Periodic Table Activity

Yesterday my group and I were given an assortment of element cards the were cut out of a periodic table. The task was to arrange them in way makes it easier for us to understand. My first idea was to arrange them alphabetically by symbol. starting with Al, Brandon and I sorted and placed the cards in a straight line in alphabetical order. Kristine foiled our plan and made us arrange it in a way similar to the periodic table so we began sorting them by atomic number. At first the noble gas cards were missing, but were later handed out to us and with no reference chart we had to go by memory to figure out the correct order. I recognized where a few of the pieces went and arranged them correctly. The noble gases were easy to place because they have their own designated column. The periodic table is arranged by atomic mass from lowest to highest but it is also organized by column by valence electron count. In the end, our periodic table was set up just like the real one. In my opinion the periodic table should be set up alphabetically so it could be much easier to track down and find a specific element by name or symbol.