Looking for a new way to teach periodic table trends? Chemistry teachers often ask students to prepare handdrawn and time consuming graphs of properties such as electronegativity and atomic number. In this activity, students use an Excel spreadsheet containing atomic number and electronegativity data to study the relationship between the periodic table position of an element and its electronegativity.

The Chem Data set included with this lesson is a spreadsheet containing the following information for all elements in the periodic table:

• Atomic symbols
• Group location 
  • A-group elements: groups 1, 2, 13-18
  • B-group elements: the transition elements in groups 3-12
  • F-block elements: the lanthanide and actinide series elements
• Group number
• Element name
• Atomic number
• Atomic mass
• Melting point and boiling point
• Electronegativity value
• First ionization energy 
• Covalent atomic radius 

Graphs of atomic number and electronegativity for s- and p-block elements (a-group elements) on the periodic table will be prepared quickly using the Excel spreadsheet graphing program. Periodic trends for electronegativity may be deduced from examination of the graphs.

Grades 10-12