Well... I'll suggest this book: http://www.amazon.com/Absinthe-Flamethrowers-Projects-Ruminations-Dangerously/dp/1556528221/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361853321&sr=8-1&keywords=absinthe+and+flamethrowers (By the same author as "Backyard Ballistics") WARNING!!! I would NOT just give this to the dc and let 'em have at it!!!!!!!!!! And it isn't totally about chemistry. But it'll certainly up the "livin' on the edge" factor... :D

I've been looking for resources to go along with the Tarbuck Earth Science text that's been suggested here. I did a search for past threads and came up with some wonderful suggestions and resources (and a great poster who was willing to share her syllabus - thanks!). I also went a-Googlin' (like a-wassailin' but with less singing and imbibing... :D ) and found a few resources that I didn't see on any of the older threads so I'd thought I'd share. Forgive me if someone has already shared some or all of these and I just didn't see - I'm not sure if my forum search turned up ALL the old threads. *Note: These resources are for the 11th ed of the text. It seemed to be the one with the most free resources (and it's cheaper 'cause it's older). http://wps.prenhall.com/esm_tarbuck_escience_11/ This is a completely free text companion website from Pearson. No sign-up, no login needed - nothing! It has resources for each chapter including section quizzes and a chapter test. http://www.oakton.edu/user/4/billtong/eas100/index.html Syllabus for a community college using the text. http://mansfield.osu.edu/faculty/ocosta/ES203/syllabus.pdf Syllabus from Ohio State. http://capone.mtsu.edu/cdharris/GEOL100/ Great webpage with lots of resources but a pain to navigate. http://www2.tesc.edu/coursemanuals/dagang/eas-101-jan.pdf Syllabus from Thomas Edison State College.

OK... I've added the links and curricula that everyone has suggested into the main summary posts at the beginning of the thread. If I've missed any or if I've misquoted anyone, PLEASE PM me and let me know - I'd hate for anyone to think that they were being overlooked or misrepresented! :ohmy: :D I'm still trying to put together an alternative lab plan for the Chang honours chem course using the "doctortang" resources but it's coming! I may actually put together two alternatives - one from a microchem standpoint for doing labs without expensive glassware and equipment and one from a standard wet-chem standpoint for nerds who happen to have burettes and magnetic stirrer hot plates already in their homeschool room. :w00t: I also have the unit tests that I gave to my Grade 12U Chem students when I taught (equivalent to honours chem). I can't guarantee that they'd match up exactly with the Chang text (or any other honours text for that matter since I had to use an "Ontario gov't approved text" that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy so I actually just gave lectures and made up my own assignments) but I'm willing to share the tests (and I'd even include answer keys with worked answers :)) to anyone that would like them - just PM me.

:iagree: There are practice unit tests included in the "doctortang" resources (and he includes answer keys). The only unit he doesn't have a practice test posted for is his last unit on Electrochemistry. You could just make sure to either cover or completely remove the answers (he puts them on the last page of the practice test) and use his practice tests as your "real" tests. :)

Not a bio expert by any means :) but in taking a look at the new AP Bio syllabus, I'd say that some chem background certainly wouldn't hurt (although they seem to require much less memorization of molecular structures than I remember from a number of years ago). I think with some chem under his belt first, much of the biochemistry in the course would make more sense intuitively and wouldn't require so much memorization - KWIM? I think that concurrent AP Bio and chem (is he taking Reg Chem or Hon Chem?) is doable by a very motivated and bright student but a deeper understanding of the biochemistry in the AP Bio course will be limited. This is from the College Board website: What are the prerequisites for student enrollment in AP Biology? Schools vary in their course prerequisites. Most consider Biology I a prerequisite, though some highly selective schools teach AP as the first and only biology course for their gifted sophomores. Completion of, or at least concurrent enrollment in, chemistry is a common requirement; many schools feel this ensures a certain level of maturity and helps biology students during biochemistry sections. Some schools require students to complete the three first-year science courses (biology, chemistry, and physics) before enrolling in an AP science class. Their aim is to ensure basic competence before specialization. Prior knowledge and skills are described in the College Board Standards for College Success™ and in the AP Vertical Teams® Guide for Science. This is from the AP Student College Board website on their AP Biology page: Recommended course preparation Successful completion of a high school laboratory science course Successful completion of at least one year of algebra Hope that helps!

