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High School Lab Science – Chemistry

Original price was: $ 1,350.00.Current price is: $ 1,015.00.

Chemistry is a branch of natural science that deals principally with the properties of substances, the changes they undergo, and the natural laws that describe these changes.  Students should be concurrently taking (or completed) Algebra 1.  This secular but inclusive full year hybrid course is offered in Naperville as a full year elective course with in-person class meetings once/week for 2.5 hours with additional work done between classes qualifying for 1 full credit of transcriptable Lab Science.

See below for more details including parent considerations, required materials & time outside of class.

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Description

Chemistry is a branch of natural science that deals principally with the properties of substances, the changes they undergo, and the natural laws that describe these changes.  It is qualitative and it is quantitative.  Chemicals are everywhere and are everything. Anything you can touch or smell or see contains one or more chemicals. Many occur naturally but some are man made. This course does not require high level math skills, but students should be concurrently taking (or completed) Algebra 1.  If your student is not yet ready for Algebra 1 and you’d like them to take this course, please contact us. This secular but inclusive full year hybrid course is offered in Naperville as a full year elective course with in-person class meetings once/week for 2.5 hours with additional work done between classes qualifying for 1 full credit of transcriptable Lab Science.

Chemistry – Modeling

In-person class Mondays, 9:30-11:55am (with breaks) and additionally approximately 1.5 to 3 hours of work to be done between classes.  (Parents may opt to enroll in our Flex Work Session/s to contribute toward completing work done outside of regular class time)

Registration is for the entire 2025-26 school year and meets for more time over 30 weeks to account for holidays and calendar differences of a Monday course.
Students should have completed or be concurrently taking Algebra I.

About the Curriculum/Course (click here to expand section)
 Our curricula comes from American Modeling Teacher’s Association. An aspect of Modeling Instruction that is different from traditional science education is that students are unable to get the right answer without understanding the underlying science.  Students are shown a series of demonstrations or participate in labs that help THEM develop the scientific theories and information on their own.  Labs and demos are carefully chosen to hasten the process by highlighting critical differences.  Please see this page for more information–including a short video that helps explain how Modeling is different from traditional teaching.  Our lead teacher, Heather DeGeorge, has completed multiple teacher training courses at the graduate level for using this methodology including a 3-week intensive graduate course covering the entire year’s chemistry curriculum and labs.

There is no defined textbook for this course, but there may be required reading handed out and we sometimes watch videos to solidify some of the concepts.  Students will absolutely have homework each week that might include watching a video. Parents and students will be participating in an online portal to keep on top of assignments and progress.

Required Materials
 

Students will need:

  • 1″ to 1-1/2″ binder with approx. 25-50 sheets of filler/looseleaf paper (graph paper will be provided)
  • 2-3 pencils (if using mechanical pencils, please include an extra container of replacement leads)
  • covered pencil sharpener (blade not exposed) for non-mechanical pencils
  • 6″ or 12″ ruler
  • pencil bag to contain items

Additionally, students will need technical ability to access Zoom, Discovery Education Streaming, Study.com and Canvas (our learning management system).

At home, students will need access to the internet (home or library) to look up information, related published materials and/or videos and do work through our class learning management system. Some videos will be subscription-based and issued by illuminat-ED (all students will have accounts for Discovery Streaming and Study.com for additional video support). Some videos will be freely available.

Time Required Outside of Class
Amount of time will depend on your student’s speed/fluency with writing, reading or the topic at hand and the content of the week. Families should allocate approximately 1-1/2 to 3 hours/week to complete various assigned labs, tasks or group collaboration that might require internet access in preparation for live class. Some of this can be done during Flex Work Time at our facility.  This course has 2 pre-scheduled Asynchronous Learning weeks during Fall Pause & Mid-winter Pause; but does not have additional assigned work during Thanksgiving Week, Winter Break or Spring Break.

Combined with our live class time, this is a total of 4 to 5-1/2 hours/week (except for our 2 asynchronous weeks which will have 3 hours of work to replace class) for a course total of approximately 123-165 hours for the year.  This equates to one full credit using the Carnegie unit methodology.

Course Content

Rather than simply confirming what students have learned from their teacher, problem sheets and experiments provide the opportunities for students to develop models to help them make sense of their observations.   Topics covered include:

  • Conservation of mass; mass and volume
  • Gas pressure
  • Kinetic Molecular Theory
  • Conservation of energy
  • Energy storage and transfer
  • Avogadro’s Hypothesis and molar mass
  • Molecular vs. ionic compounds
  • Nomenclature
  • Chemical and thermal energy
  • Balanced equations

This course may or may not include more topics depending on where the students journey takes them.  The topics listed above are the topics that we know will be covered.

Parent Considerations
This is a teen-oriented course that will have lab experiments every week. Students will be doing math at a very basic algebra level but they learn a significant number of concepts that are helpful in both physics and biology as well as traditional math.  Critical math competencies for success are reviewed in our first unit to ensure students have the skills they need to be successful.

Students will also regularly be on point to share ideas in front of a group and participate in group activities during our online sessions.  Shy students will not be bullied into participating by any means; but if your student does not have a habit of “warming up” after getting to know a group–this may not be a comfortable setting for them.

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