Printable Signal Flag Periodic Table

Those who have been following my posts may know that I demonstrated a 20-person Titration Flowchart at the 28^th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE) in Lexington[1]. Based on a Chemical Education Xchange blog post[2], I created a flowchart to be enlivened by 20 of the attendees. It demonstrates both how to teach the proper technique for titration and the power of process and teamwork. Cryptically, I promised “Signal Flag Periodic Table placemats for participants.” This leads to questions:

1. What are Signal Flags?
2. How could they be used in a Periodic Table?
3. Why would I want one?
4. How can I get one (or many) of these?

Signal Flags[3] allow ships and boats to communicate important messages, for example movement or identity, across a wide field of view without clogging (or perhaps getting intercepted in) the radio communications. They are basically alphanumeric, but with a code book, more information can be implied, for example, the Foxtrot (F) flag alone means "I am disabled; communicate with me." What makes signal flags useful at sea—they are colorful, symmetric, and memorable—makes them striking and useful for many a design. Thus, you can associate signal flags with water-going vessels without knowing the flag alphabet or, for that matter, any of their underlying meanings to recognize the flags. Therefore, they are perfect for a design with an underlying message of “Navy” or “The Sea.”

In the same way, the periodic table says “Chemistry” or “Science.” It is recognizable by its shape and the array of one- and two-letter elemental symbols in each component box whether there is any additional information included. So why not use the Signal Flag alphabet (though the second letter, where used, is implied to be lower-case as there is no lower-case in Signal Flags) to create the element symbols, thus uniting “Chemistry” and “Navy” iconographically for my students at the Naval Academy? I first made the Signal Flag Periodic Tables back in 2016, and one of my students pronounced it the “nerdiest thing I have ever seen.” So, I enquired “Does this mean you do not want it?” He gave an emphatic “No, that is why I want it.” Go figure. Since then, I have made these for friends, an admiral, and occasional vacation B & B hosts. I figured the attendees at the BCCE might want one, and maybe you would, too.

Signal flags add color and variety to the symmetry and rhythm of the periodic table. And when building the original signal flag periodic table, it fit the size and shape of ledger sized paper (11” x 17”) very well. Hmm! Just about the size of a placemat, and, Golly, wouldn’t lamination make it more special and rugged? What an appetizing thought that you can have a brightly and varied colored surface with layers of meanings beneath your bowl of corn flakes while you eat breakfast.

Back to the BCCE, I made the twenty placemats with the Signal Flag Periodic Table on one side and information for the particular flowchart locus on the other, for example a number with an arrow for those who were part of the 1-to-8 count. Tucked between the s- and p-block and above the d-block of the periodic table is the signal flag alphabet. At the top and between the d- and f-blocks is room for customization, so for the conference I put “BCCE” above in larger letters and “LEXINGTON KENTUCKY” between in smaller letters using signal flags.

The supplemental file is a PowerPoint file based on the BCCE version. The following is a table listing of the PowerPoint slides.

1. “BCCE” has been replaced with “CHEMICAL EDUCATION XCHANGE,” and “LEXINGTON KENTUCKY” has been removed.
2. The Signal Flag alphabet, in two sizes, labeled with the standard all-caps alphabet.
3. For convenience, “CHEMICAL EDUCATION XCHANGE” in Signal Flags is given in two sizes.
4. The original BCCE periodic table.
5. Taken from the “Arrows Point the Way” blog post are:
   
   1. Labels for 20 students in a Generic Lab with arrows for the human titration flowchart.
   2. Assignments for students through the equivalence point.
   3. Assignments for students after the equivalence point.
6. A table with front and back to placemats used at BCCE.
7. Through 36: Backs of Periodic tables used at BCCE.

Figure 1: "CHEMICAL EDUCATION XCHANGE" with Signal Flags, and the Signal Flag Periodic Table. Also, the Signal Flag alphabet is listed between the s- and p-blocks.

As mentioned in the previous blog post, this is everything you will need (except for student and a laboratory) to make a student flowchart for use in a titration laboratory.

I am sure you will want to individualize your periodic tables, so using the Signal Flag alphabet in the PowerPoint file, you can customize your Periodic Table.  Take the individual alphabetic images and spell out a name, school or message then tuck it in between the s- and p-blocks, or below either the d- or f-blocks. These are all scaled to print at 11” x 17” for a placemat. If you intend to rescale say, 8 ½” x 11”, I would suggest you edit the original file, and save the slide as an image such as TIFF or GIF file-format. You do so in Power Point by: File:Export:Change File Type:Save As:Save as type:TIFF or GIF. This locks the size, shape and position of the sub-images. Then take the image file and resize to your preference from there.

Have fun with it, change it, make as many as you want. Put it on a t-shirt and sell it on Etsy. Enjoy! 

As I end my series of blog posts on Chemical Education Xchange, this gift is my THANK YOU.  Additionally, I would like to thank the Editors for kindly letting me join you.  Gentle Reader, I have told my colleagues over the years that I want to infect my students with knowledge, and perhaps a different way of seeing things. On Chemical Education Xchange, I have been fortunate enough to send out these ‘infectious information vectors,’ and I hope you have been intrigued by them. My previous post played with the idea of arrows, and here is my naïve hope that you will be the vector to pass these into the general (chemistry) population. Though there may be some temporary pain and redness at the site of injection, I am sure it will make the patients stronger.