Journal Entry:

What is an isotope? How would you represent in a symbol?  If you have an neon atom with an average atomic mass of 21 amu and a sodium atom with the same mass, how is this possible?

Learning Intentions

• We will learn what an isotope is and how to write and interpret the symbol for a specific isotope.

• We will learn how to determine the average atomic mass of an element based on the natural abundance of isotopes of that element.

Closing Task:

You can calculate average atomic mass from abundance and mass of the different isotopes and predict the most abundant isotope of an atom based on average atomic mass

Content Standards being covered:

Students understand the structure of matter at the atomic level and the history that lead to our current understanding.