Carroll Community students build 3-D periodic table of elements

Those walking down the chemistry hallway at Carroll Community College will now see an elaborate creation that took more than 100 hours to make.

Hanging on the third floor of the K building is a 4-by-8-foot, three-dimensional periodic table of elements, meant to bring the joy of studying chemistry to Carroll Community students.

The idea came from the student chapter of the American Chemical Society, which was granted official status in the fall 2013 semester. Money for the project came from the Carroll Community College foundation, the ACS chapter and other donations.

The periodic table was constructed by Greg Stange, who took general chemistry at the college last fall. The project was unveiled Jan. 29 to college officials.

“We wanted it to be a student-planned and student-run type project,” according to Wayne Jones, public relations officer for the chapter. “But we also wanted to have a display or something to show our appreciation for the [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] department that helped us exist.”

Chapter President Nicholas Cain said it’s the one table that is used in every chemistry discipline. The model is painted in bright colors with durable automobile paint and shows metals, non-metals and metalloids.

“We thought it would be a good way for students to familiarize themselves with those different elements, and it may be easier for them to understand,” he said.

Cain said wooden two-by-fours make up the frame and perfectly even wooden squares fit together to make up the table’s elements. Each piece was individually mounted onto a flat board and the pieces are elevated. The blocks are imprinted with chemical symbols .

In the original design, the project weighed 200 pounds, but because of restrictions on the weight of a wall hanging, the students had to use different, lighter materials and reduce the weight to 85 pounds.

Raza Khan, chemistry professor and ACS chapter adviser at Carroll, said the periodic table was constructed as a way for the current ACS chapter students to leave a mark at the school.

“They wanted some kind of display that could be left out,” he said.

Khan hopes the periodic table becomes a conversation starter and grows ACS chapter membership.

“It’s a really cool way of saying ‘Thank you,’” he said.

Jones and Cain hope the ACS chapter, and the periodic table, help share an appreciation of the chemical sciences.

“It’s something that we have done that we can leave behind knowing that it made some sort of impact and helps other chemistry students, and maybe helped people become interested in chemistry,” Cain said.

Source:  http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/local/carroll-community-students-build--d-periodic-table-of-elements/article_b32a7495-f19f-596f-a4e6-01164b83152f.html