An animated periodic table of the chemical elements

The students in grades 4-8 worked with teacher and Board Chair Vince Gutschick to create a very animated periodic table of the chemical elements.  It responds to commands from a viewer using 4 buttons to offer any of 5 presentations about the elements, such as elements in order of atomic number or in order of discovery.  The group built the entire apparatus.  They programmed  a powerful little Raspberry Pi computer to respond to button pushes, to offer one of 356 stories they wrote and recorded about the elements and to light up LEDs behind the element on a chart.  Three years of work, over which they learned everything from design to using power tools to programming to electronics and much more, but, especially, overcoming failures and persisting to get a great product.

An 8-minute video gives a glimpse of all that went into this project.  It’s on YouTube at