This is a great video I came accross on YouTube. It is made by Dr. Richard Thornley, a Chemistry teacher at the UN International school in New York.
Triple A Learning IB Blogs
Chemistry
Welcome to the Triple A Learning blog for DP Chemistry. The most recent blog posts are listed below and you can access the blog archive by following the appropriate link in the panel on the left.
April 25, 2012
April 24, 2012
Extended essays
If you teach in the northern hemisphere (or are a ‘May session’ school) you are probably up to your neck in revision with your second year IB students as they have limited time left before their exams start.
Try to remember the extended essays though. The perfect time to start extended essays is when the second year IB students have left. As scientists, we have a tough time with the EE. A lower percentage of students get the higher grades (just look at the IBO statistical bulletin) plus the students need to carry out lab work (and we need to supervise them!)
April 23, 2012
Tips for Success (7)
The exams are getting closer…… As a quick revison exercise, ask your HL students to complete the following rates of reaction / kinetics task.
Sketch six graphs, three of time v concentration, three of concentration v rate for a first, second and third order reaction. The answer can be found below….
April 19, 2012
Potassium Production (2)
The previous blog post dealt with the amount of potassium produced annually.
As promised, this posting delas with the industrail method behind its production.
April 17, 2012
Potassium Production
Interesting fact for the week:
What is the (approximate) global production of Potassium metal per year?
April 16, 2012
Top Tips for the Teacher (2)
Stuck for some IA labs to assess in the DCP and CE categories?
Try using these ideas to plan some labs:
•How much Iron in an Iron Tablet – Redox Titration
•Determine conc. of Hydrogen Peroxide – Redox Titration
•Determine the formula of a complex ion (colorimetry)
•Molecular mass of a volatile liquid
•Heat of combustion of alcohols
•Calculate the enthalpy of solution
•Determine the activation energy of a reaction
April 9, 2012
IB ChemTeach
Are you on Facebook? -nowadays it is more unusual to find people who are not on Facebook as opposed to people who are on it.
I have just got back from running a Level 1 & 2 workshop. One of the participants was very keen to get an IB Chemistry Teachers facebook group together and has gone ahead and created a group. It is aimed at IB Chemistry teachers and its purpose is to share ideas and resources. You can find it by search fro ‘IB ChemTeach’ in Facebook. I look forward to seeing you there!
March 27, 2012
SN1 or SN2 – what do the numbers mean?
Chances are, as a teacher or a student you will come across these terms (SN1 or SN2) in the teaching of IB Chemistry. They come up on a number of occasions in the organic chemistry part of the course (at Core, Higher or Option level).
As a student, I was happy with the SN part – ‘S’ meant substitution – quite self explanatory, you swap one thing with another. ‘N’ was a little more difficult but I could get my head around it – it mean ‘nucleophilic’ which meant a nucleophile, a species that donate a pair of electrons. The ’1′ or the ’2′ were a little trickier. What did they mean?
March 26, 2012
Top tips for the teacher
Are you stuck for design labs?
Looking for some inspiration? How are these as ideas for design labs?
March 23, 2012
Top Tips for Success (6)
Here is an equation you are familiar with regarding an equilibrium reaction. Underneath it is a correct and an incorrect expression for Kc.
How many mistakes can you spot for the incorrect expression? What are the mistakes? Answers below please.
