[bromidewind]

I recently got a job tutoring chemistry to a high school student. I've only taught college students before, and high school is definitely a lot different. The student in question wants to be an English major in college and doesn't find chemistry very interesting or necessary. Her parents want her to make an A regardless. I've tried making learning chemistry "fun" as well as I can in the home by telling lots of interesting tales about compounds and creating analogies (I don't think the parents would appreciate me tossing some sodium in water), but it's still quite boring to her. Her teacher isn't helping either. Are there any helpful hints from other teachers on here, or links to websites that might help make learning fun? Right now, we're covering ionic/covalent nomenclature, radioactivity, ionic compounds, and acids. They haven't even covered moles yet! Dr. Chang would be upset...

[curiouscat]

A plant visit! A refinery is a fascinating place. Liability reasons often prohibit under 18 visitors though....

[fledarmus]

I used to teach a high school chemistry class for students who did not intend to major in sciences in college. This would be the last science course most of them would ever take. As you can guess, motivation was very difficult to come by. Being in a science class room with a hood(!) and a fairly well-equipped lab, violent and colorful demonstrations helped, but only to an extent. Mostly they were distractions - the students would be very focused on the boom, and could care less about the why.

Depending on the student, there were two approaches that were useful. One was to relate the history of the chemistry, allowing the student to work through some of the early experiments, propose experiments, and make conclusions based on the historical results. This was particularly helpful in developing the mole concept, electronegativity, and some of the energy of reaction concepts. The other was to relate to scientific discussions that were in consumer products or the current media. reading ingredients, and demonstrating properties of materials that could be found in the grocery store, hardware store, toy store (magic tricks are a good start!), paint store, or art store.

If you can suggest specific concepts that you expect to be difficult to get across, it might be easier to come up with some good demonstrations or background that would make the subject more interesting. In general, however, I've never been a big fan of the "see what cool things chemistry can do" as a way to engage people who have no interest in science. That type of demonstration is much more effective as a boost for people who already like science but are finding it rather tedioius at the moment.

[billnotgatez]

This is a bit flippant, but said only for effect.

Is the student a English major with no interest in science or are you a science major with no interest (or skill) in English.

For instance would writing a mystery short story together using chemical principles make you relate to the student better.

We have had several authors come here asking for advice.

[Arkcon]

OK, I'm here to give something of a contrary view, but I hope its useful anyway.

I don't know how to make chemistry fun, because I already think its fun.  I have since I was nine and had a chemistry set.  I also like reading Shakespeare's plays, again, simply because I find them ... fun.  So maybe I'm the last person to offer help.

However, the topics at hand in the OP, may not be the "funnest" ones around.  There's some hard work ahead, the follows rules that aren't relateable to English grammar rules, and color changing indicators or production facility field trips won't add to the ability to learn the concepts at hand.  They might help a high school kid with borderline ADD, but the concepts still have to be learned the hard way.

My sister is an educator for secondary school language.  And she has a standard method that works for motivating students who simply don't want to learn.  Kids from European and Latin American countries can be told, in similar words,  "You are squandering the efforts your parents have sacrificed to advance your future, and that's disrespectful."  Students will often (not always) immediately snap to attention, in response.  "Being disrespectful" isn't a term that works on US students very well, but she can point out that their best effort is needed to insure they get the best grade on standardized tests and get into the best college programs.  Again, she reminds them that a lax attitude to some classes is squandering their efforts to excel in their chosen field.  Again, this only works sometimes, if the student is well aware of their future and their contributions to it.

I'm suggesting that maybe its worthwhile to present an adults eye view of the needs and requirements to the student, and see if maybe it works as a motivator.