Chemistry and AP Chemistry for a hands-on learner

[DebbS]

My son is very interested in learning chemistry. I am attempting to choose a curriculum consisting of an introductory course followed by an AP course. I have looked at Spectrum and Apologia for his first course because they have real live labs. DVD labs would be discouraging to my son. He needs the hands on experience.

 

But, I have read in other forums that these courses are not very rigorous. Also, I am concerned about the Christian aspect mentioned in the course descriptions. Although I understand how it effects the teaching of Biology, I do not understand how it would effect the teaching of Chemistry at this level. Although Christian, I do not dismiss the possibility of the evolution and I do view it as the paradigm for much of current scientific research/discoveries. Possibly I'm looking for something secular?

 

Specifically I would like to hear of courses that would prepare him for AP Chemistry and have labs available that can be integrated with the coursework. He has had Algebra already and I will be giving him more practice with Bridge math, not because his algebra is weak, but because I think that math practice never hurts and will make Chemistry a little easier at the start.

 

Debb S.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

I don't know if this will help or not, but, we are just finishing Module 16 on Apologia Chemistry. I didn't find it to be overtly Christian necessarily. There was some mention of different Chemists and their beliefs regarding God and Christianity, but, I wouldn't say it was too much. (But, then again, that's my opinon!)

 

I found it to be really thorough and a great foundation if someone was interested in Chemistry and wanting to maybe go on to the next level. It definitely covered all the bases. It was, at times, a bit challenging for my dd and I to do mostly because of my lack of science education in life.

 

I guess if your ds is looking to really delve in deep, it might not be rigourous enough,but, as a foundational Chemistry course, I would recommend it for sure. You can always go on to more advanced Chemistry in AP if you so choose.

[Cedarmom]

The AP's have a website. You can download a book that has labs. Then you can look on some of the science websites (homeschooking science,science toolkits) and buy what you need to do the labs. Then just do them in conjunction with Apologia or another course. This is what we did for Physics.

[In The Great White North]

For labs: The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments

 

Apologia and Spectrum are OK first year chem courses if you plan on doing a second year. For the second year, Zumdahl is most frequently recommended on these boards, followed by Brown and Chang.

 

The more algebra the better, especially manipulating equations to solve for "x" and working with unit multipliers.

[Storm Bay]

DD did MicroChem labs along with Conceptual Chemistry. She is going to do AP chem, or at least an AP level Chem, later in high school. The labs were hands on, and the lectures in ChemAlive! included some demonstrations.

 

That said, some say that all high school chemistry should be mathy, which Conceptual Chem is not. However, I am a huge fan of learning the conceptual part of a science first and the math second. There are students who get straight As in mathy chem that don't really understand what they're doing, but there are those who argue that you can't understand it without the math. Nothing like a little friendly controversy :). There was a bit of math in the MicroChem labs, though.