What are Atoms Made of? Everything you can see and touch is made up of atoms but you cannot see atoms because they are so small. Atoms are made of three even smaller parts: protons, electrons, and neutrons. The nucleus is in the center of the atom. It has protons (positively charged +) and neutrons (no charge) inside of it. The outer part of an atom is called an electron shell. That is where electrons are. Electrons are negatively charged (-) and can bounce from object to object. The electrons are attracted to the protons.

Atoms are the foundation for elements. Elements can be metals, nonmetals, or gases like iron, mercury, and oxygen for example. The atoms in an element all have the same number of protons: another way of saying this is that all of a particular element's atoms have the same atomic number. Elements are chemically the simplest substances. They cannot be broken down using chemical reactions. Elements can only be changed into other elements using nuclear methods. An element on the periodic table looks like this. The numbers give information about the element.

DIRECTIONS: Please experiment with the simulator below to further explore this information, then answer questions 3, 4, and 5 in complete sentences. Your responses should only be based on the experiment you conducted in the simulator. You need to write in complete sentences and make sure you answer the question that is asked.

1. Start by adding a few protons and neutrons

2. Then add some electrons

3. What element did you create at first?

4. Now add some more neutrons, protons, or electronshow did it change your atom? Did your element change completely, if so to what?

5. How do the number of protons, neutrons and electrons change an atom? In other words: what happens when protons are added? what happens when neutrons are added? What happens when electrons are added?

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