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While reading over the draft of the Next Generation science standards I have been perplexed by my inability to find where they include moles, stoichiometry, acids and bases and gas laws. is there another area other than the physical sciences that chemistry will fall under that does include those topics. I am seriously worried that these standards are going to "dumb down" chemistry and I for one do not want that to happen. If you do know of any area of these standards that does include those topics please let me know and reinstate my excitement for the new standards.

[b]John Cole, Tuesday May 29, 12:00 PM wrote:[/b] [i]While reading over the draft of the Next Generation science standards I have been perplexed by my inability to find where they include moles, stoichiometry, acids and bases and gas laws. is there another area other than the physical sciences that chemistry will fall under that does include those topics. I am seriously worried that these standards are going to "dumb down" chemistry and I for one do not want that to happen. If you do know of any area of these standards that does include those topics please let me know and reinstate my excitement for the new standards.[/i] Hi John, I'm not sure if you've seen it yet, but there is a section of the community forum set up specifically to discuss concerns like yours. Here's a link the [url=http://learningcenter.nsta.org/discuss/default.aspx?fid=751IQm/NNmw_E]High School Physical Science[/url] discussion. I'm glad you've had a chance to read the draft version of the standards! It's fantastic that the draft was released for science teachers to review so that we can forward concerns and ideas for improvement for the final version. While I'm not a chemistry teacher, I can definitely relate to your concerns about key ideas not being directly stated in the NGSS. I had the same initial feeling as I read through my sections, but then realized that the standards are written so they can be used for all levels of students. For instance, in my district, for chemistry we have a requirement of 1 semester of chemistry (as part of physical science) in order to graduate. This class is an excellent introduction to chemistry ideas, but does not go as in depth as a full year of Chem I, Chem II, AP Chem, or IB Chem (all of which are also options in our district). I think they wrote the HS.PS-CR standard to reach all those kids from physical science to IB Chem. Since the standard is written without specifying the exact concepts that need to be taught, teachers have more flexibly to teach their students what they need to learn for their level. That way you can ramp it up for the IB or AP Chem students and still make sure the physical science students are meeting the HS standard for Chemical Reactions. Thanks for posting your concerns for this section of the NGSS. The more we discuss the standards and find ways to improve them, the better education our newest generation of scientists will be! Maureen

Although it is not necessarily a specific standard you can still incorporate that into your lessons. The focus is now on application of the material. Remember, standards and curriculum are not the same thing!

My understanding is that the NGSS do not specify specific curriculum. Rather the focus is on practices and broad concepts. If , however you look at the breakdown for dimension 3 (page 110 - in the free pdf download) Section copied below- you will find that one could not need this without covering moles stoichiometry etc PS1.B: CHEMICAL REACTIONS How do substances combine or change (react) to make new substances? How does one characterize and explain these reactions and make predictions about them? Many substances react chemically with other substances to form new substances with different properties. This change in properties results from the ways in which atoms from the original substances are combined and rearranged in the new substances. However, the total number of each type of atom is conserved (does not change) in any chemical process, and thus mass does not change either. The property of conservation can be used, along with knowledge of the chemical properties of particular elements, to describe and predict the outcomes of reactions. Changes in matter in which the molecules do not change, but their positions and their motion relative to each other do change also occur (e.g., the forming of a solution,