Introduction

ntroduction

Abstract:

Houses of Elements standard is an innovation in teaching to assist weak students to determine the position of an element in the Periodic Table. Position of an element in the Periodic Table is important in Chemical Bonding chapter, specifically in Lewis Structure drawing and explanation for hybridisation process. Both Lewis Structure and hybridisation process are new concepts introduced to matriculation students. Effectively determining the position of an element in the Periodic Table enables students to know the number of valence electrons and to write the valence electronic configuration. Often, weak students struggle in Lewis Structure drawing and hybridisation process description because they fail to deduce number of valence electrons of an element correctly.  In Matriculation Chemistry SK 016, students learn to determine the position of an element in the Periodic Table based on spdf notation or orbital diagram writing. This requires students to memorise the orbitals in the order of increasing energy level as proposed by Aufbau's Principle. However, the process of filling the electrons based on the principle is time-consuming and not all the time weak students could deduce them correctly. Hence, this study is to apply the position of elements in the Periodic Table to construct a standard of electron filling pattern, called as the Houses of Elements standard and students, then could arrange any elements based on the standard to determine the position of the desired elements in the Periodic Table, the valence electrons and valence electronic configuration effectively. Findings showed that all weak 15 students was able to determine the position of any elements in the Periodic Table effectively using this standard.