The College Board AP Chemistry Course
Description states that the “course is designed
to be the equivalent of the general chemistry course
usually taken during the first college year.” The
text goes on to say that, “Students in such a course
should attain a depth of understanding of fundamentals and
a reasonable competence in dealing with chemical problems.
The course should contribute to the development of the
students’ abilities to think clearly and to express
their ideas, orally and in writing, with clarity and
logic.” Therefore I have adopted the following goals
for this course:
Students will work to learn the material as in a
typical college-level introductory chemistry class and
achieve an acceptable score on the AP Chemistry Exam, held
in May every year.
Students will work to become critical and independent
thinkers with a focus on general, non-algorithmic
problem-solving.
Students will learn the applicability of such
problem-solving techniques as applied to societal, cultural
and technological issues making them well-informed citizens
of an increasingly technology-saturated world.
Students will leave the course with a better
appreciation of the natural world through the application
of the concepts and mathematical modeling used in this
course.
Students will learn to work well in groups in labs,
class, and study groups to accomplish complicated tasks. In
doing so they will hone the important communication skills
also required for good writing, as in formal lab reports.
Instructional Techniques and Assessment
Grades in the course will be broken down as follows:
Tests: 40% (1 per quarter)
Quizzes: 35% (4 - 6 per quarter)
Labs: 25% (6 - 7 2-hr labs per quarter)
Formal Reports: 100 points
Short Reports: 50 points
The schedule at the end of this introductory material shows
what to expect for each unit. Specific dates are not given
in the interest of maintaining flexibility. The number of
hours of class time for each unit is indicated as a goal.
Also in the schedule is recommended Memory
Work which are items that you should commit to
memory.
For each unit you will be required to complete a
brief Outline of the important points in
the reading assigned for that unit. This will be submitted through Google Classroom. This Outline must be
separated into the sections used in the chapter. Sometimes
one or two entries on the Outline will be sufficient for a
given section. For other, more complicated sections you
will need to use your judgment as to what the most
important ideas and problem-solving techniques are. Keep
Outlines brief! I require this work to encourage you to prepare thoroughly for class. It’s up to you to make it useful to you. You may never look at it again but the fact that you made it can help you to learn and to read carefully.
Outlines should be completed by the first day of a new
unit: you must read ahead!
A tip about reading textbooks: they are
not novels. In a novel you typically read a passage once
with full comprehension. The action carries you forward
through the text. Textbooks build sequentially in each
chapter and you will at times need to read a section
several times—and work through its examples on
paper— before you can move on to the next section. Be
self-aware and check in with yourself: Did I understand
that passage? Could I solve problems based on it?
Each unit has a Problem Set that consists
of questions and problems from the ends of the chapters. At
times I will assign problems from supplementary material
for the Problem Set. These problem sets can be approached
in several ways:
You will work independently to solve the problems using
only your brain, the text, a calculator and paper and
pencil.
You will work in study groups outside of class to help
one another to solve the problems. Use this time not to
copy another student’s solution but to compare notes
about the best way to get to a solution.
You will come to your teacher during Advisory to work on problems so that you can check solutions and ask questions.
Outlines will be checked for completeness and count for 1/10 of a quiz grade. Problem sets will be checked using a homework quiz. Prior to the quiz you will be required to be able to present to the class a solution to a random problem.
The date of the Homework Quiz will be set
whenever we begin a new unit. The Homework Quiz will draw
on problems directly from your homework and will be short.
Test dates will be near the end of each
quarter. Tests will be designed to simulate the AP
Chemistry Exam as closely as possible. Tests will be
comprehensive and will be designed to be completed in one
hour. Timed tests will help you to prepare for the AP Exam.
Labs will be offered six to seven times
each quarter. Lab assignments will vary in scope but at
minimum will require completion of pre-lab work by the
first day of work and completion of post-lab questions.
Three to four times each quarter you will be required to
submit a full formal lab report (format available
separately). A portion of your lab grade will depend on
your diligence in keeping a good scientific lab notebook.
Required for this purpose is a permanently bound ruled
notebook. In this notebook you will write your lab
procedures, lab notes and data while you work in the lab.
