Year 8 Science · Unit 2 · Lesson 02

Elements and Chemical Symbols

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Date
Class

Learning Goals

Warm Up

Compare two

Complete the table to compare element names and chemical symbols. Some cells have been started, fill in the rest.

FeatureElement name (e.g. iron)Chemical symbol (e.g. Fe)
Who can read it without translation? Only speakers of that language (e.g. English)
Length 1 or 2 letters only
Capitalisation rule No fixed rule, depends on language
Where it is used in science
Example (for iron) iron

Your Turn

Because… chain

Fill in the missing effects. Each cause leads to the next step in the chain. The first box in each row is given, write what happens next in the empty box.

Scientists developed chemical symbols from Latin and other ancient names
→
Effect on international communication: scientists in different countries can read the same symbol
→
Effect on writing chemical formulas: symbols replace long element names
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Effect on the periodic table layout: every element has exactly one symbol
→

Overall outcome:

Show What You Know

1. A student writes the formula for carbon monoxide as CO. Another student writes it as Co. Explain why these two formulas represent completely different things and why capitalisation matters when writing chemical symbols.

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2. A research team in Australia and a team in Germany are both working on a new medicine. Explain, using what you know about chemical symbols, how both teams are able to communicate the ingredients of their medicine precisely without needing to translate anything.

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Wrap Up

In one sentence, what was the main idea of this lesson?

HSCScience · Year 8 Science · Unit 2 · Lesson 02 · Apply Worksheet