Scope and sequence · Science

High School Chemistry

A full year of chemistry with kitchen-table labs, told through the experiments that discovered it: Boyle’s air pump, Lavoisier’s balance, Dalton’s atoms, Mendeleev’s table, Rutherford’s gold foil and Haber’s ammonia.

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Where this leads

Fields of study: Chemistry, Chemical engineering, Pharmacy, Medicine and nursing, Materials science, Food science, Environmental and water science, Agriculture.

Jobs and careers (trades, licenses and degree paths):

DegreeChemist (industry, quality control, research)
DegreeChemical engineer
DegreePharmacist
DegreePhysician, nurse or physician assistant
DegreeMaterials or metallurgical engineer
2-yr / certLaboratory technician
2-yr / certWater and wastewater treatment operator
TradeWelder or metal finisher (plating, coatings)
TradeHVAC and refrigeration technician
LicensePest-control applicator
FieldBrewer, baker or food technologist

Key topics and where they’re used:

The mole and stoichiometry: pharmacy dosing, manufacturing, recipes scaled to a factory
Gases: diving, HVAC, airbags, welding gases
Acids, bases and solutions: water treatment, pools, soil testing, medicine
Energy and rates: fuels, batteries, engines, food preservation

Paths are examples, not promises. Most careers need further training, an apprenticeship, a license or a degree.

What to cover

29 of 36 lessons are MUST COVER. They are tested on the unit tests and exams, or are skills the SAT/ACT relies on. OPTIONAL lessons are enrichment. Do them if time allows. The course is complete when the MUST COVER lessons are done.

Unit 1: Matter and Measurement

MUST COVER 1.1 From Alchemy to Experiment: Boyle’s The Sceptical Chymist (1661) · exam
MUST COVER 1.2 SI Units, Significant Figures and Dimensional Analysis: “A Just Weight Is His Delight” · exam
MUST COVER 1.3 Density and Archimedes’ Crown · exam
MUST COVER 1.4 Mixtures, Separation and Purity: Tsvet’s Chromatography (1903–1906) · exam

Unit 2: Atoms

MUST COVER 2.1 Lavoisier and the Conservation of Mass (Traité, 1789) · exam
MUST COVER 2.2 Proust’s Definite Proportions and Dalton’s Atomic Theory (1808) · exam
OPTIONAL 2.3 Thomson’s Electron (1897) and Rutherford’s Gold Foil (1909–1911)
MUST COVER 2.4 Isotopes, Atomic Mass and Aston’s Mass Spectrograph (1919) · exam

Unit 3: Electrons and the Periodic Table

MUST COVER 3.1 Flame, Spectra and Bohr’s Atom: Bunsen and Kirchhoff (1859–1860) · exam
MUST COVER 3.2 Electron Configurations and Orbitals · exam
OPTIONAL 3.3 Mendeleev’s Table and the Missing Elements (1869; Gallium 1875)
OPTIONAL 3.4 Periodic Trends: Size, Ionization Energy and Pauling’s Electronegativity

Unit 4: Chemical Bonds and Molecular Shape

OPTIONAL 4.1 Ionic Bonds and Crystals: Salt of the Earth
OPTIONAL 4.2 Covalent Bonds and G. N. Lewis’s Dot Structures (1916)
OPTIONAL 4.3 Molecular Shape: VSEPR and Polarity
OPTIONAL 4.4 Intermolecular Forces: Why Water Is So Strange

Unit 5: Chemical Reactions

MUST COVER 5.1 Writing and Balancing Equations · exam
MUST COVER 5.2 Five Reaction Types and Faraday’s Chemical History of a Candle (1848) · exam
MUST COVER 5.3 Precipitates, Solubility Rules and Net Ionic Equations · exam
MUST COVER 5.4 Oxidation and Reduction: Rust, Batteries and Davy’s Electrolysis (1807) · exam

Unit 6: The Mole and Stoichiometry

MUST COVER 6.1 Avogadro and the Mole · exam
MUST COVER 6.2 Molar Mass, Percent Composition and Empirical Formulas · exam
MUST COVER 6.3 Stoichiometry: Chemistry’s Recipe Math · exam
MUST COVER 6.4 Limiting Reactant and Percent Yield: Haber and Bosch (1909–1913) · exam

