Each year, aAfter my students had learned about atomic structure and were beginning their periodic table investigation, they each chose an element to research a bit. Every year I varied the product they produced a bit - variations on the element models and an element block (watch for more information on that one coming soon).
One year, in addition to making their block, I had them create a sticker picture of their element.
Each student was given a piece of black paper, blue dot stickers for protons, green dot stickers for neutrons, tiny smiley face stickers for electrons and a white colored pencil.
Making the picture was not particularly challenging - though some interesting questions did arise about electron orbitals for students who were doing transition metals.
The reason for making the picture wasn't in the interest of challenging the students, but instead to create a giant periodic table. I laminated each of the individual pictures and then assembled them using clear packing tape.
This periodic table does a nice job of showing the enlarging nuclei and increasing electron orbitals. And by taking part in making the table, the students were much more invested in the process and obtained greater understanding of how their element fit in the periodic table.
FYI:
I had three classes of students and each student had to choose a unique element. Each class was informed of the parameters during class time and element choosing "opened" at the end of the school day - so each student had equal opportunity to have the first choice.
In addition, I had a few students who helped make pictures for some of the elements that weren't chosen, so we had a more complete periodic table - at least for the first several periods.
