Elements of Education

Abstract

The periodic table was born in chemical education and thrives there still. Mendeleev was inspired to create his primitive but pregnant table in order to provide a framework for the textbook of chemistry that he was planning, and it has remained at the heart of chemical education ever since. It could be argued that the education of a chemist would be almost impossible without the table; at least, chemistry would remain a disorganized heap of disconnected facts. Thanks to Mendeleev and his successors, by virtue of the periodic table, chemical education became a rational discussion of the properties and transformations of matter. I suspect that the educational role of the periodic table is its most important role, for few research chemists begin their day (I suspect) by gazing at the table and hoping for inspiration, but just about every chemistry educator uses it as a pivot for their presentation.