[Ms.Moser]

Hello! Looking for input especially from undergraduate chemistry instructors and chemistry professionals working in labs.

 I teach high school chemistry in a (relatively) small rural school in Ohio. This is my 8th year teaching chemistry, my 10th year teaching. I have my BS in bio with a chem minor, worked in environmental resource planning for 7 or 8 years, and only later went back to get teaching credentials. Chemistry was never my great love, nor what I most wanted to teach, but I ended up teaching it because I had the state qualifications to do so. Much to my surprise, it became something that drew me in, fascinated me, and the thing I most love to teach.

So, once I got my sea legs, I began a process of modifying/re-arranging/and generally tweaking the curriculum for my chemistry class each year. (This is a HS level introduction to chemistry, intended to prepare students for further science at the college level. My personal goal for my students has always been that they can walk into gen chem I in college and be very well prepared.)

As someone working with undergraduates in chemistry or as someone working in the field; what things typically taught in a HS chem class would you de-emphasize or skip over altogether to the advantage of something else getting more time? (There is never enough time in a year to get to all the things I would love them to see and do!) Some specific examples I have considered as trade-offs... finding empirical formula from percent comp vs. getting to perform pH calculations and acid titration... spending time on gas laws vs. getting to spend sufficient time doing solution/concentration calculations. Those are the 2 that come most readily to mind.

What is still taught in HS chem classes that you think might just be a waste of time? What isn't typically taught that you think should be? I thank you in advance for your thoughts.

[mjc123]

All 4 things you mention are very important, and you can't neglect any of them. But considering the antitheses you propose, I would say the second element of each pair is more important, or at least needs more time to get people competent in it. Judging by these forums alone, there seem to be a lot more people having trouble with solution concentration and pH/titration problems than with gas laws or empirical formulae. Depending on what people go on to do in chemistry, these two are also probably more likely to be important in practice. There was recently a report in the UK about some patients in a drug trial who almost died when they were given 100 or 1000 times the intended dose, and a quick google suggests that this is not unknown in the US! It is vital for people working in medicine, who probably don't have a degree in chemistry but probably studied it at school, to be able to work out doses correctly, every time!

[Irlanur]

I don't know if you do this, but some schools around here teach their students about orbitals, I think this is a waste of time.