Teaching a Textbook Passage Most

Teaching a Textbook Passage

Most of the Universe consists of matter and energy. Energy is the capacity to do work. Matter has mass and occupies space. All matter is composed of basic elements that cannot be broken down to substances with different chemical or physical properties. Elements are substances consisting of one type of atom, for example Carbon atoms make up diamond, and also graphite. Pure (24K) gold is composed of only one type of atom, gold atoms. Atoms are the smallest particle into which an element can be divided. The ancient Greek philosophers developed the concept of the atom, although they considered it the fundamental particle that could not be broken down. Since the work of Enrico Fermi and his colleagues, we now know that the atom is divisible, often releasing tremendous energies as in nuclear explosions or (in a controlled fashion in) thermonuclear power plants."

On-Line Biology Book

http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookTOC.html

Before opening the textbook to this rather dense passage, I would begin a discussion to ascertain what the students knew and understood of their world, and specifically the topics discussed here. I expect many students would have heard of atoms, and might have a basic understanding of what atoms are. Tapping into their ideas will allow this passage to be tied into what they already know, aiding their understanding of these complex though relatively basic ideas. The concepts of energy and matter are slightly more intuitively understood, but before reading the passage a class discussion that attempts to define tese terms would also be useful.

After reading the passage once, the question of what substances are elements could be put to the class. No doubt some substances such as water will be listed that are basic compounds, and not true elements. These answers can then be used to illustrate the interaction of atoms and elements to create other substances that are not pure elements. At the same time, this will help illustrate the way different elements can form different substances depending on atomic structure. This in turn leads into Fermi and the splitting of an atom.