Thinking again about developing an online high school chem course for homeschoolers

[swimmermom3]

I could have really used the kind of course you are describing.

 

My two older kids who took chemistry at the public high school, hated it.  I felt as though the regular classes covered the bare bones, but not enough to make chemistry "live and breath" for students. When my dd later went to cosmetology school, she felt like the light bulb went on because she could see the relevance.

 

When I decided to do the course at home for Sailor Dude, we used Chang's General Chemistry, which was great, but Bob Thompson's book for experiments was overwhelming. For one student, the cost and the set up and take down time was overwhelming and the directions weren't always clear and so we spent as much time figuring out what went wrong as we did completing a successful lab. Resources should tell a student (or at least the instructor) what a "successful" experiment looks like or how it proceeds and if you see a, b, or c results, you may have done x or y. 

 

Following the format that Derek Owens using would probably work well.

 

I'd love to see what you come up with on this if you proceed.

[Roadrunner]

We are so excited!

We are hoping to do a two year Chem sequence, so any course that will provide a strong foundation for a follow up AP Chem course is great! And Chang is great.

[melmichigan]

:party:  I would love this type of option!  Can you tell I have four student yet to take Chemistry, two beginning fall of 2018? Best wishes with this endeavor!  

[Maryam]

Hope you feel better and wishing you a speedy recovery. I'm in too with my rising high schooler (dd)! Very excited. [emoji4]

 

 

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[Miss Mousie]

Has registration opened yet?  ;)

 

 

[Dicentra]

My goodness! :)  Thank you so much for all the interest, support, and get-well wishes! :)

 

No registration yet ;) but I'll keep everyone informed as to how things are progressing.

 

Quick question - if I offered a Reg Chem section and an Honours Chem section but used a different text for each, would that cause problems?  I'm thinking of families who might have more than one student but then couldn't have them use the same text if they were at two different levels.  I love the Chang book for Honours Chem but am thinking of using a Karen Timberlake text for Reg Chem.  Thoughts?

[klmama]

What do you see as the benefits to using Timberlake's book vs. a traditional high school chemistry text?  

[Roadrunner]

No problem here. :)

[Grantmom]

I only have one child left to take Chemistry, and we already own Chang, so I don't feel like I can answer that without bias.  Isn't Chang often used for AP Chem?  (I think it was what DS used for AP Chem with PAHS.)  I would think it be good to use the same text, where the second time through is a deeper dive.  I don't know.  I honestly don't know enough about the differences between the texts and would want you to use whichever text you think does the best job for the intended purpose.  

[Roadrunner]

Yes, chemadvantage uses Chang, which is a huge plus for those of us planning on continuing from honors to AP Chem. 10th edition of Chang is so cheap on Amazon, I don't see how the cost could be a factor.

[rdj2027]

I own Chang but would have no problem buying another text.  

[TarynB]

My goodness! :)  Thank you so much for all the interest, support, and get-well wishes! :)

 

No registration yet ;) but I'll keep everyone informed as to how things are progressing.

 

Quick question - if I offered a Reg Chem section and an Honours Chem section but used a different text for each, would that cause problems?  I'm thinking of families who might have more than one student but then couldn't have them use the same text if they were at two different levels.  I love the Chang book for Honours Chem but am thinking of using a Karen Timberlake text for Reg Chem.  Thoughts?

 

Totally wouldn't be a problem for us. We would definitely defer to your preference and expertise.  :thumbup:

 

FWIW, my DS15 is going to skip chem this coming year as planned, doing physics instead, in hopes your chem class will be up and running for Fall 2018.  :D

 

[Dicentra]

What do you see as the benefits to using Timberlake's book vs. a traditional high school chemistry text?  

 

Excellent question. :)  I've used a few different Timberlake texts in teaching at the local community college.  She writes in a very approachable way and I like the layout far more than traditional high school chem texts.  Texts written for high school tend to have a lot of visual distractions in them (just my opinion :) ).  This is the Timberlake text I was thinking of for a Reg Chem course:

Basic Chemistry 4e

 

 

I only have one child left to take Chemistry, and we already own Chang, so I don't feel like I can answer that without bias.  Isn't Chang often used for AP Chem?  (I think it was what DS used for AP Chem with PAHS.)  I would think it be good to use the same text, where the second time through is a deeper dive.  I don't know.  I honestly don't know enough about the differences between the texts and would want you to use whichever text you think does the best job for the intended purpose.  

