Painting Chemistry

This past school year I was the class sponsor for the 11^th grade, and as a class sponsor, you are encouraged to undertake a project with your class that will benefit the school in some way.  So, this past semester I began working on a project with my 11^th graders (the “Wise Owl Class”) that would aid students in chemistry.

At Gbarma Central High School (GCS), there are many things students lack.  There is currently no library.  (However, by next year there will be, thanks to my sitemate, Rachel, who’s extending an additional year in order to work on fulfilling this need.  Woo hoo!)  There is no laboratory.  There is no computer lab (there isn’t even electricity!)  There are no textbooks available for students to use.  There are no resource materials for students to reference when they have a tricky homework assignment or when they are trying to figure out new concepts.  I teach biology, but often I’ve had to help explain a lesson to students or have had to help students complete an assignment for another class.

In the Liberian high school curriculum, there is an unrealistic number of topics to cover.  The objectives students are required to know within those topics are also a bit ridiculous.  In chemistry, for example, students don’t really learn how to read and use the period table.  Instead, they are required to draw the entire table and to memorize the information for the first 20 elements (name, symbol, atomic number, atomic weight, and general characteristics).  While I don’t agree that students need to know this information when they study this topic, they still need to do accomplish these tasks in order to pass 10^th grade chemistry.  But how are students supposed to memorize the first 20 elements, let alone draw a periodic table, if they don’t have access to a periodic table?

For that reason―and also to stop students from coming to my house en mass in order to all copy the drawing of the table―I decided to create a large mural of the periodic table as my class project for the 11^th grade.  My hope was that students could use the large mural to help them complete such assignments as described above and to also use the table as a resource when studying.  During this past 2^nd semester, I worked 1-2 times a week with students in the afternoons on this project, and they were involved in every step of the process.

Before

After

Students helped me with everything from the prep work to the touch-ups.  They assisted me with calculating, measuring, and creating the grid boxes for the table.  They also did most of the painting…and they didn’t make that much of a mess!  (ß This is a big deal since the majority of the students had never held a paint brush before.)  Natural leaders came forward and helped delegate tasks, supervising and monitoring the progress of their classmates as they worked.  When mistakes were made, they caught them before I did and made sure corrections were made.  Students would run all over the town to hunt down the teacher who had the storage closet key so I did not have to.  They did the heavy lifting and helped me set up our table + chair scaffolding so we could reach the “high-up areas”.  They helped me clean our materials each time we met so I wouldn’t have to get my hands dirty.  They were 100% invested in this project and even took it upon themselves to take a small collection to use to buy gasoline (to clean the oil-based paint off the brushes).  They surprised and impressed me at every step during the project.

Making the Grid

Printing Each Element's Information

Every student also got to fill in the information for at least 1 element in the table.  One student, Prince, even did nearly 10!  While the table is not the most beautiful and neat mural out there, at least it has its own, unique flare.  “Each element get its own-a style.”  Students can come up to the mural, proudly point to an element, and say “dat one my own”.  Seeing that makes all the hours we put in totally worth it.

At our graduation / school closing ceremony that was held last Saturday, we formally turned over the completed periodic table mural to the school and community.  I feel good knowing that it can now be used as a resource for all students and that was something done by the students, for the students.  At the program, I presented students with certificates for their contribution to the class project.  Some parents were sitting in the audience that day, and I saw them smile with pride when their child was recognized for their work.  That was a great feeling to see, but even better was the joy I felt with the students came up to accept their certificate.  As I called each name, their faces lit up and they all broke into smiles.  Seeing how happy, accomplished, and honored they felt is something I won’t ever forget.

Class Photo With Our Class Project

Printing of Contributors to the Project

To see all the photos from this project, click here.