The Return of the Black Box

"If protons, quarks, and other elementary particles are too small to be seen, how do scientists know they exist? And if these particles do exist, how can one estimate their size, structure, and or their arrangement in atoms?" These are some of the most frequently asked questions by students who study atomic theory. Atomic structure is an important topic, but the concepts are abstract; and difficult for students to comprehend. It is also difficult for high school teachers to provide meaningful answers to the questions their students ask. In this activity the students make indirect observations on a box, in this case a sealed video box that contains different objects, and infer and try to deduce the contents of the unseen objects in the box. The activity not only provides the students with answers; but it also gives them some idea of the scientific method used to deduce the model of the atom.