Lesson Plan
Lesson: Energy Levels in Atoms
Aim: To investigate the concept of electronic energy levels
Learning outcomes:
At the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
1. explain how the presence of discrete lines in the emission spectrum of an element indicates that the
atom can only have discrete (quantised) energy levels.
2. explain the formation of the spectrum of atomic hydrogen.
3. calculate the ionisation energy of hydrogen from the Lyman series convergence limit.
Assumed prior knowledge
Students should already :
1. be familiar with the regions of the electromagnetic spectrum and the colours of the rainbow (visible
light).
2. know the relationship between wavelength, frequency and the speed of light.
Underlying Principles
1. Making the invisible, visible.
2. Enabling students to know what they should look for.
Time taken to complete the activities : 80 minutes
Differentiation
Questions in the student notes are designed to enable all students to complete the activity. The pop-up
answers are provided for the students to view when they have considered their responses. Worksheet
questions include questions that require recall, understanding and application of the new concepts
learned.
© 2003 Ministry Of Education Malaysia. All Rights Reserved. 1
Lesson Development
No. Steps Strategy Resources
1 Set Induction • Teacher to quiz students on the simple
(Ascertaining prior electronic structures of some elements
knowledge and eg. N : 2, 5 .
introducing lesson
topic for the day). • Teacher to point out to students the link
between electron shells and energy levels
before introducing the lesson topic.
2 Student Activity • Teacher to go through Activities 1 – 4 • Courseware
with the students.
• Activity 1 : The electromagnetic
spectrum
Use the interactive electromagnetic
spectrum to investigate the relationship
between the colour and wavelength or
frequency in the visible region. Get
students to investigate the relationship
between photon energy and wavelength
or frequency of radiation across the
electromagnetic spectrum.
• Activity 2 : Continuous spectra and
line spectra
(Show students the difference between
a continuous and a line emission
spectrum. Use the interactive energy
level diagram to demonstrate how the
existence of specific energy levels in an
atom can give rise to lines in an emission
spectrum, as a result of transitions
between elements.)
• Activity 3: The H-atom game
Teacher to get students to come out
individually to play the H atom spectrum
game in Activity 3 until all the spectral
lines have been mapped out.
© 2003 Ministry Of Education Malaysia. All Rights Reserved. 2
Get students to excite the electron in an H
atom to higher energy levels and allow
the electron to fall back down to lower
levels. For each transition, the students
must predict where the corresponding line
in the emission spectrum will be. Teacher
to help students discover the relationship
between line emission spectrum and the
transitions between energy levels.
• Activity 4 : The Lyman series
To focus students’ attention on the Lyman
series in the H atom spectrum and
highlight the significance of the highest
jump in the H atom in finding a value for
the ionisation energy of hydrogen.
• Teacher to explain how to calculate the
first ionisation energy of atom using the
Lyman series converging limit.
3 Evaluation • Students to work on the questions in the • Courseware
worksheet provided.
4 Extension activity • Students to go through extension activity • Websites
on their own. • Reference
books
Worksheet Answers
1 The electromagnetic spectrum
1.1 Ultra-violet light has shorter wavelengths and higher frequencies than visible light. Therefore, photons
of ultraviolet light carry more energy than visible light. This energy is sufficient to damage living cells.
2 Continuous spectra and line spectra
2.1 In a continuous spectrum, the wavelength or frequency changes continuously through a range of
values. In a line spectrum, only specific wavelengths or frequencies appear as ‘lines’.
2.2 Lines in the spectrum of the H atom indicate that the atom has lost only certain fixed amounts of
energy. Therefore, the energy of the excited atom must only change by certain fixed amounts. A fixed
amount of energy will be lost if an atom changes between two energy states, from a higher to a lower.
This corresponds to the electron jumping from a higher energy level to a lower one. The differences in
the energies (frequencies) of the lines in the spectrum show that the H atom has a series of fixed
energy levels of unequal spacing, decreasing in value with increasing distance from the nucleus.
© 2003 Ministry Of Education Malaysia. All Rights Reserved. 3
3 The H-atom spectrum game
3.1
4 The Lyman series
4.1 E = 6.63 x 10-34 x 3.29 x 1015 = 2.18 x 10-18 J =2.18 x 10-21 kJ
= 2.18 x 10-21 x 6.02 x 1023 = 1312 = 1.31 x 102 kJ mol-1
© 2003 Ministry Of Education Malaysia. All Rights Reserved. 4
