Grouping Students Using the Periodic Table

At the beginning of the last school year, I was looking for a different way to quickly put students into groups.  I didn't want students to always have the same partners and I didn't want to always have to pick them for them.  After thinking about it for awhile, I realized the answer was staring me right in the face...the periodic table (I have giant one on the wall across from my desk).  The elements are grouped together, so if I could find a way to use the periodic table to group my students I could also reinforce that the periodic table has a pattern.  After much thought I came up with the following method for randomly grouping students during labs or group activities.  Keep in mind that there are times you might want to group students by their abilities.

So here is how I group my students using the elements on the periodic table.  I have 26 poker chips, each with a symbol of an element from the periodic table.  On lab days or whenever I want to randomly put students into groups, I have each student blindly grab one of the poker chips from a container.

I have chosen elements in groups of four from the periodic table because I have four students per lab station.  Since I have 26 students, I needed two extra elements, H & He.  Each lab station is labeled Alkali Metals, Alkaline-Earth Metals, Nitrogen Family, Oxygen Family, Halogens, Noble Gases & Hydrogen/Helium.  Students move to a lab station based on the element poker chip they chose.  At this point, the students have some choice.  They may choose with whom they work with based on the students at the station.  The two students with hydrogen and helium do not go to a lab station based on the group/family.  Instead, because H and He are unique they have a lab station to themselves. 

I like this method because it reinforces the idea that elements are in groups/families on the periodic table and it refreshes students' memories of the names of the groups/families on the periodic table.  It saves time in class because students are not milling around looking for a partner.  They grab a poker chip and find a partner. 

Sometimes, I have those stray students because some kids are absent or one of my classes has less than 26 students.  After all of the students are in groups, I just go around and quickly condense them into one or two groups or if there is time I have one or two kids pick again.

Thanks

Dan