Maybe we'll eventually convince everyone on the forum that chemistry is the BEST of all the sciences!!! (Ducking rotten fruit and garbage now...) :laugh: So I'm wondering... Folks have been adding links and reviews to the thread like mad - it's awesome! Should I copy and paste everything into the original lists that I posted or should I just leave it be? I didn't want to just go ahead and copy and paste other people's contributions into the original lists 'cause I thought then it would seem as though "I" were trying to take credit for all of it. :ohmy: But then I didn't want all the great info to be lost in the thread if it got long (and I know the search feature on the forum is a bit wonky since the change-over). Any thoughts on which way to go?

So... Here are the lists. :) Let me say first - these labs are going to be difficult to set-up and reproduce at home. Some of them involve the teacher (in the homeschoolers case, the parent) having to make up solutions for the students to use in the lab so the teacher is going to have to know how to make up those solutions. He uses quite a few of the solids for only one lab and so I'm not sure how cost effective it would be for a homeschooler to purchase them all. On the other hand, these are good, good labs - most of the common wet-lab chem skills are covered so that the students have some practice with them and he manages to cover a lot of stuff in just 9 labs. I listed the "Skills covered" because it would be a starting point to come up with different labs yet have the same skills covered. I haven't had time to think about replacement labs yet but I'll get to it. :) Honours Chemistry using General Chemistry by Raymond Chang with labs from the www.doctortang.com website Skills covered *use of graduated cylinders *use of volumetric pipets *use of an electronic balance (taring) *lighting and use of a Bunsen burner *testing for hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide gas *use of a ring stand setup for heating beakers over a Bunsen burner *use of volumetric flasks *preparation of a solution from a solid solute *preparation of a solution by dilution *use of a funnel and filter paper *gravimetric analysis *use of burets for titration *how to properly heat a test tube over a flame *grinding solids with a mortar and pestle *calibrating and using a pH meter Equipment (reusable) *graduated cylinders (10mL, 25mL, 50mL, and 100mL) *volumetric pipets (10mL and 25mL) *pipet bulb *electronic balance *Bunsen burner *beakers (glass & plastic – variety of sizes (50mL, 100mL, 250mL, 400mL, 600mL)) *test tubes (at least 15) *test tube stand (2) *scoopula & handle *ring stand *ring *wire gauze *stirring rod *volumetric flasks (100mL and 250mL) *wash bottle *beaker tongs *rubber stoppers (various sizes to fit test tubes, volumetric flasks, and Erlenmeyer flasks) *funnel *Erlenmeyer flasks (100mL and 250mL) *buret *buret clamp *watch glass *thermometers (2) *hot plate *test tube clamp *mortar & pestle *pH meter and calibration solutions Equipment (consumable) *wooden splints *medicine droppers (disposable plastic pipets) *filter paper ***Will need to know the temperature and atmospheric pressure in the room for Lab #4 so may need access to a barometer Chemicals Solids *MnO2 *Zn strip *Ni shots *CuSO4 ˑ 5 H2O *KOH *NaOH *NH4Cl *K2CrO4 *CoCl2 *AgNO3 *Fe(NO3)3 *KSCN *K2HPO4 *K2Cr2O7 *KCl *NaCl (non-iodized) Liquids *H2SO4 (aq) (will need to have 3M and 0.180M - could buy concentrated and dilute yourself) *lime water (saturated Ca(OH)2 solution) *HCl(aq) (12M) *HNO3 (aq) (6M) *bromothymol blue indicator *phenolphthalein *universal indicator *ethanol Chemicals and equipment from home *baking soda *hydrogen peroxide (3% v/v) *butane lighter *styrofoam cups and plastic lids *ice *distilled water (Lab #1 calls for distilled and deionized water but distilled would be OK) *aluminum foil *tea light candle *Aspirin (325mg each) - noncoated

That's encouraging about Waterloo! Do you know if your friend's son had the "recommended" 6 12U Ontario credits? I just keep thinking that it's such a waste of time for my dd to do the "busy work" that those credits would require when she's going to have more difficult courses under her belt anyway. Bleh. :( I went to U of M! :) I'm in Northwestern Ontario so it was far closer than the universities in Southern ON. What do they require now for science admissions? U of M is another possibility for dd - plus it's my alma mater. :) They don't have chemical engineering, though - that's one of the paths she's looking at.

