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So, one thing that I have constantly played with over the years has been the scope and sequence of units. While the standard pace reflected by most textbooks is fine, I find that they occasionally place things in weird places (I blame the brief but damaging spiraling curriculum movement...*shudder* ). For example, the traditional chemistry scope and sequence places nuclear and organic chemistry at the end of the year (I call it the "curriculum junk drawer"), and most teachers never get to it or barely touch on it, yet these two are arguably among the most important, relevant, and engaging topics in chemistry. They might learn how nuclear power plants work in physics, but you never know...and this is a HUGE component of the NGSS physical science standards. With the wide range of environmental and political issues revolving around fossil fuels and polymers, I also feel that there's a strong case to be made for organic chem as well. So...what scope and sequence have your departments adopted, and why? Here's what I'm tentatively looking at for this year: Unit 1 - Intro to Chemistry (Inquiry, Matter) Unit 2 - Measurement Unit 3 - States of Matter & Gas Laws (no Ideal Gas yet) Unit 4 - Atomic Structure and Nuclear Chemistry Unit 5 - Electron Configurations and Periodicity Unit 6 - Chemical Bonding and Organic Chemistry Unit 7 - Chemical Quantities Unit 8 - Chemical Reactions & Stoichiometry Unit 9 - Solutions & Equilibrium Unit 10 - Acids and Bases Unit 11 - Oxidation/Reduction and Electrochemistry* I moved nuclear chem up to atomic structure last year and it worked great...transitioning from isotopes to nuclear equations made a lot of sense. Moving orgo up to the bonding unit is something I'm considering but haven't done before...it makes sense to me, though b/c students are already learning Lewis Dot and VSEPR so skeletal structures aren't much of a leap, and you could split nomenclature into inorganic/organic. What do you guys think? I also realize that there's no thermo unit, but I'm honestly thinking I might just split it up...I don't go into Hess's Law too much in regular chem and calorimetry honestly could be done at the beginning of the year (great hook!).

Theo I do not teach HS chemistry but am involved in an Introductory Chemistry class intended for students who have not had HS chemistry or are returning after some years. I like your including nuclear chemistry with atomic structure. I especially like the idea that nuclear chemistry brings some real work connections to atomic structure which is otherwise very abstract. I also weave in thermochemistry without a specific unit. I take about it in the context of phase change in the unit on matter and properties. I cover specific hear here as well as the heat transfers involved in phase change. I also like combining a bit of orgo in the unit on bonding. Very appropriate. One might even get into polarity in orgo which would prepare students for reaction mechanisms. I am going to include the syllabus for my one semester into class

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Chem1405_Auburn_Syllabus_Spring2013.doc (0.22 Mb)

Yeah, I was planning to teach polarity and dipole moments with VSEPR. I'm debating teaching IMFs there as well as it flows really well, but I'm worried that the unit will get to be a bit bloated if I'm doing Lewis Dot, VSEPR, IMFs, AND orgo/inorgo nomenclature.

What you've got listed is pretty much what I do - I've been including nuclear with atomic structure for years, and I've recently started putting more organic into the bonding unit. It's very doable, and the students do find those topics more interesting and relevant than some of the other more abstract topics.

We did Gas Laws 2nd last year and it was rough. Granted, my school moved Chemistry to the freshmen science class, and they didn't have math skills.... Also its hella hot in AZ during August/September...so some of the cool things you do with Gas Laws don't work...like hot air balloons

Do you usually teach moles then reactions than stoich? Or do you do reactions, moles, then stoich. I'm working on the curriculum map for our district...they currently have it the second way, but the first way makes more sense to me.

For what its worth, I teach (and prefer) moles then reactions then stoichiometry as well.