PT Presentation

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As I looked around me at school, I learned of the kids in my classes' projects: bake sales, fund raisers, robots. They all derived these ideas from things that they were passionate about. That was the key! And I began to brainstorm what I was passionate about, and finally rested upon chemistry: the periodic table.

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At this point, after reflecting upon my history with chemistry and my peer's reaction towards the dreaded table, I had decided that I wanted to make a table that would inspire a new generation of scientists.

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But, after several months of searching for the perfect boxes, I finally found them. This is one of the best reasons to start your project well ahead of its due date; you never know if all the materials will be available or found in time.

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Hello, my name is Maggie Lorenz, and, for my personal project, I created a 3-D Periodic Table. Like many of you here today, at first, I had no idea what I wanted my personal project to be. A model of a subdivision? A conduct of fantastical scientific inquiry? A book stuffed with original short stories?

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I also came across a book called 30 Second Elements, which was edited by a chemist who graduated from several prestigious scientific colleges. All the authors who helped contribute to this book were scientists themselves. I'd have to say some of the most helpful sources were my Chemistry and Biology classes. I'm taking both this year, and I love the way they play off each other. And since I'm taking both classes and was independently researching chemistry, I absorbed information like an electron absorbs energy from a light source to get out of the ground state. All of my sources made me feel super excited for my 3-D Periodic Table.

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I'd have to say one of the biggest frustrations of having a project that requires 118 boxes is finding 118 boxes. I wanted them all to be the same size, around 2x2x2, with varying colors based upon their classifications. Like a regular periodic table, I wanted the elements to be grouped by their "state and/or group"--lanthanides, halogens, transition metals...But I also wanted to separate the elements based on their blocks. Blocks on the table represent how the electrons move about.

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In January, my process paper was due. This paper was 11 pages, 7 sections, and about 3000 words. The next month, I exhibited my project at my school by the front doors so I could receive some feedback from my peers. I wanted to see whether or not my project would engage the minds of young scientists to see if my representation of the periodic table would intrigue them---and it did.

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Naturally, with a project of this size, multitudes of resources were used, from college textbooks to scientific novels written by physicist majors to extremely well-made apps. The information from these sources took well over 3 months to gather. (there are 118 elements, with 4 pieces of information about each one). I'd have to say the most inspirational source was my favorite book of all-time: The Disappearing Spoon. It's a wonderful book written by professional science writer about each and every one of the elements on the periodic table. The tales I gathered from this source deepened my love for chemistry. I highly recommend it.

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So when I heard that I'd have to design a personal project based upon something that intrigued me, I didn't second guess myself when I decided the 3-D representation of the periodic table. I had already done research on the elements and what areas of chemistry that appealed to me, so all I had to do was design a table to communicate my findings, decide what information I wished to include, and, most importantly, find time to make it.

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The 3-D aspect came from a realization that, despite how many periodic tables there are, all of them have the same old boring, 2-dimensional design. Now don't get me wrong, I love the original periodic table: it's beautiful. (trust me, after learning about the intricate way it was designed, you'll find it to be beautiful too). But to be honest, I didn't always like chemistry. In fact, I despised it.

Last Card

The elements of the periodic table hold such a history to them that connect with so many fascinating things that is it impossible not to connect them to everyday life. They bond themselves to iterature, watches, cancer detecstion, money, love, mysterious caves, planets, enormous battles, war, diseases substance abuse, music, fountain pens, make-up. These connections are not always studied in school--but should, especially at IB-- and have had an important effect on the course of history. Therefore studying the table is studying us: mankind. And if I could find a way to communicate these findings to .

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The next step was the pooling of the information I found into one long list of 118 elements to decide which facts I wanted to use. I decided that for the fronts, I would use the info found on a regular periodic table--the atomic number, average atomic mass, chemical symbol. On one side of the box, I would paste information about the discoveries--date and discoverer. On the backs, I planned to put fun facts, such as its use in WWI or its connection with Lewis and Clark. Finally, on the last side, I chose to put the group name and the element's electron configuration.

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Typing up all this information took about 2 weeks. Following that, I had to cut out all the boxes and paste each and every one of them onto the corresponding box. Again, this took several weeks to complete. As I was putting it together, I realized that at some points, I had skipped elements, and had to go back and reprint them. When this was all sudden done, I had typed, cut, and paste well over 500 boxes.

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When I was first introduced to it in elementary school, I thought the concept of the atom to be dull and boring. This continued to be my point of view for many years, until finally, sometime between 8th and 9th grades, I had become infatuated with it. I think it was the fault of the science jokes. These, paired with fascinating experiments with chemical reactions and now beloved books, my passion for it deepened.

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While studying the information from the sources, I was developing the design of my table. Initially, I wanted a table made of 1 giant block of wood with tiny doors and a small sample of the element inside of it. But, this was quickly put to rest after I realized that they probably wouldn't let me bring uranium to school. After weeks of brainstorming, my mother came to me with the idea of having individual boxes hanging from a support. It could be interactive so I could engage my audience even more. I loved this idea.