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Webquest · High School Physical Science · SPS1

Atoms and the Periodic Table Webquest

Atoms, Ions, Isotopes, Average Atomic Mass and Periodic Trends

Work through the stops in order. Each button opens in a new tab: finish that stop, answer on your webquest sheet, then come back to this page for the next one.

Start with Stop 1 ↓For teachers ↓
Students

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

  1. Stop 1 · about 12 min · your sheet: page 2, questions 1–5

    Atoms & the Periodic Table Unit Intro

    Read the two-twins puzzle, pick a big question, play two activities.

    Open Stop 1 Two twins walk into a labBig questionsExplore activities
  2. Stop 2 · about 8 min · your sheet: page 3, questions 6–12

    Simple Science Videos: The Atom and The Periodic Table

    Watch two one-minute videos twice each and fill in the tables.

    Open Stop 2
  3. Stop 3 · about 10 min · your sheet: page 4, question 13

    Vocabulary

    Flip the Word Wall cards and define 14 words in your own words.

    Open Stop 3 Word Wall (unit intro)Atoms vocabulary
  4. Stop 4 · about 14 min · your sheet: page 5, questions 14–23

    Atoms Part A: Inside the Atom and Average Atomic Mass

    Run the atom, ion and isotope builder, label an atom, balance the average atomic mass.

    Open Stop 4
  5. Stop 5 · about 12 min · your sheet: page 6, questions 24–31

    Atoms Part B: Isotopes and Ions

    Run the isotope machine and the ion maker, watch the sodium-chlorine handoff, sort pairs.

    Open Stop 5
  6. Stop 6 · about 12 min · your sheet: page 7, questions 32–38

    Atoms Part C: Organization of the Periodic Table

    Color the table five ways, read element cards, hunt elements, sort mystery samples and phases.

    Open Stop 6
  7. Stop 7 · about 14 min · your sheet: page 8, questions 39–44

    Atoms Part D: Trends and Predictions, plus the Lab Bench

    Read the valence bars, run the reactivity explorer and the prediction machine, then build and decode atoms on the Lab Bench.

    Open Stop 7 Part 4: Trends & predictionsBuild-an-Atom (Lab Bench)
  8. Wrap-up · your sheet: page 8, questions 45–46

    Wrap-up: Solve the two-twins puzzle

    Go back to the two-twins puzzle at the top of the unit intro and explain, with what you learned, how two samples of pure carbon can differ in mass and how that dates a wooden boat.

    Open the two-twins puzzle
  9. Bonus · for partners who are both finished

    Bonus: 1v1 Atoms & the Periodic Table

    1. Only when you and a partner have both finished every stop.
    2. 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.
    3. Press Enter the Arena, pick a game, and play to 3 wins.
    Open the 1v1 game
Teachers

For teachers

Post this link for your students

https://www.tobinscience.com/webquest-hs-atoms.html

Students move through six free tobinscience.com resources in order: the Atoms & the Periodic Table unit intro, two one-minute Simple Science videos, the unit vocabulary, the full Atoms section (Parts 1–4: an atom, ion and isotope builder that writes the notation, a label-the-atom task, the average atomic mass balance with seven real elements, the isotope machine, the ion maker, the sodium-to-chlorine handoff, the group charge cards, a pair sort, the periodic table colored by type, valence, ion charge, family, phase and period with element cards and an element hunt, mystery-sample and phase sorts, valence bars across a period, the group 1 / group 17 reactivity explorer and the five-row prediction machine), the Lab Bench Build-an-Atom, and a 1v1 review game for early finishers. Every answer comes from what the page shows, matching SPS1a–c.

SPS1 · Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information from the Periodic Table to explain the relative properties of elements based on patterns of atomic structure.
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 are optional (the two videos are about one minute each)
  • No student accounts or sign-ins; nothing to install

Every stop at a glance

Good to know

  • The intro's builds and mysteries, the label-the-atom task, the practice and sort scores, the element hunt, the prediction machine's look-alike choices and the Lab Bench Mystery Atom are randomized, so those answers vary. The simulation readouts (builder notation and messages, balance calculations, isotope and ion tables, mode messages, element cards, reactivity readouts, the first four prediction rows) 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.
  • The balance prints its fractions without trailing zeros ((0.2 × 10) + (0.8 × 11)) and its result with two decimals (10.80 amu); accept 10.8. The periodic table on the page lists polonium as a metalloid as well as B, Si, Ge, As, Sb and Te; the sheet never asks about it.
  • Isotope notation on the page stacks the mass number over the atomic number next to the symbol. The sheet writes it "35 over 17 Cl"; accept the stacked form or chlorine-35.
  • The 1v1 bonus is for pairs who have both finished. It is head-to-head review of atoms and the periodic table.
  • The atoms page also has the endless atom practice (Part 5), worked examples (Part 6), real-life cards (Part 7), a myth-or-fact set (Part 8), the whole-unit practice set with a family sort (Part 9) and the vocabulary cards (Part 10, used at Stop 3). Part 5 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.