MILWAUKEE — As we continue to honor Black History Month, we also honor those who work to highlight influential figures in the Black community.

A teacher at Wisconsin Lutheran High School decided to get creative in honor of Black History Month. She created a larger than life periodic table. If you take a closer look at each “element” you’ll notice they are actually small biographies on influential African Americans.

Class is in session with Shakirah Cousins is a math, tech, marketing, and entrepreneurship teacher at Wisconsin Lutheran High School. She’s been a teacher for 16 years and has been teaching for the past three at Wisconsin Lutheran. 

This year, she decided to take on a big project in honor of Black History Month.

“I love it. When I come down the hall and see that kids are actually looking at it and reading it. It’s worth every hour that I spent typing out all of the summaries,” Cousins says.

There are 118 posters made to look like elements on the periodic table, but instead of elements they are small biographies of influential African Americans. 

“So we have activists, famous firsts, people like Misty Copeland,” Cousins says. “We have all kinds of authors in blue. In gray these are all musicians.”

For Cousins, it was important to include Black figures that kids know and admire to this day.

“Snoop Dog, and Beyoncé, and they are like ‘Oh, I wonder who Alice Walker is.’ That just brings them in and forces them to read all of this,” Cousins says.

Her project is giving kids something to look at when they walk down the halls, all while providing education on Black history, something important to her.