Back to Karlsruhe: a research experience on the Periodic Table to learn on structure and properties of chemical elements

Atomic structure and the Periodic Table are key elements in Science Education, as they constitute a bridge between Physics an Chemistry, and because of the epistemic value of the historic process of their construction. We describe a Project-Based Learning sequence where students reproduce the inductive process to construct the Periodic Table through several inquiry cycles. The activity ends up with the celebration of a scholar scientific congress where students make predictions on the physical and chemical properties of several elements. We analize the learning outomes and students perspectives on the sequence in the frame of the development of the scientific competence.