Evolution of the

Periodic Table
History, history, and more history by
Aliyah & Kenshin ! 30

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Zinc

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Pre - Activity
 Each symbol is made
Introductio up of one or two
letters.
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The periodic table is like a giant map that
helps scientists keep track of all the
different elements that make up
everything around us. Think of elements
Na
Sodium
like the building blocks of everything – Always
from the air we breathe to the food we eat capitalise
the first
and even our own bodies. Over the years, letter!
scientists have made changes to the
periodic table to help us understand
elements better and see how they are
related to each other.
Early Forms of
the Periodic
Table
A long time ago, people didn't know much about
elements. They only grouped them based on things they
could see, like whether they were shiny metals or dull
nonmetals. As scientists learned more, they started to
organize elements by their weight. They found that some
elements had similar properties, like how they reacted
with other things, and could be put into groups.
In the 1800s, a scientist named John Dalton made an
important discovery about atoms, which helped people
start to understand that elements were made of tiny
particles. But it wasn't until Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian
chemist, in 1869, that things really started to take off.
Mendeleev created one of the first versions of the
periodic table, arranging elements by atomic mass.
Early Forms of
the Periodic
Table
This table helped show that elements with similar
properties appeared in rows. Mendeleev even predicted
the existence of new elements that hadn't been
discovered yet! He left gaps in his table for them, and
when scientists found these elements later, they fit
perfectly into the table.
However, there was a problem—some elements didn’t fit
neatly when arranged this way. For example, iodine is
lighter than tellurium, but it behaves more like elements
found in another group. This happened because atomic
mass doesn’t always increase in a perfect order. Some
elements have similar weights but very different
properties, which made it hard to arrange them correctly
by mass alone. This is when scientists realized they
needed a better way to organize them.
Development • After years of study, scientists
of the discovered that the best way to arrange
elements is by their atomic number. The
Modern atomic number is the number of protons
Periodic (tiny particles) inside an atom. The
System scientist Henry Moseley helped make
this clear in 1913, when he used X-ray
techniques to determine that elements
should be arranged by atomic number,
not atomic mass. When the elements
were arranged by atomic number, they
started to follow patterns that made
more sense. Elements with similar
properties appeared in the same
columns, and their behaviors could be
predicted more easily.
Development • Scientists also noticed trends,
of the which are patterns in the periodic
Modern table. For example, some elements
Periodic are very reactive, meaning they
like to combine with other
System
elements easily, while others
hardly react at all. These trends
helped scientists predict the
properties of elements they hadn’t
even discovered yet!
 Expansion and Modern
Adaptations
As time went on and more elements were discovered, the periodic
table grew bigger. One important addition came from Glenn T.
Seaborg, an American scientist who, in the 1940s, rearranged the
periodic table to place the actinides (elements like uranium and
plutonium) in a separate row at the bottom. He also helped to discover
many of the elements in this group.

With better tools and technology, scientists could look closer at atoms
and understand them better. This made the periodic table even more
useful because scientists could now predict how elements would act in
different situations, like in chemical reactions or when making new
materials.
 The Periodic Table Today

Today, the periodic table continues to grow as scientists discover and

People in different jobs, such as doctors, engineers, and even

H
2

He
Table of 3

Li
4

Be
5

B
6

C
7

N
8

O
9

F
10

Ne
Elements 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

K Ca Sc Ti V Cr Mn Fe Co Ni Cu Zn Ga Ge As Se Br Kr
There are 118
37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54
chemical elements Rb Sr Y Zr Nb Mo Tc Ru Rh Pd Ag Cd In Sn Sb Te I Xe
listed in the periodic 55 56 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86
57-71
table in a specific Cs Ba Hf Ta W Re Os Ir Pt Au Hg Ti Pb Bi Po At Rn
order. 87 88
89-103
104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118

Fr Ra Rf Db Sg Bh Hs Mt Ds Rg Cn Nh Fl Mc Lv Ts Og

57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71

La Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er Tm Yb Lu
89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103

Ac Th Pa U Np Pu Am Cm Bk Cf Es Fm Md No Lr
Conclusion
The periodic table has changed a lot
over time. It started as a simple way
to sort elements but has become a
super helpful tool for learning about
the tiny building blocks of everything
around us. Scientists like Mendeleev,
Moseley, and Seaborg helped make
the table what it is today, and their
35
work continues to shape how we 2
understand the world. As scientists
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keep discovering new elements and -- -- - -
-- -- -

H el i
learning more about the world, the um

periodic table will keep evolving too!

Au Ni Mg I P Ag

K Ca Hg Al Zn C
 ANSWER KEY

Symbol Scrabble
Elements are often named based on their characteristics, the substances they
were extracted from, how they were found, mythological beings, locations or
notable individuals.

Au Ni Mg I P Ag
Gold Nickel Magnesium Iodine Phosphorus Silver

K Ca Hg Al Zn C
Potassium Calcium Mercury Aluminium Zinc Carbon
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MUCH FOR
LISTENING!