Unit 7: Gases

MUST COVER 7.1 Pressure: Torricelli and Boyle’s Law (1662) · exam
MUST COVER 7.2 Charles and Gay-Lussac: Balloons and Temperature (1783–1804) · exam
MUST COVER 7.3 The Ideal Gas Law and Molar Volume · exam
MUST COVER 7.4 Kinetic-Molecular Theory, Dalton’s Partial Pressures and Graham’s Diffusion · exam

Unit 8: Solutions, Acids and Bases

MUST COVER 8.1 Solutions, Solubility and Molarity · exam
MUST COVER 8.2 Colligative Properties: Salt on Ice and Homemade Ice Cream · exam
MUST COVER 8.3 Acids and Bases: Arrhenius (1884) to Brønsted and Lowry (1923) · exam
MUST COVER 8.4 pH, Indicators and Titration: Sørensen at the Carlsberg Laboratory (1909) · exam

Unit 9: Energy, Rates, Equilibrium and the Nucleus

MUST COVER 9.1 Thermochemistry: Lavoisier and Laplace’s Ice Calorimeter and Hess’s Law (1840) · exam
MUST COVER 9.2 Reaction Rates and Catalysts · exam
MUST COVER 9.3 Equilibrium and Le Chatelier’s Principle (1884) · exam
MUST COVER 9.4 Nuclear Chemistry: Becquerel (1896), the Curies (1898) and Half-Life · exam

36-week pacing calendar

From the course’s own 32-week pacing guide, with catch-up and review weeks added to fill a 36-week (180-day) year.