 

The Chang text I was thinking of using for an Honours Chem course wouldn't be the same one used for AP Chem. :)  Mr. Moskaluk (ChemAdvantage and PAHS) uses Chang's "Chemistry" for AP Chem but I was considering using Chang's "General Chemistry: The Essential Concepts" for an Honours Chem course.  It would be this one (not sure which edition I'll use yet):

Chang - General Chemistry: The Essential Concepts 7e

 

Chang - General Chemistry: The Essential Concepts 5e

 

I own the 5th edition and I have a copy of the 7th edition on its way so that I can compare. :)

[rdj2027]

Dang, I have the 6th edition  :lol:

[Grantmom]

I think that when people sign up for an outsourced course, they are going to expect to buy a textbook, and probably will want you to use the book that you feel does the job best and complements your teaching style best.

[Dicentra]

Dang, I have the 6th edition  :lol:

 

Maybe I'll see if I can get my hands on a cheap edition of that to compare, as well. :D

 

I think that when people sign up for an outsourced course, they are going to expect to buy a textbook, and probably will want you to use the book that you feel does the job best and complements your teaching style best.

 

That's kind of what I was hoping - excellent! :)

 

 

 

In terms of other textbooks, I also own Conceptual Chemistry, the Prentice Hall Chemistry text, and a ton of AP Chem texts. :)  I've looked at the writing style and layout of most of the main chem text authors (Chang, Zumdahl, Brown-LeMay, Silberberg) and I've taught out of a couple of different Tro books.  Sometimes textbook choice can seem overwhelming - even when I know what I'm looking at and what I'm looking for! :D  I'm trying to carefully balance cost to the student with quality of textbook. :)

 

Also - no matter which text I choose, there will be recorded video classes to go along with each text section and chapter - similar to the quick "Balancing Equations" video I made and posted a few months ago (although my videos for the course will hopefully be more professional looking and involve more than just one slide :D ).  These classes will be taught by me and made available to the students at all times so that they can watch them as many times as they wish.  While I expect the students to read the sections of the text corresponding the the topic being learned, I also know that chemistry is an abstract, difficult subject and can be overwhelming and frustrating to learn without a guide.  I will be your guide. :)

 

Very, very excited about this!

[Grantmom]

Sounds amazing!!  I so wish I had started sooner with older DS and had something like this for him!  You are a rockstar!!   :hurray:

[Maryam]

Sounds wonderful! I also wanted to add another vote for an optional weekly live session.

 

 

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[qaggaz]

We would be very interested in an Honours Chemistry in Fall 2018 (as well as a post-AP course in 2020).

 

 

[Dicentra]

(X-posted in the main high school chem thread and on my other thread about my online courses)

 

Update :)

 

Things are moving right along and I'm on track for a Fall 2018 launch.  I've had quite a few people use the contact form on my website to ask questions or to make a request to be placed on my registration reminder email list.  Thank you so much for your interest!  I wanted to keep people informed about some updates that I've made:

 

1.  I took into account the suggestions that people gave for the schedule for the year and made a few changes.  You can find the updated (but still tentative) schedule here on the Registration and Pricing page.

 

2.  The opening of registration was set for March 1, 2018 at 12:01am Central Standard Time but I decided to change it to March 1, 2018 at 12:01am EASTERN Standard Time.  I realized that my original time would be one o'clock in the morning for those on the east coast and I thought that was kind of mean of me. :)  Midnight on the east coast is slightly better - I suppose. :D

 

3.  I've now completed the video lectures for the first chapter of each of the courses on offer.  I've uploaded them all to ScreenCast and I've placed links to the video playlists on each of the course pages on my website.  Everyone is welcome to head on over and take a look.  I think it will be especially helpful for those who are still undecided as to whether to go with Regular Chemistry or Honors Chemistry.  You'll be able to get an idea from the video lectures for Chapter 1 from each course what the difference in pacing and depth for each course would be.  They should also be helpful to show to your students to see if they like my teaching style before you register. :)

 

As always, I welcome feedback and/or any questions anyone has.  I'm getting very excited about registration and building up content for the fall! :)

[Roadrunner]

(X-posted in the main high school chem thread and on my other thread about my online courses)

 

Update :)

 

Things are moving right along and I'm on track for a Fall 2018 launch. I've had quite a few people use the contact form on my website to ask questions or to make a request to be placed on my registration reminder email list. Thank you so much for your interest! I wanted to keep people informed about some updates that I've made:

 

1. I took into account the suggestions that people gave for the schedule for the year and made a few changes. You can find the updated (but still tentative) schedule here on the Registration and Pricing page.