Is your son wanting to go into science or engineering at university? Does he have any particular universities in mind? I ask because it seems as though different universities in Canada require vastly different things from homeschoolers even if one is applying for the same thing. My dd seems to be engineering bound at this point so we've been looking at Waterloo. They are one of the few universities in Ontario that want nothing to do with AP credits. Not to say that they won't accept students with APs but they absolutely won't give university credit for them. They STRONGLY suggest (and I read that to mean "do this if you want to get in") that homeschooled students have 6 12U credits from an accredited school/agency (like ILC courses). It's kind of laughable, in a way - the 12U credits from the ILC are soooooooooo much easier than what I'll have my daughter do (I'm going to have her do APs for all the sciences and maths) that she's basically just going to have to do the busy work, get the 12U credits, and jump through Waterloo's hoops. :) All this to say that, depending on where your son is applying, a "mom" transcript may not matter as much as we think it might. If he's used the regular Apologia courses (not the Advanced ones), that's probably equivalent to 11U credits in those courses. If he's wanting to apply to science or engineering at uni, he'll definitely need what the Americans call "honours" level courses. I would check out the university websites of the schools he's looking at, though, to see what they want.

It doesn't look like it but I don't have the bought version of the guide to compare. From everything he says on his website, they look to be the same manual and so both should work with the kit. Anyone have both in hand to compare?

Hi Kristie, I'm not there quite yet (dd is only 12) but it's something that I've been thinking about and researching for awhile - mostly because there seems to be much less info on homeschooled Canadians getting into university or college than there is for our American neighbours and I'm terrified that I'll miss something and ruin my dd's chances. :) Are you in Ontario? I'll give my answers from an Ontario standpoint, since that's where I am and where I taught, but if you're in a different province things might be a bit different. From a chem standpoint (and probably for physics and bio as well), if your son did what Americans call "regular chemistry" (a solid reg chem - there are some that I call "basic reg chem" that I wouldn't say are quite there - see the Homeschool High School Chemistry thread to see what I mean), that's probably equivalent to Grade 11U Chem in Ontario (university-bound track). If he did one of the "basic reg chem" with very little math, that probably equivalent to Grade 12C Chem (college/trade school-bound track). If he did a good solid "honours chem", that's probably equivalent to Grade 12U Chem (again, university-bound track). The actual topics might differ slightly in both those cases but that's approximately how they'd line up. I would think bio and physics would line up the same way but I'm a former chem teacher, not bio or physics, so I don't have the same degree of knowledge about what topics or what level of difficulty make up a particular level of those subjects. :) The Grade 9 and 10 courses are tougher to line up. Americans have what's called physical science for Grade 9 (which is probably what your son did?) but it doesn't contain any bio, which the Canadian 9 and 10 science courses do. The physical science course probably covered the chem and physics topics contained in both 9 and 10 Canadian science but not the bio or earth/space science topics. Hmmm... Tough call. Anyone else have ideas? There is a wonderful website by Sarah Rainsberger on getting a homeschooled student into Canadian universities: http://universityadmissions.ca/ Hope some of that helps!

This thread is making me think of safety. Gee - I wonder why... :tongue_smilie: ;) Has anyone ever had luck getting Flinn Scientific to send a catalog to you as a homeschooler? They have an AWESOME catalog - it has an amazing reference section on lab safety. We had one at the high school I taught at before homeschooling and I've always wanted my very own but I see on their website that they'll only send the catalog to certified science teachers in the States. :sad: Any one ever tried and had any luck?

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to the folks who have posted links or programs that I missed or who have jumped in to clarify things or add points of view. Keep it comin'! Combined wisdom rocks! :D

I have never liked the mass-produced lab kits - but then I'm a super chem nerd so you may not want out of a lab kit what I want out of a lab kit. :D I recently found an old Spec-20 on ebay so I could do spectrophotometric analysis with my dd at home. It didn't come with any cuvettes, though, so now I have get a hold of some of those... If anyone else has access to a spectrophotometer, I have an awesome lab that I can give out - these are the lab objectives: 1. To determine the equilibrium constant for a chemical system spectrophotometrically 2. To use the standard curve generated to determine the thiocyanate concentration in human saliva 'Cause... Ya know... Every kid is DYING to know what the thiocyanate concentration is in his or her spit. :D I did list links for any lab kits that are available for any of the curricula above. I tend to buy my equipment a la carte - mostly from Home Science Tools http://www.hometrainingtools.com/Default.asp?. I have ordered a few things through Amazon, believe it or not. I wanted a double burette clamp of a particular kind and found a supplier on Amazon. If you're planning on doing the Chang General Chem with your ds next year and you want to do the labs from the Tang resource, I can go through the labs and come up with a list of equipment and chemicals you would need. Then you could just purchase the list through Home Science Tools or another supplier. I haven't really looked at the Tang labs yet but if any of them look prohibitive to do at home, I can probably give you alternate labs that are more home-friendly. I'm currently not at home but give me a few hours this evening and I can get that done. If you'd like. :) If you (or anyone else) doesn't need that, no worries - just say either way.

