A Brief History of Atomic Theory

Title Page

A Brief History of Atomic Theory is the largest program in the Physical Science Series.

It is composed of 13 stacks all linked together into a single 15 MB program.

The "book" is broken into chapters. Students can "turn" pages as they go through the book. Then they simply click on the picture of the scientist to launch the program.

Rutherford

Fathers of Atomic Theory

These are the seven scientists that make up the Atomic Theory program. Their personal lives as well as their scientific contributions are explored.

Students drag cards around the screen and position them just as Mendeleev did when creating the periodic table.

Mendeleev's Cards

Rutherford's experiment

Each scientist's experiment is carefully explained in detail. When studying J.J. Thomson the students operate a cathode ray tube. In Rutherford's experiment uranium is dragged into a lead container so the path of alpha particles can be observed.

The program explains how John Dalton revived the Atomist theory first proposed by Democritus.

Dalton

Bohr Model

Bohr's model of the atom is introduced. Students can then use the Atomic Model toolkit to construct Bohr models and print them out.

Throughout the program students are made aware of the fact that scientists build upon the ideas of other scientists.

Mendeleev & Moseley

Review

A Brief History of Atomic Theory follows the accomplishments of the scientists that developed the model of the atom - from indivisible particles that differed in shape to atoms consisting of subatomic particles.