Course Overview

Explore the periodic table from arsenic to zinc and everything in between. While many people have studied and worked with the periodic table in the past, their familiarity is often surface level. With a deeper dive, the table becomes a more sophisticated and, ultimately, a more useful tool. In Understanding the Periodic Table, delve into the famous columns and rows that have come to define the field of chemistry with Ron B. Davis Jr. of Georgetown University as your expert guide.

A science lecturer with over 10 years of teaching experience, Ron is able to distill difficult material into digestible, comprehensive lessons that even novice students can understand. In 24 detailed lessons that mix lecture-style learning with hands-on experiments and lab demonstrations, refine your portrait of the periodic table.

Begin the course with an overview. What did the earliest version of the periodic table look like, and how has it changed over time? In what ways does it organize and group elements? What role do subatomic particles play? And what do the table’s groups, blocks, columns, and rows actually reveal? Answer these questions and more in Understanding the Periodic Table.

Course Lectures

01: The Periodic Table: Our Menu of Matter

Human beings have interacted with elements since prehistoric times. Yet large-scale efforts to organize these elements did not come about until the 19th century.

Duration: 31 min

02: From Triads to Tables and the Role of Protons

The periodic table was a collaborative effort that spanned centuries. Learn about debates surrounding the classification and categorization of elements.

Duration: 29 min

03: How Electrons Shape the Table

What gives the modern periodic table its distinctive shape? Understand the relationship between an atom’s nucleus and its electrons.

Duration: 31 min

04: Periodic Trends in Element Properties

What constitutes a “group” of elements? Are neighboring groups similar in some way?

Duration: 29 min

05: The Origin and Distribution of the Elements

Grasp how just three elements—hydrogen, helium, and lithium—combined to create new, heavier elements through nuclear fusion.

Duration: 30 min

06: Elements Break Down: Radiation and Fission

Familiarize yourself with the processes of transmutation, radiation, and nuclear fission that can radically alter elements and their behaviors.

Duration: 30 min

07: First-Row Opposites: Hydrogen and Helium

What do hydrogen and helium have in common? How do they differ?

Duration: 32 min

08: Sodium, Potassium, and the Alkali Metals

Focus on the elusive elements that make up the first column and major group of the periodic table.

Duration: 33 min

09: Magnesium, Calcium, and the Alkaline Earths

Explore the characteristics of group two metals like calcium, strontium, and barium.

Duration: 32 min

10: Enormous Variety on the Table’s Right Side

Get acquainted with the metals, metalloids, and nonmetals of the p-block, a collection of diverse elements.

Duration: 33 min

11: Noble Gases: The “Lazy” Unreactive Elements

Explore the history behind noble gases and understand their basic properties and behaviors.

Duration: 30 min

12: Halogens: The Most Reactive Nonmetals

Group 17 contains some of the most reactive elements on the periodic table.

Duration: 30 min

13: Why Oxygen and Nitrogen Are Irreplaceable

Discover the behaviors and subatomic structures of oxygen and nitrogen.

Duration: 34 min

14: Complexity of Carbon, Sulfur, and Phosphorus

Explore the subatomic peculiarities and behaviors of carbon, phosphorus, sulfur, and selenium.

Duration: 33 min

15: Silicon and the Metalloid Diagonal

What specific properties do metalloids share with metals, and how do they behave like nonmetals?

Duration: 31 min

16: Aluminum, Tin, Lead, and Other Weak Metals

Get to know the “weak” metals and why they behave the way they do.

Duration: 31 min

17: The Table’s Great Divide: Transition Metals

Take an introductory tour of the d-block metals from the poisonous to the ultra-dense.

Duration: 31 min

18: Colorful and Durable Early Transition Metals

Consider the distinct geometries of early transition metals and their everyday uses.

Duration: 30 min

19: Magnets and Catalysts of the Middle Transition

Learn about the history, fundamentals, and uses of the periodic table’s precious metals.

Duration: 29 min

20: From Coins to Toxins: Copper to Mercury

Explore the special subatomic qualities that made these metals hard to categorize.

Duration: 29 min

21: Rare-Earth Elements: Surprisingly Abundant

Learn how rare-earth elements and the “lanthanide contraction” trend spurred substantial technological advancements.

Duration: 31 min

22: Nuclear Fuel: Thorium, Uranium, and Plutonium

At the very bottom of the periodic table, you will find some of its most radioactive and unstable elements.

Duration: 30 min

23: Creating the Transplutonic Elements

Continue your exploration of the bottom of the table by focusing on the finding, features, and functions of the transplutonic elements.

Duration: 30 min

24: Superheavy Atoms and the Transfermium Wars

Delve into the so-called “superheavy” elements and the contentious history behind row seven of the periodic table.

Duration: 34 min