Description

Today, 118 chemical elements are known – they are the “building blocks” of all matter. Just as twenty-six letters of our alphabet can create millions of different words, so do the chemical elements bind together to form a huge diversity of substances that exist.
They are universally represented by their chemical symbol: one or two letters. The first letter is always capital and the second, if any, is lowercase. Thus, for example, for the Carbon element, the symbol is C; for Iron, the symbol is Fe; for Holmium, is Ho…

To participate in the International Periodic Table Year Celebrations, our chemistry teacher challenged us to build a “Chemistree”… a different Christmas tree made of wood logs where the usual Christmas decorations were completely replaced by chemical symbols made with miscellaneous materials (cloth, wool, felt, EVA…). This work allowed us to build a unique, creative, colorful, and chemistry-filled Christmas tree. We highlight the collaboration of mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts and other friends in this project. It was a different way to celebrate Christmas and make Mendeleev’s Table known.
Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

About Cristina Albino

We are 9th grade students, ages 14 to 15 years old. In our chemistry classes, we study the Periodic Table of the Elements and to celebrate its 150th anniversary, we built a special Christmas tree, a "Chemistree".