. Introducing combinatorics to the class at this point will be helpful when isomers and chemical derivatives are taught later.

Other words and names can be given as examples. Acknowledging that all 118 elements up to the seventh row of the periodic table of elements have been discovered and sometimes named in honor of geographical locations and individuals, it is still possible to write names that reflect our identity, places and heroes by those very elements. Figure 1 show the names of Asian Nobel laureates (Uleanya et al., 2023), C. V. Raman (Indian Physicist, 1888–1970) and Tu Youyou (Chinese Pharmaceutical Chemist, 1930–).

Depending on the depth of the activities, they can be done through the last 10 min of a large lecture class to get smiles from students that were not ready to engage in more theory (Eichstadt, 1993) or can be given as assignment for flash presentation (Rodríguez-Blas et al., 2021), art exhibitions (Levine, 1990; Rodríguez-Blas et al., 2021) or competition (Eichstadt, 1993; Woelk, 2015).

3.3 Links to elemental and periodic properties

The choice of elements for each letter in a word can be random for simplicity and for the benefit of time. This is suitable for young audiences in primary (Montejo Bernardo & Fernández González, 2021; Sevcik et al., 2008) and secondary (Levine, 1990; Rodríguez-Blas et al., 2021) schools. However, if time permits, the choice can be more conditioned and linked to the elemental and/or periodic properties.

Many ideas were proposed in the literature (Franco-Mariscal et al., 2012; Kavak, 2012; Larson et al., 2012; Moreno et al., 2014; Rodríguez-Blas et al., 2021; Woelk, 2015). The most obvious and recent ones are total formula mass (Woelk, 2015) and empirical formula (Rodríguez-Blas et al., 2021). As elements making up the name are unlikely to form real compounds and names are very much variable in length, we prefer to explore alternative ideas about state, price, mass abundance (in human/earth crust/universe), location in the periodic table (group/period), year of discovery, toxicity/radioactivity as well as other properties of the elements (Feng & Moore, 1986; Kotz, 1989). For example, we can set rules to encourage students to spell their names satisfying one or several of these rules. If more than one rule is used, priority should be given as to which rule must be satisfied first.

  1. Fewest possible elements (i.e. use as many as two-letter symbols if possible and use the same element again rather than choosing a new one)

  2. Most abundant element (i.e. use aluminum for the letter A)

  3. Lowest possible melting point (i.e. use argon for the letter A)

  4. Choose your element in an increasing atomic radius order (for example, Kr-Al-Fe-W for KAEW in Figure 2).

Figure 2: A plot of atomic radius in pm of selected elements that form the word “KAEW”.
Figure 2:

A plot of atomic radius in pm of selected elements that form the word “KAEW”.

The last three rules here tend to direct students toward common elements. However, their opposite (least abundant, highest melting point, decreasing radius) can be applied for students to explore unseen parts of the periodic table.

3.4 Word puzzles

Word puzzles (Cady, 2012; Franco-Mariscal & Cano-Iglesias, 2011; Franco-Mariscal & Cano-Inglesias, 2007; Joag, 2014) or pneumonics (Hara et al., 2007) can be constructed from elemental symbols. Examples are provided below with brief comments on tools that we used to produced them.

  1. What are the most abundant elements by mass on the earth’s crust? SOFA (Si–O–Fe–Al totaling more than 85 %. This was constructed with an assistance of an online anagram solver.)

  2. Can you make a fruit out of alkali and alkaline earth metals? Banana (Ba–Na–Na) and fig (Fr–Li–Mg). The first one is a commonly known pun but the second was obtained with the assistance of ChatGPT.

  3. Can you spell Sydney using only three unique elements? (Ds–Y–Ds–Ne–Y, only three unique elements Ds, Y, Ne are used.)

  4. Write “Santa” using only two unique elements. (Ts–Na–Na–Ts–Na, only two unique elements Ts and Na are used.)

  5. Write “Noon” using only one unique element. (No and rotated No will work for this case.)

  6. What province in Thailand can be spelled with only one element? (If Nan is spelled by Na–Na, only one element is used.

