Rare Earth Elements: “Element of the Year”

Rare_Earth_Elements.zip

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This lesson, created by Cindy Nestel of Summit Middle School, introduces basic information about rare earth elements to students. Rare earth elements, as explained within the lesson, are used in a variety of energy sources and are a key player in the workings of green energy such as hybrid cars and wind turbines. Rare earth elements are also found behind the scenes in modern technologies including lasers, batteries, X-ray machines, and cell phones.

Aimed at middle-school aged students, this lesson will help teach where the rare earth elements are on the Periodic Table of Elements, how the rare earth elements are used (especially in the area of energy), and evaluation of which of the rare earth elements are the most important in society today. The lesson, which takes one week of class time to complete, assigns one rare earth element to a group of students and allows them to research the element in preparation for creating a persuasive PowerPoint, with the end goal of having their element named "The Element of the Year." Students come together to evaluate the presentations and determine a 'winner' at the end of the lesson. Full completion of the lesson requires that students have prior knowledge of the basics of atomic structure, how the Periodic Table of Elements is arranged, and how to create a PowerPoint.

Included with this lesson is a full lesson plan and a .zip file with related documents in .pdf and .pptx formats. The size of each file is included in parenthesis.

Rare_Earth_Elements.zip