I have taught high school science (biology, chemistry, earth science and physics) since 1980.

In every biology class, I cover introductory chemistry at the beginning of the year. Frustrated that all available periodic tables were geared exclusively towards chemistry concepts, and were intimidating in their appearance, I wanted a chart that presented biological concepts in a chemistry format. Finding nothing that fit the bill, I ultimately decided to produce my own periodic table for biology.

After its successful marketing, I was approached to produce one for chemistry and eventually received a grant from DuPont for its development. At this point, there are two flavors of tables: biology and chemistry. Each comes in a large classroom poster format and also in a smaller notebook size for students.

As the first two posters met with success, we moved into a third project introducing the standard model of particle physics to both chemistry and physics classes. After researching on and off for 2 years, including trips to FermiLab and Argonne National Accelerator in Chicago, we developed an overview for the Anatomy of an Atom poster and proceeded to edit the text and images during the summer of 2003. The resulting poster clearly (and as simply as possible) introduces students to the inner composition of ground state atoms. It, like the biology table, can play a major or minor role in class activities, but it enables students to independently pursue a greater depth of study than most first-year classes offer. If nothing else, it gives students a grasp of terms that they have heard and shows that more is currently known about the complexities of atomic structure than most texts imply.

Our charts fill three definite needs within the high school science teaching environment and the initial enthusiastic customer feedback suggests that we have gained the respect of teachers for our ability to present useful information in a vibrant, educationally sound and non-threatening manner.

Rob Orr