Depending on the complexity of conditions or rules set in this practice, a script may be written to search, verify or score the answers. List of properties of Mathematica built-in commands ‘ChemicalData’ and ‘ElementData’ can be found online (Wolfram Research, 2014). As elemental properties are revised continuously the use of Mathematica code can keep our materials up to date. The data returned by these two commands is primarily derived from sources such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and periodictable.com. Without Mathematica program, one may try to extract similar atomic properties from Wolfram alpha website.

It is also possible to assign students to work in groups (Limpanuparb et al., 2021) or ask for volunteers to answer a question based on the properties of elements in their name. These will require further consideration and planning by instructor before the actual implementation.

3.5 Artefacts for class and everyday uses

After students and instructors put considerable effort into spelling words or names out of element symbols, it can be forgotten within the day. For a lasting impact, our program written in Mathematica (Supplementary Material) produces an output file for further use. The output can be the word/name or individual block of elements in playing card format (Franco-Mariscal et al., 2012; Granath & Russell, 1999; Martí-Centelles & Rubio-Magnieto, 2014; Sevcik et al., 2008) with selected properties and information.

Digitally, the work can be used as background/locked screen picture on electronic devices or posted on social media. Physically, it can be printed out on a piece of self-adhesive paper or transparent film. If desired, the output can be changed to die-cut vinyl stickers, t-shirts (Palmer & Brosnick, 2005), 3D-printed materials (Zhang et al., 2022) or custom-made name badge. Premade letter beads (plastics, wooden or metal) are also inexpensive alternatives that promote art and craftwork for students. Applications are not limited to classrooms. This can be used for outreach activity, student club or made into a sign for faculty office. Figures 3, 4 and 5 show examples of artefacts produced by the program.

Figure 3: “Learning Periodic Table” is written by elements in the periodic table. (Graphical abstract).
Figure 3:

“Learning Periodic Table” is written by elements in the periodic table. (Graphical abstract).

Figure 4: Element cards generated by the program were printed out. The “14LaAc” periodic table is shown at the center and this can be easily rearranged according to other compositions of Group 3. (Scerri, 2016, 2021) (Top and Middle) Words and names printed on self-adhesive paper can be placed on a glass surface (Lower left) as a temporary sign for a new faculty member and on a laptop computer (Lower right) as a sign of affiliation.
Figure 4:

Element cards generated by the program were printed out. The “14LaAc” periodic table is shown at the center and this can be easily rearranged according to other compositions of Group 3. (Scerri, 2016, 2021) (Top and Middle) Words and names printed on self-adhesive paper can be placed on a glass surface (Lower left) as a temporary sign for a new faculty member and on a laptop computer (Lower right) as a sign of affiliation.

Due to cost considerations, we tested out the idea of this work mainly on paper and die-cut vinyl stickers. Students may attach it anywhere they wish to such as windows, doors, electronic devices, books and folders. If a braille font is used (Figure 5), the die-cut vinyl stickers and t-shirts can also provide tactile surface readable by Visually Impaired Person (VIP). Clothes can be printed by embroidery, screen printing, direct to garment and heat transfer. Since the last three require ink, the thickness and the tactile feel can vary greatly. As die cut and embroidery may have a limited number of colors, a monochrome version of elements is provided in our code for production using these techniques.

Figure 5: “Welcome VIP learners” was printed in a braille font. No rotation nor colors are applied in this case to improve readability by touch.
Figure 5:

“Welcome VIP learners” was printed in a braille font. No rotation nor colors are applied in this case to improve readability by touch.

4 Concluding remarks

Memorizing chemical name and symbols can be boring and demotivating for many learners (Rodríguez-Blas et al., 2021). A fun and inclusive approach to tackle this challenge is discussed in the paper. Depending on the actual implementation, students learn atomic symbols from words and names and may also explore related properties of the chemical elements. The approach described here encourages participation and competition in a game-like fashion to make it captivating for learners. A special consideration to inclusion was also made in this project by ensuring that all names written by the Latin alphabets are possible, providing examples that are culturally and linguistically related to students as well as producing tactile products in braille.