Week	Plan	Done	Notes
Wk 1	Day 1: Lesson 1.1 From Alchemy to Experiment: Boyle’s The Sceptical Chymist (1661): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 1.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 1.1: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 1.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Lesson 1.2 SI Units, Significant Figures and Dimensional Analysis: “A Just Weight Is His Delight”: warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 2	Day 1: Lesson 1.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 1.2: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 1.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Lesson 1.3 Density and Archimedes’ Crown: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 1.3: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 3	Day 1: Lesson 1.3: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 1.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Lesson 1.4 Mixtures, Separation and Purity: Tsvet’s Chromatography (1903–1906): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 1.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 1.4: lab and lab notebook
Wk 4	Day 1: Lesson 1.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Unit 1 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 3: Lesson 2.1 Lavoisier and the Conservation of Mass (Traité, 1789): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 2.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 2.1: lab and lab notebook
Wk 5	Day 1: Lesson 2.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 2.2 Proust’s Definite Proportions and Dalton’s Atomic Theory (1808): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 2.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 2.2: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 2.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 6	Day 1: Lesson 2.3 Thomson’s Electron (1897) and Rutherford’s Gold Foil (1909–1911): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 2.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 2.3: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 2.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Lesson 2.4 Isotopes, Atomic Mass and Aston’s Mass Spectrograph (1919): warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 7	Day 1: Lesson 2.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 2.4: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 2.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Unit 2 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 5: Lesson 3.1 Flame, Spectra and Bohr’s Atom: Bunsen and Kirchhoff (1859–1860): warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 8	Day 1: Lesson 3.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 3.1: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 3.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Lesson 3.2 Electron Configurations and Orbitals: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 3.2: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 9	Day 1: Lesson 3.2: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 3.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Lesson 3.3 Mendeleev’s Table and the Missing Elements (1869; Gallium 1875): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 3.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 3.3: lab and lab notebook
Wk 10	Day 1: Lesson 3.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 3.4 Periodic Trends: Size, Ionization Energy and Pauling’s Electronegativity: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 3.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 3.4: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 3.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 11	Day 1: Unit 3 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 2: Lesson 4.1 Ionic Bonds and Crystals: Salt of the Earth: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 4.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 4.1: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 4.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 12	Day 1: Lesson 4.2 Covalent Bonds and G. N. Lewis’s Dot Structures (1916): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 4.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 4.2: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 4.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Lesson 4.3 Molecular Shape: VSEPR and Polarity: warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 13	Day 1: Lesson 4.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 4.3: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 4.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Lesson 4.4 Intermolecular Forces: Why Water Is So Strange: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 4.4: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 14	Day 1: Lesson 4.4: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 4.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Unit 4 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 4: Lesson 5.1 Writing and Balancing Equations: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 5.1: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 15	Day 1: Lesson 5.1: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 5.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Lesson 5.2 Five Reaction Types and Faraday’s Chemical History of a Candle (1848): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 5.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 5.2: lab and lab notebook
Wk 16	Day 1: Lesson 5.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 5.3 Precipitates, Solubility Rules and Net Ionic Equations: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 5.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 5.3: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 5.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 17	Catch-up and review week (no new lessons)
Wk 18	Day 1: Lesson 5.4 Oxidation and Reduction: Rust, Batteries and Davy’s Electrolysis (1807): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 5.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 5.4: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 5.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Unit 5 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before)
Wk 19	Day 1: Midterm review: formula sheet and missed problems Day 2: Midterm exam Day 3: Lesson 6.1 Avogadro and the Mole: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 6.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 6.1: lab and lab notebook
Wk 20	Day 1: Lesson 6.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 6.2 Molar Mass, Percent Composition and Empirical Formulas: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 6.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 6.2: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 6.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 21	Day 1: Lesson 6.3 Stoichiometry: Chemistry’s Recipe Math: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 6.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 6.3: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 6.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Lesson 6.4 Limiting Reactant and Percent Yield: Haber and Bosch (1909–1913): warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 22	Day 1: Lesson 6.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 6.4: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 6.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Unit 6 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 5: Lesson 7.1 Pressure: Torricelli and Boyle’s Law (1662): warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 23	Day 1: Lesson 7.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 7.1: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 7.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Lesson 7.2 Charles and Gay-Lussac: Balloons and Temperature (1783–1804): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 7.2: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 24	Day 1: Lesson 7.2: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 7.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Lesson 7.3 The Ideal Gas Law and Molar Volume: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 7.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 7.3: lab and lab notebook
Wk 25	Day 1: Lesson 7.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 7.4 Kinetic-Molecular Theory, Dalton’s Partial Pressures and Graham’s Diffusion: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 7.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 7.4: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 7.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 26	Day 1: Unit 7 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 2: Lesson 8.1 Solutions, Solubility and Molarity: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 8.1: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 8.1: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 8.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 27	Day 1: Lesson 8.2 Colligative Properties: Salt on Ice and Homemade Ice Cream: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 8.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 8.2: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 8.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Lesson 8.3 Acids and Bases: Arrhenius (1884) to Brønsted and Lowry (1923): warm-up, video and core ideas
Wk 28	Day 1: Lesson 8.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 2: Lesson 8.3: lab and lab notebook Day 3: Lesson 8.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 4: Lesson 8.4 pH, Indicators and Titration: Sørensen at the Carlsberg Laboratory (1909): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 8.4: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 29	Day 1: Lesson 8.4: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 8.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Unit 8 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before) Day 4: Lesson 9.1 Thermochemistry: Lavoisier and Laplace’s Ice Calorimeter and Hess’s Law (1840): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 5: Lesson 9.1: worked examples and first practice problems
Wk 30	Day 1: Lesson 9.1: lab and lab notebook Day 2: Lesson 9.1: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 3: Lesson 9.2 Reaction Rates and Catalysts: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 4: Lesson 9.2: worked examples and first practice problems Day 5: Lesson 9.2: lab and lab notebook
Wk 31	Day 1: Lesson 9.2: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 2: Lesson 9.3 Equilibrium and Le Chatelier’s Principle (1884): warm-up, video and core ideas Day 3: Lesson 9.3: worked examples and first practice problems Day 4: Lesson 9.3: lab and lab notebook Day 5: Lesson 9.3: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections
Wk 32	Day 1: Lesson 9.4 Nuclear Chemistry: Becquerel (1896), the Curies (1898) and Half-Life: warm-up, video and core ideas Day 2: Lesson 9.4: worked examples and first practice problems Day 3: Lesson 9.4: lab and lab notebook Day 4: Lesson 9.4: practice set, Worksheet A and corrections Day 5: Unit 9 test (Worksheet B sets make a good review the day before)
Wk 33	Day 1: Final review Day 2: Final exam
Wk 34	Catch-up week: finish any MUST COVER lesson not yet done
Wk 35	Catch-up week: finish any MUST COVER lesson not yet done
Wk 36	Year-end review, portfolio and records

Grading: Practice sets and worksheets (completed and corrected) 15%, Labs (procedure, data, analysis) 25%, Lab notebook (organization, honesty, error discussion) 10%, Unit tests 30%, Midterm exam 10%, Final exam 10%. Scale: A 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79, D 60–69, F below 60.