Kalamunda students selected to mark the periodic table turning 150

IN 1869, a Russian chemist published the first version of what would become a key tool for any budding scientist and the bane of every memory-challenged student – the periodic table.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table of the elements.

To celebrate the 2019 milestone, Kalamunda Senior High School was selected as one of 118 schools worldwide by the University of Waterloo in Canada, to participate in its International Year of the Periodic Table collaborative project.

The project brings together chemistry students from 28 countries to create an original and imaginative version of the periodic table, as a timeline focused on each elements discovery from hydrogen to oganesson.

As part of the project, Year 8 chemistry students from KSHS researched the element Tellurium and designed their graphic representation of the element based on its history and applications.

Alyse Todd’s design representing the native metallic form of Tellurium was selected to represent KSHS as one of only seven Australian schools in the project.

Tellurium is mined from the earth with a green and blue colour scheme signifying its Latin name origin ‘tellus’, meaning earth.

Alyse’s artwork will be published internationally as a part of the International Year of the Periodic Table project to create a poster, wall mural and website all depicting the discovery of the 118 elements.