By the end of the course you will have accumulated the
documentation necessary for colleges to determine whether
to give you credit for the lab portion of the AP Chemistry
class. A handout is available separately that describes how
to make good use of your lab notebook.
Study Groups are required. During the
first week of class you will form study groups of 3 - 4
people. Make a regular time to meet and work on AP
Chemistry together. Working together makes tackling the
difficult material of this course a bit more manageable.
These groups will continue to work together during class.
Re-shuffling of Study Groups will be allowed, if necessary.
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Metacognition
In this course our motto is FIO (an acronym that I leave to
the reader: you will figure it out if you think about it
for a bit).
It is important that you evaluate yourself frequently as
you work to find out what you have learned. Try repeating
to yourself the contents of class discussions. Even better,
go over the concepts and problem-solving techniques with
your study group: communicating something you have learned
forces you to organize your thoughts about it. When you do
so, you learn it better yourself. This is true also about
writing in the course. Your lab reports and the answers to
lab questions are learning opportunities. When you explain
what you have learned in writing you often find that you
have not learned it as well as you thought you did. Go back
and learn it properly and your writing will improve.
We will spend time in this course developing your mental
math skills. The multiple-choice portion of the AP
Chemistry Exam must be done without calculators.
Advisory and Office Hours
One of the most important ways to improve your grade in
my class is to do well on tests and quizzes. In order
to encourage you to come in for help with your
preparation I will offer 5% in extra credit points on a
quiz if you come in at least once to study in my room
during advisory or office hours and actively ask me questions. To earn the extra points your visit must be at least one school day prior to the quiz. This
is a great opportunity to get together with friends to
come in and ask questions and study together.
“I think this class has made me more of a self-driven
learner. Before this year if I was stuck on a problem I
would often wait for the teacher to explain it, but now I
take the time and do the work to figure it out on my own. I
think this has really improved my learning.”
“This class has changed me as a student because I
have had to learn how to do more learning on my own and be
efficient in my work so I have time to study.”
“I’ve had to manage my time a lot more and
focus on what I have the most trouble on, rather than
everything. I am a more effective worker and problem solver
because of it.”
“This class has made me a much more independent
student. To be successful in this class, you must be driven
and do hours of studying outside of class.”
“This class has changed me in a lot of different
ways, honestly. I have learned to study better, which in
turn helped me keep my grades up not only in Chem but in
every class. I have also learned to time manage. It was
really fun and I'm glad I took it and I highly recommend
it!”
“This class has changed me as a student because it's
shown me that I'm not as smart as I thought I was. It has
showed me that if I want to be smart, I'm going to have to
try a lot harder.”
“This class has made me realize that some subjects
are most effectively learned—or even must be
learned—simply by applying new concepts through trial
and error (e.g., in the problem sets). I have become a more
patient learner because of this class, more willing
to blunder around in the dark until things make sense, and
more appreciative of the time it takes to develop true
understanding.”
“Success in fields like Chemistry has less to do with how many facts you can just rote memorize and more with a willingness to study, think about, and eventually understand fundamental systems.”
“This class has changed me as a student because I had to look at things before tests to not fail them.”
“This class has changed me as a student because it has strengthened my ability to solve problems. I have developed new strategies involving looking at problems from different angles and writing down everything I know first. This has carried through to my other classes”
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Schedule
First Quarter*
Topic
and Time
Text Information incl. Problems
Lab(s)
Memory Work
Matter and Measurement
Dimensional Analysis, Scientific Notation, Significant
Figures, Density, Temperature
1 hour
Here is a big-picture flow-chart to help you
determine whether a compound is ionic or molecular
and how to name it no matter what it is. It is
available as a PDF download at this link: Inorganic
Nomenclature Flow Chart. A useful reference for
ion names is the ions reference
sheet I created.
PV = nRT;
P1V1/n1T1 =
P2V2/n2T2;
Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures; Definition of
Mole Fraction; Molar Vol. 22.42 L at STP
1 atm = 760 torr = 760 mm Hg = 1.01325 × 105 Pa
(be able to convert to inches Hg, bar, mbar, and kPa)
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Second Quarter*
Topic
and Time
Text Information incl. Problems
Lab(s)
Memory Work
Thermochemistry: Energy, Enthalpy,
Calorimetry, Hess’s Law
4 hours
