A. Teaching the History of the Atomic Model
In studying the history of the atom, the Rutherford model from 1911 is the first model to suggest that the electrons are in motion around a central nucleus. Reviewing two high school chemistry textbooks illustrates this approach to teaching the history of the atom. In Chemisty: Matter and change (Buthelezi et al., 2013) the development of the atomic model is broken up into two chapters. Student are left with the image of the Rutherford model with the “orbiting” electrons as they learn more about the properties of the subatomic particles. In the next chapter the history continues with the Bohr model (1913) and finally the quantum mechanical model developed from the work of Schrödinger in 1926 is introduced. The textbook Chemistry (Staley et al., 2012) has similar models shown for Rutherford and Bohr, but the section Development of Atomic Models shows all models on one page, so the quantum mechanical model with an electron cloud is shown on the same page as the “orbiting” electrons models. Having all historical models visible on one page does a better job of clarifying the changes in our understanding of the atom.