Not just a facade

High school teacher Jonas Schönle tells us about the enormous periodic table created by his pupils at Gymnasium St. Antonius in Switzerland.

By Jonas Schönle

These days an XXL periodic table decorates the south facade of our school. This is the contribution of our school to the International Year of the Periodic Table. I thought I would take this as an opportunity to tell you what a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry far away from Britain is doing.

In the course of a thematic week (1–4 October 2019), a group of 11 students and two teachers painted and inscribed 90 wooden panels 1.0m x 0.7m. The lanthanides and actinides are summarized on one table each. It is thus one of the largest periodic tables on a house wall.