IB Chemistry Matters Vol. 1 of 2 (Textbook)

IB Chemistry Matters Vol. 1 of 2 (Textbook)

IB Chemistry, written by the former 20 year Science Department Chair at the American School of Paris (now headmaster of an Intl. School in Switzerland), is a program that includes not only the lab manual with 24 labs and teacher manual with 30 units, but also a full color textbook entitled Chemistry Matters in 2 volumes, one for each year. It is a program of study based on two premises: learning ideas and concepts is best achieved through repeated practice, over the period of a chemistry course students develop their abilities to use ideas and concepts to account for chemical phenomena.

• Repeated practice, in a context in which chemical theories and models are presented sequentially, is the best strategy to ensure students leave a chemistry course with ability and knowledge. By developing the theoretical foundations of energetics, bonding models and kinetics at increasing levels of complexity, the text ensures that students practice the ideas they are introduced to throughout their course.
• Mastering any skill or ability takes time and practice and this includes the frequently counter intuitive ideas used to account for chemical phenomena. Relating composition, structure and change to the behavior of atoms, ions and molecules is not common to everyday experience of the world.
• By developing and integrating concepts in a range of situations; environmental systems, biochemistry, industry, analysis, medicine and physiology, students explore and use chemistry in situations that matter to themselves and to society as a whole.
• Recurring concepts, models and themes are the threads which integrate the text.

Phillip Jones – Teaching Point