Thanks, Jackie. :) I think I mentioned that about the Thinkwell "reg chem" vs. the AP Chem in a post just above where I answered Swimmermom3 but it's good to make it clear. I'd hate for someone who wasn't really that into chemistry to order the Thinkwell "regular chem" and think they were just getting a basic, git-r-done kind of course. I think there would be some panic and shock involved... :ohmy: :D

Thanks, Mary - that does help. :) It would be so much easier if all the nice publishers could just send me evaluation copies of all the curriuclua... :)

Thanks for the info, Debbie! I have to admit - it was tough trying to judge program levels when usually I could only see the table of contents and maybe the first few pages of the first lesson or chapter (which quite often doesn't give an accurate representation of the difficulty level of the rest of the course). Like I say - I was waffling on Apologia and couldn't quite decide, based on the sample, where it belonged. That's why I think that the more people that can contribute to this thread, the better! My lists are just starting points - hearing from folks who have used the programs is an invaluable source of wisdom. I'll change the Apologia entry and move it to the Reg Chem list. :) I really couldn't get a good feel from the Spectrum sample either but I was leaning towards Reg Chem (although I think it's called honours chem on its website). If I were to list it under Reg Chem, is there anyone who has used it that could chime in and either agree or disagree?

Monica, This is a snippet of what I posted on the High School Chemistry thread: *The Home Scientist sells a Honours Chem Lab kit with lab manual that can be correlated to many different chem programs (the lab manual is free to download even if you don't purchase the kit) http://www.thehomescientist.com/kits/CK01/ck01-main.html He also sells a simplified and less expensive version of the kit meant for Standard (or Regular) Chemistry which also has a free, downloadable lab manual: http://www.thehomescientist.com/kits/CK01B/ck01b-main.html NOTE: The free lab manual that comes with this kit is NOT the same as the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments (by the same author). This kit (and the free lab manual) will give a lab component for a first-year high school chemistry course. The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments (which can be purchased through Amazon) is meant to give the equivalent of the lab component for a two-year high school chemistry course and would require more equipment and chemicals than are included in this kit. Is your dd using the regular Apologia text or the advanced one? If she's using the regular one but wanted more labs, you could probably get the honours kit from The Home Scientist and just use his free downloadable manual. The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments that the author sells on Amazon is not actually meant to be used with either one of the kits he sells - you would need to buy more equipment to do the labs in that book. So... He sells one kit (plus free manual) for reg chem, one kit (plus different free manual) for honours chem, and then he sells the Illustrated Guide that would require you to put together your own equipment and the labs are more along the lines of an AP Chem course or a first year college chem. Hope that helps. :)

