Back to School Night GENERAL CHEMISTRY

Welcome to General Chemistry with Brian Cox   Phone:  B.A. Wesleyan University (Biochemistry)  M.S. University of Oregon (Bioorganic Chemistry)  27 th year of high school teaching; 17 th year at Fairview  Back to School Night Sheet Available on Fairview website  Thank you for supporting our program by paying course lab fee

First Semester Topics:  1 ) Atomic Theory/ Science Process  2) Naming compounds/ Formula Writing  3) Chemical Reactions  4) Measurements/ Analysis of Data  5) Mole Concept  6) Solutions  Note: Course is easy for most student initially and gets progressively more difficult during the year Goals: Make course positive experience, challenging, enjoyable, engaging, help students to improve critical thinking and analysis skills, learn how to learn, develop skills needed to succeed in college

Who is enrolled in this course?  Mostly 11 th graders, some 12 th graders, a few 10 th graders  Small % with an interest in science career typically biomedical sciences  100% college bound  Top students capable of Honors (IB) level work; chose this level to balance lives and focus on interest  Level of course can prepare students for science major however main focus is transition to college and college success skills  We have had students meet their future life partners in this course but we don’t promise this

Focus on Transitioning HS → College  Typical College course structure – Long range assignments; course grade primarily based on small number of large tests  Structure of this course: 2-3 week units, homework sets turned in as a packet due at time of unit test; Lab reports used on open lab report tests and turned in as a packet  ≈ 80% of final grade is based on tests and quizzes, however, many opportunities to demonstrate mastery, including comprehensive semester final exam.  Emphasis on learning how to learn, think critically, strategies for test taking

Resources  1) Workbook – Success Guide, Unit Overviews with Test Topics, Notes templates, List of HW’s for each unit, Problem Sets for entire semester. Get 1 copy each semester covered by course fee.  2) Powerpoints – for each topic online  3) Textbook-  4) Lab manual – in class and also available online as PDF; We have separate chemistry lab and separate computer lab in science wing.