Using Manipulatives to Teach Chemistry Concepts

How Can We Differentiate Complex Content for Our Various Learners?

At the middle school level, it’s sometimes a great challenge to differentiate for various learning styles when you’re in the midst of a chemistry unit. Imagine learning about chemical bonding for the very first time. It’s a complex concept that can be seen at a macro scale in an exciting chemical reaction, but that is totally abstract at a micro scale. I know that when the Spring comes around and we get into the nitty-gritty chemistry unit (you know… bonding, chemical reactions, balancing equations, etc.), a big handful of kiddos get overwhelmed and become at risk for shutting down completely. At the same time, I always have a posse of people who are totally on board with the concepts and actually enjoy the challenge! What is a teacher to do?!

In my experience teaching 8th grade physical science, I have found that incorporating hands-on manipulatives can be a way to tackle this challenge. What is a manipulative? This is a fancy word for a hands-on puzzle or model that can be manipulated! Being able to move pieces around the table or hold a physical model that represents a concept keeps things low-stakes for students! Low stakes activities can lead to higher engagement from your students who would otherwise give up on trying. They can also make your high-fliers feel extra confident in their understanding of the content. This is when you can suggest that they help others who are struggling. Additionally, over 65% of middle schoolers are visual learners and at least 15% are kinesthetic learners. Manipulatives provide the opportunity to satisfy both of these major learning styles. And hey, your auditory learners will also benefit from the collaborative nature of the activities!

From teaching the properties of matter to atomic structure to chemical bonding, I have found, adapted, and created various manipulatives that help my concrete-thinkers to reach their ‘Eureka!’ moment! Please keep reading to learn about some of my favorites!

I’m providing a FREE DOWNLOAD at the bottom of this resource so be sure to scroll to the bottom to grab the freebie!

Use Hardware to Teach Elements, Compounds, and Mixtures

This Flinn Classifying Matter activity is so great for helping students to visualize the difference between pure elements, pure compounds, mixtures of elements, mixtures of compounds, and mixtures of elements and compounds. Use various combinations of hardware like nuts, bolts, and washers in Petri dishes to represent pure substances and mixtures. I raided my dad’s workshop years ago and I’ve used these Petri dishes every year since! The students can visit stations set up around the classroom or you could have them pass the dishes around the room to identify. The Flinn write up has examples of combinations, but you can make up your own based on what hardware you’re working with. I added a ‘diatomic molecule’ dish that has pairs of washers hooked together with small rubber bands.

Use Easter Eggs to Model Isotopes of Atoms

A concept that I have found tricky to teach is why atomic mass is a decimal number on the Periodic Table. Enter the Eggium isotopes! This lesson involves creating 10 Easter eggs filled with specific numbers of pom-poms or beads representing protons and neutrons. Students will find the weighted average mass of the various isotopes of this fictitious element of Eggium to arrive at the atomic mass of Eggium! You can find this activity here.

Use Bingo Chips and ‘Bohr Placemats’ to Model Atomic Structure

The quickest and easiest way I’ve found to help students arrange electrons into electron shells for various atoms is to use ‘Bohr Diagram Placemats’ and bingo chips! The electron shells are labeled K through N. I review that 2 electrons can fit into the K shell, 8 can fit into the L, M, and N shells. The students should have out a periodic table because they will need to determine the number of protons (atomic #) and neutrons (mass number – atomic number) for each atom’s nucleus before arranging the electrons (bingo chips).

Print the placemats and put them in plastic sleeves for each student so that they can write the numbers of protons and neutrons on them with a dry erase marker. Put a big handful of bingo chips in a cup for each student and give each student a dry erase marker. To make this an activity, I use digital flashcards that I made using Flippity.net. You can download my Bohr Diagram placemat for free here. This is also where you will find the link to download my free Google Sheets spreadsheet to use these flashcards. The directions for using the flashcards are in the freebie download!

Use Periodic People Manipulatives to Introduce the Periodic Table

It’s so important that students understand that the Periodic Table is a valuable and extremely organized tool and not an overwhelming plethora or numbers and letters. My favorite way to introduce this concept is by using these Periodic People manipulatives. At first glance, these little cartoon guys seem completely unrelated to chemistry. But given a couple of minutes, your students will have them arranged with some sort of organization based on their many varied characteristics. For example, the numbers of antennae, the numbers of arms, the numbers of fingers on the hands, the facial expressions, the patterned bellies, and the belly sizes vary. Students will discover patterns as they arrange the cartoons into a Periodic Table, and they will be able to determine the characteristics of a missing cartoon piece! Read more about this activity and check out the lesson here!

Use Bohr Diagrams Manipulatives to Allow Discovery of Periodic Patterns in Atomic Structure

Rather than just telling my students about the periodic patterns in atomic structure that exist in the Periodic Table, I like to give them a chance to discover it for themselves. After we’ve studied the Bohr model, I hand out these Bohr Diagrams Manipulative cards, which cover elements #1-20. Students arrange the cards into the Periodic Table. I love hearing them start to get it! The numbers of electron shells increase going down a group. The numbers of valence electrons increase by one going across a period. There are incremental increases in the numbers of protons and electrons going down a column. The worksheets that accompany this activity help students to synthesize their Bohr Diagram table. You can view this resource by clicking here!

Use Digital Manipulatives for an Alien Periodic Table Activity

This activity is a great way to assess your students’ understanding of the Periodic Table! I actually use this as an assessment grade in my class. This is a digital take on an alien periodic table that I used to have my students do on paper. Students are told that the alien scientists on another planet have made contact with Earth and are interested in comparing data about the elements that exist on their planet to those on Earth. Students are given some background information, a list of clues, a blank periodic table, and a ‘word bank’ of the alien periodic table squares. They must use the extraterrestrial data to arrange the alien elements onto the blank periodic table. Then, they must color-code the alien table using the family names.

You can grab a FREE DOWNLOAD of the DIGITAL ALIEN PERIODIC TABLE ACTIVITY! You can change the planet name to something relevant to you or your school! Share this assignment with your students via Google Classroom.

Use Bonding Manipulatives to Teach Covalent and Ionic Bonds

Chemical bonding is one of those abstract concepts that some students have a really difficult time grasping. I use manipulatives to keep things low-stakes! For learning covalent bonding, students can try different combinations of Lewis Dot Diagrams to see if the bonds match up. They notice that certain elements make single, double, and triple bonds and that sometimes a second, third, or fourth atom is necessary to satisfy all of the bonding pairs.

For learning ionic bonding, students use cation and anion puzzle pieces that fit together in certain ratios. This helps them to see how 1+, 2+, and 3+ cations and 3-, 2-, and 1- anions can ionically bond in specific ratios. This set comes with polyatomic and polyvalent options, too, which makes it easier for students to understand that the principle of ratio is the same even when the ion has multiple atoms or multiple oxidation states.

Check out the Covalent Bonding Manipulatives and the Ionic Bonding Manipulatives here!

 

I hope this list helps to give you some new ideas for using manipulative activities in your science class! What other types of manipulatives do you use to teach science concepts? Leave your ideas in the comments section below!