 

2. The opening of registration was set for March 1, 2018 at 12:01am Central Standard Time but I decided to change it to March 1, 2018 at 12:01am EASTERN Standard Time. I realized that my original time would be one o'clock in the morning for those on the east coast and I thought that was kind of mean of me. :) Midnight on the east coast is slightly better - I suppose. :D

 

3. I've now completed the video lectures for the first chapter of each of the courses on offer. I've uploaded them all to ScreenCast and I've placed links to the video playlists on each of the course pages on my website. Everyone is welcome to head on over and take a look. I think it will be especially helpful for those who are still undecided as to whether to go with Regular Chemistry or Honors Chemistry. You'll be able to get an idea from the video lectures for Chapter 1 from each course what the difference in pacing and depth for each course would be. They should also be helpful to show to your students to see if they like my teaching style before you register. :)

 

As always, I welcome feedback and/or any questions anyone has. I'm getting very excited about registration and building up content for the fall! :)

Are you covering roughly a chapter per week? What do you think the tally of the reading time for chapter + lecture time+ class time + homework will be in hours for Honors Chem?

[Dicentra]

Are you covering roughly a chapter per week? What do you think the tally of the reading time for chapter + lecture time+ class time + homework will be in hours for Honors Chem?

 

I would say more like a chapter every two weeks or so.  The time spent on watching lectures would vary depending on lecture length but right now, I'd roughly guess... 2 hours per week (so 4 hours per chapter) watching lectures.  That will vary, of course, as some chapters are longer than others.  The live class will be no more than 1 hour per week.  The reading time and homework time are hard for me to judge - it depends on how fast a reader a student is and how quickly they can work problems. :)  I'd like to aim for a student to spend on average 6 or 7 hours per week on Honors Chem.  I figure that AP Chem students spend, on average, 8-10 hours per week so hopefully 6 or 7 hours for Honors is comparable.  Again - it will depend on individual student reading speed and problem-working speed. :)

 

[rdj2027]

Connie, how important is it that the student attends the live lecture component at the scheduled time?  For us the lectures would be at 5 or 6:30 in the morning.

[Dicentra]

Connie, how important is it that the student attends the live lecture component at the scheduled time?  For us the lectures would be at 5 or 6:30 in the morning.

 

I did make the scheduled times for Reg Chem staggered so that folks on the west coast would have a time available that wasn't so early. :)  If you're looking at Reg Chem, the two possibilities for live class times are Monday from 9:30am-10:30am or Thursday from 12:30pm-1:30pm Eastern Time.  The student can choose to attend either of those times - they don't have to attend both.  If the later Thursday time slot won't work because of scheduling conflicts, then the student can watch a recording of the live class that I'll post on ScreenCast.  The student won't be penalized in any way if they can't make the live classes. :)

 

[rdj2027]

Thank you!!!  We are a couple of hours behind the West Coast so even 12:30 EST is early for us. 

[lmrich]

I watched your videos. You have a lovely and patient-sounding voice. I feel as if your students will love and trust you. 

 

I am hoping to find a chemistry class that my daughter could start in July and finish by December. I realize that your class is not set up this way, or could she complete the class just using the recorded lectures like Derek Owens?  I was not sure how you would assign tests, etc.. 

[Dicentra]

I watched your videos. You have a lovely and patient-sounding voice. I feel as if your students will love and trust you. 

 

I am hoping to find a chemistry class that my daughter could start in July and finish by December. I realize that your class is not set up this way, or could she complete the class just using the recorded lectures like Derek Owens?  I was not sure how you would assign tests, etc.. 

 

Thank you!  I've always approached teaching with the idea that the students and I are in it together and we work as a team.  That's what I hope comes across. :)

 

If this wasn't my first year running these courses, I might be able to come up with some sort of plan for you but, unfortunately, I can't guarantee that I'd have all the content ready for you in time.  Once I've taught the courses a few times, I might consider offering a more asynchronous version like Derek Owens alongside the versions I currently plan on running.  That would be a few years out, though.  Sorry!