I think it is mostly comparing apples to apples but within each level (reg chem, honours chem, and AP Chem) there's going to be a continuum of difficulty - does that make sense? Because there doesn't seem to be any specific rules for what a reg chem or honours chem course covers (just kind of a general guideline), there can be both "easy" and "difficult" reg chem and honours chem. (AP is more standardized because it's assumed that all the AP students will be writing the standardized AP exam. Even if students just take the AP course without the AP exam, I suppose the course still must be audited before it can be called AP.) I think, of the honours chem courses I listed, that the Thinkwell course and using Chang General Chemistry would be at the "difficult" end of the continuum. All the other honours courses use texts or materials written for high school honours chem. The Chang book is actually a college book for non-STEM majors and the Thinkwell course is basically an AP course (which should be at the level of first year college chem for STEM majors, if done correctly) but doesn't worry about "teaching to the test". I think if honours chem is done with any good college text for non-STEM majors, then it will be honours but at the "difficult" end of the continuum. I'm not familiar with Zumdahl's non-major text but his AP/STEM-major text is very good and is my second choice for AP Chem after Chang. Algebra 2 is listed as a prereq for the difficult honours courses more to indicate problem-solving ability than actually math topics needed. Honours chem, as a general rule, would require knowledge of complicated algebraic manipulation (working with multivariable formulae and being able to solve for any of the variables if the others are given), basic knowledge of angles (for looking at bond angles but really no calculations involved), basic logs (for calculating pH), dimensional analysis, knowledge of the quadratic equation and how to solve and interpret results, and the ability to work with and understand graphs. The Chang text also requires students to work with the Arrhenius Equation - to get a more useful form, students take the natural log of both sides. Chang doesn't expect the students to derive this themselves - he just gives it to them - but they are expected to then work with it. Chang also requires students to work with the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation when dealing with buffer solutions - it involves logs as well. I don't know if the honours courses written for high school would take the mathematical treatment of chemistry that far or not but I suspect not. That's why most of the honours courses only require Alg 1 but Thinkwell or any honours course taught with a good college non-major text may require Alg 2 - not for all the topics it covers (maybe a few) but for practice with solving more difficult problems that require more thinking. Chemistry is difficult enough to understand since it's very abstract (the atomic or molecular level isn't exactly something that students have experience with in everyday life :)) without the student having to struggle with the math at the same time. Whew - I'm long-winded today. :) Did any of that help?

It would probably be better if a biology person did a Biology one and a history person did a History one. :) I don't think I'd have enough familiarity to be able to tell a reg bio from an honours bio or reg history from honours history - stuff like that. Unless the program specifically stated on its website what it was and what the prerequisites were, I wouldn't have a clue. I may work on some lists for other subjects (I like lists :D ) but they wouldn't be as detailed as the chem list. We'll see how much more it snows here in the coming days... ;)

Sorry - missed this one! (And probably many others, as well. :ohmy: ) If you (or anyone else) have a copy of this, can you tell me what they do for the sections on Kinetics and Equilibrium? Do they have the students mathematically determine the rate law for a given reaction? For the section on Equilibrium, does the student have to calculate equilibrium concentrations using the equilibrium constant for a given reaction? Sorry - just trying to get a better feel as to whether the course is high level reg chem or basic honours chem.

Is it these ones? http://www.gpb.org/chemistry-physics Can students outside Georgia access these? I can't get them to load but then I'm in Canada so it might be different for those in the States. I usually can't stream anything from PBS over the internet - it knows I'm outside of the States. :leaving:

Basic Algebra would be the ability to work with three-variable formulae (such as the one for density) and that would be as tough as the math gets. Algebra 1 would include things like dimensional analysis, possibly basic logs when dealing with pH - stuff like that. This is just my thoughts - in Ontario, we also don't have a "math sequence" like you do in the States so I'm not really familiar with what would be included in a standard Algebra 1 course. My basic thought process when I was doing the list followed the above line of thinking but if I'm wrong, someone tell me and I can fix the list. :)

This was one of the curricula that I wasn't quite sure on. My tipping point is usually if the curriculum in question contains a mathematical treatment of chemical kinetics and equilibrium - reg chem courses never do that. It's not an "exact science", though. :) I could probably either call this one a higher level reg chem or a basic honours chem. Hope that helps!

