Models of the

Atom
T
he Nature of Matter Textbook

Inside the Atom

1) Explain how scientists discovered particles of an atom.

2) Explain how today's model of the atom was developed.
3) Describe the structure of the nuclear atom.

Lesson objectives

Teachers' notes

Subject:

Topic:

The Nature of Matter

Inside the Atom

Grade(s):
Prior knowledge:
Cross-curricular link(s):

6
Knowledge of atoms

Lesson notes:

As a result of this section students will be able to:

Understand the structure of a nuclear atom, and the history of it's discovery.
This lesson is intended to supplement the text of The Nature of Matter, Glencoe Science.

Lesson objectives

Teachers' notes

Models of the
Atom
T
he Nature of Matter

Inside the Atom

John Dalton
combined the idea
of elements with
Greek theory of the
atom.

Why are these

men important to
Science?

J. J. Thomson
discovered the
electron.

Ernest Rutherford
discovered the
current model of
the atom.

Models of the
Atom
T
Inside the Atom Lab
Pre-Reading

Model of the Unseen

The purpose of this lab is to discover how scientists find out about things that they cannot see.

Collect your materials: Clay, washers, nuts, bolts, toothpicks and paper towels.
Take the metal object and bury them into the clay, and form a ball. Make sure to not have anything visible.
Exchange your ball of clay with another group.
With a toothpick, probe the clay to find out how many pieces of metal are in the ball what shape they are.

Pull

he Nature of Matter

Element

Section 1 Vocabulary

Page 9
Matter made up of
atoms of only ONE
kind!

Electron
Page 11

Negatively charged
particle that is in the
electron cloud
AROUND an atom's
nucleus

Proton
Page 14
Positively charged
particle present IN the
nucleus of ALL atoms.

Section 1 Vocabulary

Neutron
Page 15

Electrically NEUTRAL particle

that has the same mass as a
proton and is found IN the
atom's nucleus.

Electron Cloud
Page 17

Region surrounding the

nucleus of an atom, where
electrons are most likely to
be found.

John Dalton

Combined Greek theory of the Atom with the idea of elements.

Propose ideas about matter:

1) Matter is made up of atoms.

2) Atoms cannot be divided into smaller pieces.
3) All atoms of an element are exactly alike.
4) Different elements are made of different kinds of atoms.

John Dalton

Dalton imagined an atom as a hard sphere that was the same throughout.

William Crookes

Crookes also tested theories about atoms.

He completed his experiments using a glass tube. This was
know as his Cathode Ray Tube or CRT.

How did Crookes make the Cathode Ray Tube work?

Cathode creates a negative charge.

When a battery is connected with the glass tube,

a green glow appeared. A shadow of the object
appeared at the opposite end of the tube at the
anode. Something was traveling from the
cathode to the anode. The cross was getting in
the way!

Shadow which was created.

Anode creates positive charge.

J. J. Thompson

J. J. Thompson continues Crookes's discovery of a beam of light with the CRT.

He placed magnets beside the beam of light, and the beam bent. Thompson
concluded that the light was not really a light at all. It was charged particles.
He also concluded that the particles in the tube were negatively charged
called electrons. There was now evidence that particles smaller than the atom
exists. Click on the links below to see examples and learn more.

Ernst Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford experimented with Thompson's findings. Rutherford wanted to see what
would happen when they fired fast moving, positively charged bits of matter called alpha
particles at gold (a form of metal). Rutherford thought that the particles would go straight
through the gold. His experiment did not go as planned and some of the particles bounced
back. He hypothesized that most charges are crammed into a small region of space at the
center of the atom called the nucleus.

Today's Model

With Rutherford's findings, a new model of the atom developed. Though, some of the data did not
make sense. According to Rutherford's model the only other particle in the atom was a proton.
That meant that the mass of the atom should have been equal to the mass of the protons. This
did not add up because the mass of most atoms was at least twice as great as the mass of its
protons. The scientists were puzzled. Where did the extra mass come from? It was thought that
the extra mass came from another particle in the nucleus. This particle would be called a
neutron, and had the same mass at the proton. The particle was neutral.

Today's Model

After the neutron was discovered, Neil Bohr's calculations showed that it was impossible
to know where the electrons were located in a particular time. This inspired more
research. New theories of the atomic model were developed. Scientists believed that
since electrons were impossible to locate, then they must be traveling in the region
around the nucleus called the electron cloud. They also were more likely to be traveling
closer to the nucleus since the electrons are attracted to the positive charges of the
protons.

Let's Reveal and Review!

Erase and reveal today's model of the atom with it's important parts.

Protons

Neutrons

electrons