Check our representation of the symbol card in BAA. Is it the "standard" representation?

[kathy-phet]

Received feedback from a teacher today who mentioned that the locations we use for mass and number of protons on our chemical symbol card are reverse from what is in the period table, and its confusing for the middle school students.

We should check this against standards for the atomic symbol of an atom, and see which is more popularly used in period tables (if it isn't a strict standard).

I'm surprised this is the first feedback we have on this, if its indeed reversed, but making an issue to check it.

[kathy-phet]

This is what we have right now in BAA, and it is the standard isotope symbol:

Mass upper left
Proton number lower left
Ion charge upper right

So far this is consistent with everything that I have seen for nuclear notation:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Nuclear/nucnot.html
https://opentextbc.ca/chemistry/chapter/2-3-atomic-structure-and-symbolism/

BUT, how is it displayed in the periodic table ... which is what she said confused students? She said the location differed between what we show and what they see in the periodic table.
https://www.google.com/search?q=periodic+table&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiCnJPn1vH1AhVBCjQIHZ11Bh4Q_AUoAXoECAIQAw&cshid=1644377330231299&biw=1396&bih=685&dpr=1.38
The Periodic Tables DO almost always show the proton number in the upper left or upper center (and there is no mass number). She said this confused the 6th graders ... having that upper symbol be mass and inconsistent with what they see in the periodic table.

While I can see how this is a problem for 6th graders, who are not learning isotope symbols, it doesn't look like we can/should make a change here. The symbol is consistent with the standard isotope symbol and to move thing around would be confusing!

The only possible option would be a simplified 6th grade version that did not introduce the isotope symbol, but I don't really see this as a viable solution.

[kathy-phet]

@arouinfar - Can you take a quick look, and see if you agree? The only thing I could recommend is adding a note to teacher tips to look out for this confusion if using with younger students, and make sure to scaffold through the differences between where the proton number is found?

I will hold off on writing back to the teacher, until I hear from you and see if there are any other ideas.

[arouinfar]

@kathy-phet I agree with your assessment. The isotope symbol and the periodic table entry are two different things. The notation we are using is the correct isotope notation -- the atomic number goes on the bottom and the mass number goes on the top. Periodic tables generally display two numbers -- the atomic number and the average molar mass. Often, the atomic number is near the top of the square (sometimes left-aligned, sometimes centered) and the molar mass is near the bottom.

Here are a few more sources:

The RSC has an interactive periodic table that displays key isotopes when you hover over an element. The mass number is displayed on top.

The OpenStax chem textbook has the same graphic as the screenshot from BCcampus.

The Wikipedia article on isotopes also uses the same isotope notation throughout the article.

I can understand why this could cause confusion for some students. However, I think the solution here is in the scaffolding, which I can note in the Teacher Tips. Additionally, we should add support for ?gameLevels next time we republish this simulation. Then, we could tell the teacher that ?screens=1,3&gameLevels=1,2 would completely eliminate the symbol representation.

[arouinfar]

I've opened up separate issues for the Teacher Tips and gameLevels so back to @kathy-phet to respond to the user.

[kathy-phet]

I like the gameLevels idea! To eliminate the symbol for younger students. In fact, a client asked for this gameLevels selection for this sim specifically a while back (but I mentioned we didn't support it at the time).

[kathy-phet]

Thanks for taking care of the Teacher TIps. I'll close this issue, and write back to the teacher who mentioned it.