Writing words or names “in chemistry” (Eichstadt, 1993) is not a new activity and it has a very low barrier of entry for instructors to implement. Nevertheless, our work provides programming tools with some guides and examples to facilitate the activity in the classroom. Artwork and assessment of competition criteria can be done in our computer program to save the teacher’s time. The most updated elemental properties are used as they are fetched at runtime from Wolfram Inc’s server. On a separate note, the effective use of symbols and abbreviations in chemistry is also discussed as part of the lessons learnt from the activity.

Supplementary Material

Mathematica code, example results and short video clips for this work are available for download. Possible extensions beyond the periodic table (ISO 80000-9 Annex A) to other two-letter codes such as country codes (ISO 3166-1) are discussed there.

Corresponding author: Taweetham Limpanuparb, Mahidol University International College, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, 73170, Thailand; and School of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia, E-mail:

Funding source: National Research Council of Thailand

Award Identifier / Grant number: NRCT5-RSA63015-22

Funding source: Mahidol University

Award Identifier / Grant number: NRCT5-RSA63015-22

Award Identifier / Grant number: MU-GPI 06/2565

Acknowledgments

T.L. thanks Junming Ho for hosting his senior visiting fellowship at UNSW Sydney from 2022 to 2024. We acknowledge advice and support from Disability Support Services Mahidol University (DSS Mahidol), Educational Technology Section of Mahidol University International College (MUIC’s EdTech) and NSTDA Shop. We thank Boonyanit Mathayomchan and Chaleena Pimpasri for sample vinyl sticker cutting. Permission for photo usage from periodictable.com by Theodore Gray is greatly appreciated. We also appreciate proofreading and constructive inputs by Sopanant Datta.

  1. Research ethics: The study was approved by Mahidol University’s IPSR-IRB, COA No. 2020/05-241. The research described in the paper does not involve collection of data from human subjects. The work is a part of a research project in which all volunteer participants signed an informed consent form.

  2. Author contributions: The authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Research funding: T.L. was supported by Mid-career Researcher Development grant (NRCT5-RSA63015-22) jointly funded by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) and Mahidol University. T.L. was also supported by Mahidol University’s Global Partnering Initiative (MU – GPI contract no. 06/2565). Funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

  5. Data availability: All relevant data are provided in the Supplementary Material.

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/cti-2023-0058).

Received: 2023-10-01
Accepted: 2023-10-30
Published Online: 2024-06-13

© 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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  2. Review Article
  3. Teaching hydrogen bridges: it is not FON anymore!
  4. Research Articles
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  6. Ambassadors of professional development in teaching and learning in STEM higher education
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https://doi.org/10.1515/cti-2023-0058
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
general chemistry; puzzles/games; periodic table; atomic properties; nomenclature/symbols
Creative Commons
BY-NC-ND 4.0

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Review Article
  3. Teaching hydrogen bridges: it is not FON anymore!
  4. Research Articles
  5. Exploring the implementation of stepwise inquiry-based learning in higher education
  6. Ambassadors of professional development in teaching and learning in STEM higher education
  7. Investigating the influence of temperature on salt solubility in water: a STEM approach with pre-university chemistry students
  8. Analysis of undergraduate chemistry students’ responses to substitution reaction mechanisms: a road to mastery
  9. Development of augmented reality as a learning tool to improve student ability in comprehending chemical properties of the elements
  10. Fractionating microplastics by density gradient centrifugation: a novel approach using LuerLock syringes in a low-cost density gradient maker
  11. Elucidating atomic emission and molecular absorption spectra using a basic CD spectrometer: a pedagogical approach for secondary-level students
  12. Students’ perceptions towards the use of computer simulations in teaching and learning of chemistry in lower secondary schools
  13. International teacher survey on green and sustainable chemistry (GSC) practical activities: design and implementation
  14. Good Practice Reports
  15. Building words from chemical elements: a fun and inclusive approach to introduce the periodic table
  16. Design of Jacob’s ladder-based teaching aids for illustrating the dualities of benzene derivatives
  17. Learning with NanoKid: line-angle formula, chemical formula, molecular weight, and elemental analysis
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