Other High School Chemistry Resources *K12 offers Core, Comprehensive, Honours, and AP Chem courses http://www.k12.com/c...e-list/#science *The Home Scientist sells a Honours Chem Lab kit with lab manual that can be correlated to many different chem programs (the lab manual is free to download even if you don't purchase the kit) http://www.thehomesc.../ck01-main.html He also sells a simplified and less expensive version of the kit meant for Standard (or Regular) Chemistry which also has a free, downloadable lab manual: http://www.thehomesc...ck01b-main.html NOTE: The free lab manual that comes with this kit is NOT the same as the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments (by the same author). This kit (and the free lab manual) will give a lab component for a first-year high school chemistry course. The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments (which can be purchased through Amazon) is meant to give the equivalent of the lab component for a two-year high school chemistry course and would require more equipment and chemicals than are included in this kit. *Quality Science Labs also sells a number of MicroChem lab kits that can be correlated to different science curricula. Microchemistry uses much smaller amounts of chemicals and doesn't use much of the large, expensive glassware that traditional chem labs use. The drawback, however, is that students won't acquire the skills needed to work with some of the traditional glassware such as burettes for titration or filtering or distillation apparatus, etc. Lab kits: http://www.qualitysc...chemistry-labs/ Curricula Co-ordination: http://www.qualitysc...la-coordination (scroll down a bit for chemistry) *HippoCampus has videos from Khan Academy organized under two collections, Chemistry and Organic Chemistry: http://www.hippocampus.org/Chemistry *Labpaq (Hands On Learning) offers chemistry lab kits for sale. You can fill out the form at the following link for more information: https://www.holscien...est-information *The Great Courses has a high school chemistry course: http://www.thegreatc...l.aspx?cid=1012 This could be used as a supplement to a text or to some other type of course but I don't think it would be terribly helpful as a stand-alone high school chemistry course. *Free chem text from CalTech - Chemical Principles (1979) by Dickerson, Gray, & Haight: http://authors.libra...tech.edu/25050/ *Free beginning chem text (only free as an ebook - must pay for a printed copy): http://preparatorychemistry.com/ Has two versions - an "atoms-first version": http://preparatorych...ishop_iBook.htm or a "chemistry-first" version: http://preparatorych...op_iBook_CF.htm From the website: "The atoms-first version provides a more complete description of atomic theory, chemical bonding, and chemical calculations early. The chemistry-first version has a early emphasis on descriptions of the structure of matter and the nature of chemical changes, postponing the description of unit conversions and chemical calculations." *Adrian Dingle has a website that has resources for AP Chem, Honours Chem, Reg Chem, and a short course in Organic Chem. There is a vast amount of stuff here - notes, quizzes, labs, worksheets... But not all of it is available all of the time - he rotates his stuff on and off of his website as his students are using it. If you want access to all of it, he does offer paid subscriptions. Otherwise, you just have to keep going back to download the pdfs a few at a time. http://www.adriandin...com/index2.html *A homeschool mom (I believe she might be on this forum!) has done high school honours chem at home and made a website sharing her entire course. She uses Introductory Chemistry (5th ed) by Stephen Zumdahl and the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments by Robert Bruce Thompson. Her site includes a week-by-week schedule with readings, text questions to complete, additional websites to check out for each topic, and the correlation of labs to the text. She gives tests and might even be willing to share them if you e-mail her and ask nicely. Here's the site: https://sites.google...rnthehousedown/ If you scroll down to the bottom, you'll see "Archived Assignments" - click on that and you get the rest of the weeks. Pretty awesome! Junior High Chemistry Curricula I know that sometimes these courses are considered to be high school level (and some are labeled as such) but without a math component, I don't think they can be honestly called "high school chem". If a math component is added in from elsewhere, that could bump them up to high school level. *Noeo Science: Chemistry III http://www.noeoscien...om/chemIII.html *Queen's Homeschool Chemistry https://www.queensho...94a8fbc93dc8ab2 *From "anne1456": The Chemistry videos from Georgia Public Broadcasting at http://www.gpb.org/ are high school level. You can buy the teachers material for them pretty cheap too. *From "MyThreeSons": I recently posted about some FREE online virtual labs that I use in my co-op Physics class. Here are the ones that are specifically related to Chemistry: http://phet.colorado...egory/chemistry *From "kangato3": Another textbook choice for regular chemistry is World of Chemistry by Zumdahl. Very similar to same author's Introductory Chemistry, but broken up into smaller sections as it's designed for high school. *From "Kareni": Caveman Chemistry by Kevin Dunn The book can be browsed through at the link above. Here's a review from the Journal of Chemical Education. *From "swimmermom3": Also, while I was searching for free lesson plans to link to the Holt text, I happened across this site with a whole bunch of resources. I am losing track so if someone has already posted this, my apologies: http://www.nclark.net/Chemistry Ms. Clark's site has a fun lab safety video. *From "HodgesSchool": Just ran across these demonstration labs from MIT that are well produced, showy, and also quite seriously academic: http://ocw.mit.edu/h...rations/videos/ (And if you haven't seen the Chem Lab Boot Camp that I've mentioned before, you might enjoy it, too. It is much more narrative than scientific, but I found it both inspiring and reassuring. http://ocw.mit.edu/h...-lab-boot-camp/ ) *From "kiana": I found a great book (Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks) that I'd highly recommend as a living book resource for chemistry. I'm not sure where it would fit -- maybe in the "other resources" -- but I do think there's a lot of good chemistry in it.