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Education
Reactions: Memorizing the periodic table and classifying bromine sources
May 6, 2022
| A version of this story appeared in
Volume 100, Issue 16
Letters to the editor
Memorizing the periodic table
Re: Newscripts, April 18, 2022, page 40
Some years ago at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I taught a one-semester inorganic course for BS chemistry majors. During the class we covered all the noncarbon elements in a systematic way, illustrating group relationships. The periodic table was our map, and a giant version hung above the blackboard for reference.
At the end of the semester and as a part of the final exams, I covered the chart and passed out blank periodic tables for the students to fill in the chemical symbol of each element in its appropriate place. Every correct answer (up to 100) added a point to their final grade.
The average score was about 50, heavily skewed to the s- and p-block elements. Only a few diligent students got more than a couple of the rare earths in their proper places.
I agree with Martin Galpin at the University of Oxford that chemistry students need to understand elements’ place in the periodic table.
Philip Rakita
Philadelphia
Bromine sources
I am responding to a letter to the editor (C&EN, March 28, 2022, page 3) that was a response to the eagle-killing aetokthonotoxin article (C&EN, Feb. 28, 2022, page 6). Wallace Fu asked in his letter, “Where does the hydrilla find bromine to incorporate into this toxin?” He goes on to postulate that the likely source is from “minerals in the ground or freshwater lakes in Arkansas.” I believe he is correct! Wallace goes on to refer to the situation as an “environmental disaster” that could also “affect the health of our domestic animals and humans.” It turns out there is a lot of bromine in Arkansas. In fact, one of the bromine extraction hot spots in the US is a mine in Arkansas south of DeGray Lake. But, if the bromine is naturally occurring, can we really consider that an environmental disaster? Wallace should be doubly concerned in this particular case since another region with a history of bromine extraction is his home state of Michigan.
Ken Savin
Indianapolis
Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2024 American Chemical Society
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