Texas TEKS 8.6.B
The Standard
use the periodic table to identify the atoms involved in chemical reactions
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students read chemical formulas or equations and locate each element symbol on a periodic table. They name the atoms present without confusing subscripts or coefficients with element symbols.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a reaction, students list every element involved and match each symbol to its element name. They correctly read one-letter and two-letter symbols, including capitalization.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat a two-letter symbol, such as Na, as two separate elements. They may mistake coefficients, subscripts, or state symbols for atoms in the reaction.
How to Assess It
- Display 2H2 + O2 → 2H2O and ask: “Which elements are involved? Write each symbol and element name.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups element cards and reaction cards, then have them build a set of the atoms present in each reaction.
Show Fe + O2 → Fe2O3 and ask students to explain how the periodic table confirms each element name.
Play a reaction symbol race where teams locate and name every element in a displayed equation.
Have students inspect a rusting bicycle photo and identify iron and oxygen on the periodic table as the reacting elements.
Keep exploring
Related Standards
- 6.6.C
identify elements on the periodic table as metals, nonmetals, metalloids, and rare Earth elements based on their physical properties and importance to modern li...
- 7.6.B
use the periodic table to identify the atoms and the number of each kind within a chemical formula;
- 8.6.E
investigate how mass is conserved in chemical reactions and relate conservation of mass to the rearrangement of atoms using chemical equations, including photos...
- 7.6.A
compare and contrast elements and compounds in terms of atoms and molecules, chemical symbols, and chemical formulas;
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