Tobinhttps://www.tobinscience.com/webquest-8th-atoms.htmlStudents
How it works
1. Get your sheet
Your teacher gives you the webquest sheet (paper or digital). Every answer goes on it.
2. Open each stop in order
Each stop opens in a new tab. Use the sliders and buttons on that page — your answers come from what you see.
3. Come back here
Close the tab, tick Done, and open the next stop. Finished early with a partner? Play the bonus.
The webquest
Stops
Atoms Unit Intro
Read the endless-cut hook, pick a big question, play Atom Builder and Periodic Table Detective.
Simple Science Videos: The Atom, The Periodic Table, Conservation
Watch three one-minute videos twice each and fill in the tables.
Vocabulary
Flip the Word Wall cards and define 14 words in your own words.
Atoms Part A: Atom Builder, Element Squares and Bohr Models
Build atoms particle by particle, read element squares, draw and check Bohr models.
Atoms Part B: The Periodic Table, Families and Stability
Color the table pattern by pattern, read element cards, hunt elements, test stability.
Atoms Part C: Simple Molecules and Conservation of Matter
Count atoms in molecules, tip the cup in a sealed bag, count atoms on both sides of the arrow.
Virtual Lab Bench: Build-an-Atom and Mass Mystery
Build carbon-12, decode a Mystery Atom, then react fizzy chemicals on a sealed and an open balance.
Wrap-up: Solve the endless-cut puzzle
Go back to the hook at the top of the unit intro and explain where the endless cut has to stop, using what you learned about atoms and protons.
Bonus: 1v1 Atoms & the Periodic Table
- Only when you and a partner have both finished every stop.
- One computer, two players: Red uses the W A S D keys and Blue uses the arrow keys. It needs a keyboard, so it will not work on a phone.
- Press Enter the Arena, pick a game, and play to 3 wins.
Teachers
For teachers
Post this link for your students
Students move through six free tobinscience.com resources in order: the Atoms unit intro (the endless-cut hook, Atom Builder and Periodic Table Detective), three one-minute Simple Science videos (The Atom, The Periodic Table, Conservation of Matter), the unit vocabulary, the full Atoms section (Parts 1–7: the atom builder with its readouts, the element-square reader, the Bohr model studio in show and build modes, the periodic table colored pattern by pattern with element cards and an element hunt, the stability meter with the sodium-and-chlorine scene, the molecule gallery with the count-the-atoms task, and the sealed bag on a balance with equation pictures, where-did-the-mass-go cases and a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning builder), two Virtual Lab Bench labs (Build-an-Atom, Mass Mystery) and a 1v1 review game for early finishers. Every answer comes from what the page shows, matching S8P1.e and S8P1.f.
S8P1.e, S8P1.f · S8P1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the structure and properties of matter. (e) Develop models by analyzing patterns within the periodic table that illustrate the structure, composition, and characteristics of atoms (protons, neutrons, and electrons) and simple molecules. (f) Construct an explanation based on evidence to describe conservation of matter in a chemical reaction including the resulting differences between products and reactants.
Time: about 80–85 minutes (two 45-minute periods, or one block)
Time: about 80–85 minutes (two 45-minute periods, or one block)
What students need
- One Chromebook or computer per student (the 1v1 bonus needs a keyboard and two students on one computer)
- Headphones, or low volume, for the three one-minute videos at Stop 2
- No student accounts or sign-ins; nothing to install
Every stop at a glance
- Stop 1: Unit Intro (about 12 min) · The endless cut · Big questions · Explore activities
- Stop 2: Videos (about 10 min) · Simple Science: S8P1 videos
- Stop 3: Vocabulary (about 10 min) · Word Wall (unit intro) · Atoms vocabulary
- Stop 4: Atom builder, squares, Bohr models (about 12 min) · Part 1: Atom builder · Part 2: Read the element square · Part 3: Bohr model studio
- Stop 5: Periodic table patterns, families & stability (about 12 min) · Part 4: The periodic table · Part 5: Families and stability
- Stop 6: Molecules + conservation of matter (about 14 min) · Part 6: Simple molecules · Part 7: Conservation of matter
- Stop 7: Virtual labs (about 12 min) · Build-an-Atom · Mass Mystery: Conservation Lab
- Bonus: 1v1 Atoms & the Periodic Table
Good to know
- The intro's Atom Builder and Detective rounds (Stop 1), the label-the-atom task, the element squares, the element hunt, the count-the-atoms formulas, the sort and the Lab Bench mystery values are randomized, so those answers vary from student to student. The readouts in the data tables (atom builder, Bohr studio, table messages, element cards, stability meter, molecule tables, the sealed bag, the equation counts and the cases) are fixed, so those match the key.
- Stop 1 activities award amu points that are saved only on that device; students write their score on the sheet.
- In Stop 7 each student gets a different Mystery Atom and different chemical masses. The Lab Bench shows a progress code when a lab is done; the verify tool on the Lab Bench page checks it. Build-an-Atom's last check question uses the word isotopes, which is beyond S8P1.e; the key notes it.
- The 1v1 bonus is for pairs who have both finished. It is head-to-head review of the whole atoms unit.
- The atoms page also has the endless atom practice (Part 8), worked examples (Part 9), real-life cards (Part 10), a myth-or-fact set (Part 11), the whole-unit practice set with a family sort (Part 12) and the vocabulary cards (Part 13, used at Stop 3). Part 8 makes a good warm-up the next day; it never runs out of questions.
- Short on time? Stops 1–3 make a good first day and Stops 4–7 a second day.
- The printable student webquest and its answer key come with the Word / PDF webquest download. This page holds no answers, so it is safe to post.