Name______________________Date__________________Group Members__________________Period
Mendeleev Periodic Table Lab
You and a team of scientists are going to have the same task as Dmitri Mendeleev, the scientist credited
with the first version of our current Periodic Table created about 150 years ago. He had a couple decades
to work on it, but I will be giving you only this week (See how smart I think you are).
By the way, although he predicted several elements that had yet to be discovered, he also made some
mistakes. He even concluded there was an element called Coronium. It does not actually exist. Therefore,
you may make a couple mistakes along the way but like Mendeleev your conclusions must be wellfounded.
Materials: Your Science Notebook
assorted candies
1 piece of paper per group to record your finalized periodic table
Procedure
1. Review your elements.
2. Do not eat the elements until I have checked in your periodic table.
3. Try arranging the elements in your table in such a way that you can predict the existence of other
candies that are not in your bag.
4. Record Physical Properties of the candy (Flavor, color, shape, hardness, substance etc.)
5. Arrange the candy into an organized table based on the properties you decide on.
6. Each group/family should have shared properties and a name
7. Draw your periodic table of elements on a blank piece of paper 1 per group.
8. Consider groups of elements that share several characteristics. Please code these or name these in
some way. (I’d like to see lots of lists and keys and attempts.)
9. Order the unknown elements within each group. Consider whether each of your groups could be
organized in the same way. (*this is not all the candy that exists in the world)
10. You should have 20 elements (types of candy) in your table not just 8 I provided.
11. Now place your groups side by side to create your own Periodic Table. How would you place them
right to left on your table?
Please try to accomplish two tasks. (Hide your ideas form other scientists. Just as in Dmitri’s day, there
are scientists unwillingly to do the hard and rewarding work of following the Scientific Process.)
Review your work. You may want to change the order, within the groups and from group to group—with
good reason on which all scientists on the team agree. Write these ideas down. Now continue with
today’s work.
Name______________________Date__________________Group Members__________________Period
Answer the following questions:
What are the group characteristics? Explain each of your groups separately and concisely.
How are the individuals groups organized from top to bottom? Are they all organized in the same way or
did you come up with something different for each group?
What are the general trends form right to left on your periodic Table? Again be specific.
Predict the existence of at least 3 new candies and explain how you know
Was it easy to separate the individual candies into groups using these properties?
Do you think there are other properties that might be better to use?