How to learn the periodic table

For schoolchildren, studying the periodic table is a nightmare. Even the thirty-six elements that teachers typically ask turn into hours of exhausting cramming and a headache. Many do not even believe that learning the periodic table is real. But the use of mnemonics can greatly facilitate the life of schoolchildren.

Instruction manual

one

Understand the theory and choose the right technique The rules that facilitate the memorization of material are called mnemonic. Their main trick is the creation of associative relations, when abstract information is packed into a vivid picture, sound or even smell. There are several mnemonic techniques. For example, you can write a story from the elements of memorized information, search for consonant words (rubidium - circuit breaker, cesium - Julius Caesar), turn on spatial imagination, or simply rhyme the elements of the periodic table.

2

A ballad about nitrogen It is better to rhyme the elements of the periodic table with a sense, according to certain signs: by valency, for example. So, alkali metals rhyme very easily and sound like a song: "Lithium, potassium, sodium, rubidium, cesium France." "Magnesium, calcium, zinc and barium - their valency is equal to a pair" - unfading classics of school folklore. On the same topic: "Sodium, potassium, silver - monovalent good" and "Sodium, potassium and argentum - forever monovalent." Creativity, in contrast to cramming, which lasts a maximum of a couple of days, stimulates long-term memory. So, there are more fairy tales about aluminum, verses about nitrogen and songs about valency - and memorization will go like clockwork.

3

Acid thriller To facilitate memorization, a story is invented in which elements of the periodic table are turned into heroes, landscape details or plot elements. Here, for example, is the well-known text: "Asian (Nitrogen) began to pour (Lithium) water (Hydrogen) into the pine forest (Boron). But We did not need it (Neon), but Magnolia (Magnesium)." It can be supplemented with a story about a ferrari (iron - ferrum), in which the secret agent "Chlorine zero seventeen" (17 - serial number of chlorine) rode to catch the maniac Arseny (arsenic - arsenicum), who had 33 teeth (33 - serial number arsenic), but suddenly something sour fell into his mouth (oxygen), it was eight poisoned bullets (8 - the serial number of oxygen) … You can continue to infinity. By the way, a novel written based on the periodic table can be attached to a teacher of literature as an experimental text. She will surely enjoy it.

4

To build a palace of memory This is one of the names of a rather effective technique of remembering when spatial thinking is turned on. Its secret is that we can all easily describe our room or the way from home to the store, school, university. In order to remember the sequence of elements, you need to place them on the road (or in the room), and to present each element is very clear, visible, tangible. Here is hydrogen - a skinny blond with a long face. The hard worker who puts the tile is silicon. A group of aristocrats in an expensive car - inert gases. And, of course, the seller of balloons is helium.

note

No need to force yourself to memorize information on cards. It’s best to associate each element with a bright image. Silicon - with Silicon Valley. Lithium - with lithium batteries in the mobile phone. There may be many options. But a combination of a visual image, mechanical memorization, tactile sensation from a rough or, on the contrary, smooth glossy card, will help to easily pick up the smallest details from the bowels of memory.

Useful advice

You can draw the same cards with information about the elements as Mendeleev had at one time, but only supplement them with modern information: the number of electrons on the external level, for example. All that is needed is to lay them out before going to bed.

• Mnemonic rules in chemistry
• how to remember the periodic table