Wahoo!

It's amazing what you will find just cruising around the World Wide Web.  Today I think I found our lab manual!  At least I hope so as I've already placed an Amazon order for it!  Anyhoo, here is the link to this wondrous answer to my prayers (I hope):

The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemisty Experiments:All Lab, No Lecture

If you go here you can look at some samples from the book:

Safari Books

A pretty good review:

Cool Tools

The clincher for me:

Tricotomania and more

9:21 PM - Jul. 28, 2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Curriculum Fair

Today we attended the Southeastern Homeschool Expo, a huge curriculum fair that I have been participating in for about eight years now.  One of the interesting things I found was a microchem lab.  Using the 18 labs in that would simplify things enormously.  I have no idea if they would be considered AP worthy...

Yet another thing to mull over, however.

11:01 PM - Jul. 25, 2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Unit 1

Our base text is probably going to be Chemistry: The Central Science.  I also ordered a copy of Zumdahl's chemistry so the kids could kind of pick which text they were more comfortable with.  I figured it would be an easy choice, but of course two said Central and one said Zumdahl.  Right now we're going to read and take notes from Central, just read Zumdahl, and listen to the mp3 of Wile's Exploring Creation with Chemistry.

As far as videos go, right now I'm having the kids take notes from the Thinkwell course and as we get into the Teaching Company course we will just work the sample problems within the lectures.  We're just gong to watch The World of Chemistry videos.  There are also a plethora of websites that quiz the different topics of chemistry and as we use those I will post and review those that work well for us.

Here is what Unit One looks like:

  

Chemistry, Zumdahl 5th Edition

1. Chemical Foundations

1.1 Chemistry: An Overview

1.2 The Scientific Method

1.3 Units of Measurement

1.4 Uncertainty in Measurement

1.5 Significant Figures and Calculations

1.6 Dimensional Analysis

1.7 Temperature

1.8 Density

1.9 Classification of Matter

Thinkwell Chemistry

1.1. An Introduction to Chemistry and the Scientific Method

1.1.1. An Introduction to Chemistry

1.1.2. The Scientific Method

1.2. Properties of Matter

1.2.1. States of Matter

1.2.2. A Word About Laboratory Safety

1.2.3. CIA Demonstration: Differences in Density Due to Temperature

1.2.4. Properties of Matter

1.3. Scientific Measurement

1.3.1. The Measurement of Matter

1.3.2. Precision and Accuracy

1.3.3. CIA Demonstration: Precision and Accuracy with Glassware

1.3.4. Significant Figures

1.3.5. Dimensional Analysis

1.4. Mathematics of Chemistry

1.4.1. Scientific (Exponential) Notation

1.4.2. Common Mathematical Functions

Chemistry: The Central Science

Chapter 1: Introduction: Matter and Measurement

1.1: The Study of Chemistry

1: Visualizing Concepts

1.2: Classifications of Matter (7)

1.3: Properties of Matter (2)

1.4: Units of Measurement (12)

1.5: Uncertainty of Measurement (4)

1.6: Dimensional Analysis (7)

1: Additional Exercises (8)

Exploring Creation with Chemistry

MODULE #1: Measurement and Units

Experiment 1.1-2: Air Has Mass/Takes up space

Units of Measurement

The Metric System

Manipulating Units

Converting Between Units

Converting Between Unit Systems

More Complex Unit Conversions

Derived Units

Making Measurements

Accuracy, Precision, and Significant Figures

Scientific Notation

Using Significant Figures in Mathematical Problems

Experiment 1.3: Comparing Conversions to Measurements

Density

Experiment 1.4: The Density of Liquid

MODULE #4: Classifying Matter and Its Changes

Classifying Matter

Ex. 4.1: Separating a Mixture of Sand and Salt

Classifying Changes That Occur in Matter

Ex. 4.2: Dist. Between Chemical and Physical Change

Phase Changes

Experiment 4.3: Condensing Steam in an Enclosed Vessel

The Kinetic Theory of Matter

Experiment 4.4: The Kinetic Theory of Matter

Phase Changes in Water

Chemical Reactions and Chemical Equations

Determining Whether or Not a Chemical Equation is Bal.

Balancing Chemical Equations

The World of Chemistry-Annenburg

1. The World of Chemistry

3. Measurement: The Foundation of Chemistry

http://www.sciencegeek.net/APchemistry/APtaters/directory.shtml

http://www.sciencegeek.net/APchemistry/APtaters/sigfigs.htm

http://www.sciencegeek.net/Activities/scientificnotation.html

This is actually made using Excel, so if you want to see what I do you would need to open Excel and then copy and paste each "grid" next to each other.  So column 1 would be Zumdahl, column 2 would be Thinkwell, column 3 would be Central Science and so on.  The World of chemistry and websites I want the kids to look at hang out at the bottom of the worksheet.

10:06 PM - Jul. 24, 2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Introduction

Hi, my name is Jennifer and I am going to document our year in chemistry using this blog.  I have three children, Joshua who is 17, Elizabeth who is 15, and Rebecca who is 13.  We have always homeschooled. 

This year is going to be a doozy as far as scheduling goes--just in math I will have one child in Alg II, one in precalc and one in calculus.  I need to take as many shortcuts as possible!  To that end, I have decided that we will all attempt AP Chemistry together.  I'm not too concerned about the older two, but my youngest hasn't had the prerequisite first year of chemistry and she will be doing Algebra II concurrently, so the math MIGHT be a little rough for her.  If at the end of the year she does not feel adequately prepared for the AP exam, I will instead sign her up for the SAT II and we may or may not attempt AP chemistry at a later date.  At this point she is not planning any kind of career in the maths or sciences, but of course at 13, that could be subject to change. 

Being as I am a curriculum junky of the first order, we will be using A LOT of things.  Our texts books (at this point) include:  Exploring Creation with Chemistry (the "high school" component)  and both Chemistry by Zumdahl and Chemistry: the Central Science by Brown, et al. as the "college" component.  We will also use Thinkwell Chemistry and The Teaching Company's chemistry course as part of the lecture portion of our course.  I also plan to incorporate the World of Chemistry videos as kind of a "big picture" look at the purpose of why we're learning all of this. 

I am going to piece together the lab component kind of "on the fly" so to speak.  I have the lab books from Exploring Creation with Chemistry, Abeka's lab book, Exploring Chemistry and the lab book that goes with the Central Science text as well.  There are also tons of labs on the internet that I would like to incorporate.

We actually have already started our year, even though I do not have all of the things I need in my hot little hands yet.  We are working on learning ALL of the chemical symbols and a fairly extensive list of ions.  We also have listened to the first Unit of the Thinkwell lectures and the first two lectures in The Teaching Company course.  We also read the first chapter in the two college texts and listened to the first module in ECw/C.   I am really waiting for the solution manuals from the Central Science text to finally get here so that we can finally move out of the first unit of our course!

4:52 PM - Jul. 23, 2008 - comments {0} - post comment