Periodic Table Battleship - Directions

 

How it Works:

Using the Periodic Table Battleship Concept Builder is quite simple. There are three difficulty levels in all. All three levels work the same way. You must use your understanding of electron configuration to target, fire at, and sink battleships hidden on the Periodic Table. Each battleship stretches either horizontally or vertically across two or more elements of the table. The right-side panel of the Concept Builder indicates how many ships you must sink and the number of side-by-side elements that the ships are hidden upon. 

To fire a torpedo at an element, you must identify the element using last term of the electron configuration for that element (see our Information page if needed).  You can tap on the buttons to identify an electron configuration in the form of 3p⁵. By default, those buttons are labeled with the icons #, Abc, and #. Tapping them toggles through the options: 1-7 for the first number, s-p-d-f for the letters, and 1-14 for the superscripted number. Once you have set the configuration to your liking, tap on the Fire button. You will receive immediate feedback - Hit, Miss, and Hit and Sink. A Strike (bulls-eye with a green check) or a Miss (circle with an X) will be placed in the element's position you targeted. On occassion you will receive the feedback that you have entered an incorrect or non-existent electron configuration. Make adjustments and try again. And if necessary, use orur Help page. Once you sink  a battleship, you will view two stars next ot he battleship in the right-side panel. Once all battleships are sunk, you will receive the Trophy for that Difficulty Level.

The difficulty levels differ in terms of the number of battleships that you must sink and the regions of the periodic table in which they are hiddden. The table below describes the distinctions between difficulty levels.

 

Getting Help

You will notice that there is a Help Me button underneath the Progress Report. You should learn to use this feature of the program. It's how you can turn an exercise in answering questions into an exercise in learning. Tapping on the Help Me button will open a page with help that is specific to each question. Of course, the Help pages are only helpful if you read them. So take the time to read them. Each Help page contains four sections: a discussion of the Fundamentals, a display of the various Questions in the Question Group, and a section titled "How to Think About This Situation". You should pay attention to the section titled How to Think About This Situation. You will find what you need to know in the two or three paragraphs in this section. You will also become a better Chemistry student for doing that. That is, after all, the goal of such an activity as Periodic Table Battleship.
 

Thanks for being patient with the Directions. Happy learning!