Students enrolled in Chemistry HL will corroborate chemical theories and concepts through an experimental approach permitting the acquisition of practical and investigational skills. Chemistry as a central science will give students a sound scientific and investigational foundation upon which they can build. This is critical to their success in future higher-level studies, no matter the discipline. The culture in the class will be one of academic responsibility. Students will complete assignments in order to better comprehend the various concepts, not for points or some other arbitrary scoring. As such, self-advocacy, time-management, cooperation, and a good work ethic will be stressed in order to mould the students into life-long learners.

International mindedness: Students studying IB Chemistry will be afforded opportunities for inspirational and challenging scientific study with a global perspective. Students will apply and use the knowledge, methods, and techniques, as well as the analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of information that exemplify science and technology. Collaboration and communication on many different levels, especially global, will be stressed in this course and will be fostered by students’ increasing information and communication technology (ICT) skills. Students will understand the international dynamic that typifies scientific research and discovery by looking at past discoveries that have laid the basis upon which modern science is built; also, through the lens of communication, students will appreciate the quality control that is a consequence of the critique and resulting oversight of the international scientific community. By raising an awareness of the moral, ethical, social, economic, and environmental implications of science and technology, students will begin to realize the possibilities and limitations of scientific research and discoveries. Completion of the course, and especially the Group 4 Project, will promote a heightened understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of science, the importance of publication for the global community, and the universal scope of the scientific method.

Students will be assessed in variety of non-IB and summative ways. Daily, numerous informal assessments and less frequent formal assessments (unit tests, quizzes, etc.) will be used to gauge student comprehension throughout the two-year course. In addition to the 3 papers that comprise the external assessment, teacher developed experiences making up the practical scheme of work, PSOW, will serve as internal assessments (IA) geared towards the assessment criteria: design (D), data collection and processing (DCP), conclusion and evaluation (CE), manipulative skills (MS), and personal skills (PS). These performance-based assessments will range from individual inquiry projects to group concept-focused experiments. To ensure a thorough depth of treatment, students will be taught using the command terms that serve as the basis for the 3 objectives that guide depth of student learning.