A time line at the bottom highlights the on-going nature of chemical understanding, and places some of the more critical developments of the periodic table in historical perspective. The border information and the alchemy symbols in the background are visually interesting and help show students the origin from which the study of chemistry arose. The notebook version has a similar visual presentation of elements (without the time line) and tables of data on the back that include most of the information present on the poster plus general solubility rules, ion names and a decay series of Uranium 238. Students find that the notebook version is an excellent way to reduce the "data and numbers" stress in chemistry, by making the information easily retrievable and uncluttered.

The Chemistry Poster design uses major color blocks to highlight the electron suborbital similarities in ground state atoms while reinforcing the increase in electrons (darker shades) as the elements progress along a period. The cells contain only those data which will be used consistently in an introductory course--oxidation number for molecular assembly, electronegativity for polarity and number of neutrons for showing the relationship between atomic mass and atomic number (along with indicating common isotopes). Melting and boiling points in Celsius are included for group/period characteristics. The activity series of metals, polyatomic ion names and the geometric models target areas with which students also have difficulty.

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The Notebook version is designed to be an effective and useful tool for students. Included is information some teachers may choose for their students to memorize, but I have found the information present to be reinforcing and supportive for first-year students; they may use it on every quiz and test in my classes. Advanced students may seek a more comprehensive table, but this one is effectively targeted to an introductory class. Highlights (front) include much of the content of the poster version such as an activity series of metals (vertically on right) and the shapes of common molecules (below). The back has a chart to find electronegativity and oxidation number values, a list of solubility rules, nomenclature/oxidation numbers for common polyatomic ions and a decay series for Uranium-238.