Homeschooling - How to Teach High School Chemistry

When it comes to highschool level science classes, many homeschool parents begin to doubt their teaching abilities. Fortunately there are resources available to help teach upper level science classes.

There are two main issues to consider when it comes to teaching chemistry. One is finding the necessary resources, and the second is tackling the material. In addition to finding a textbook and lab kit, building an understanding of chemistry application and the history of chemistry can make the study of chemistry much more interesting. Fortunately it is possible to teach high school chemistry at home, and first year college chemistry as well.

Read the book Mystery of the Periodic Table as a starting point for studying chemistry. It is a story book that explains the history of chemistry and can easily be read by middle school age children and up.

While reading the book The Mystery of the Periodic Table, memorize the periodic table, or at least the beginning of the periodic table. This can be done by listening to and learning the song below. Watch a few seconds each day reviewing and adding on a little more until you know the first few lines of the periodic table.

Life of Fred Chemistry is a high school chemistry textbook with problems. The book follows Fred, a six year old math professor, as he encounters chemistry and teaches chemistry during his daily life. It is entertaining and helps kids to develop a good understanding of the application of chemistry. This is a great quote from the book.... "Johnny was a student, but Johnny is no more, what Johnny thought was H2O was H2SO4."

Life of Fred is one textbook option for studying chemistry at home, but there are several other options. Khan Academy offers free video high school and college level chemistry courses. In addition consider textbooks used by colleges and high schools which can easily be purchased through the internet. Many high schools and college students resell their chemistry textbooks. Since chemistry is a subject where the basic principles don't change, purchasing a second-hand chemistry text book can be an economical option.

For lab work purchase the CK01A Chemistry Laboratory Kit from The Home Scientist, LLC. It comes with just about everything required: tons of small bottles of chemicals, beakers, test tubes and goggles. Also included is a lab manual of high school level experiments.

Chemistry by Raymond Chang is an extensive college-level chemistry textbook. It covers at least two full semesters of chemistry and begins covering organic chemistry at the end of the book. It is intense, but older students can work independently. If your student can get through this textbook, they should be able to pass the CLEP Chemistry or AP Chemistry exam and earn college credit.

Nailed It Cake Baking - Chemistry? - Problem Solving?

Have you seen the cake baking show on Netflix called Nailed It? If not imagine selecting three average people, showing them a gorgeous cake and challenging them to make it. They are given internet access, supplies and a time limit. As the three bakers compete against each other to recreate the best cake, three experts watch and comment among themselves discussing interesting ideas of the bakers as well as things they should probably have done differently. Some people do quite well, but most end up doing some improvisation. All use their best problem solving skills to attack the given challenge.

The results are hilarious, especially when time is in short supply and plans do not go as expected. What would you do if your cakes overflowed? How do you make melted chocolate look like mud? Have you ever made fondant?


This show has inspired our latest series of educational activities. Earlier in the year we made bread for science and then we learned to make candy. In both cases a recipe was both given and followed for every activity. Thinking scientifically in terms of chemistry, students are typically given an experiment to follow which is much like a recipe.

In more advanced chemistry classes, students are given only basic instructions and asked to design an experiment which will solve a problem. These cake baking challenges are more in-line with advanced baking because they involve using problem solving skills. Whether or not they are considered chemistry is up for debate, but they are excellent activities for middle school children. Nailed It was such a natural inspiration.

Because I wanted the kids to be successful in the challenges, I made a few alterations to the rules. First, we did not have a time limit. In fact, they were given the challenge several days in advance and asked to come up with a plan which included a shopping list. They were given internet access which they could use to find a recipe or directions or examples of items they were trying to recreate. Secondly, they were asked to work together. Since they are siblings, they are constantly competing. I wanted these challenges to be fun and cooperative.

For the first challenge, they were asked to recreate the emoji cakes created on Nailed It.

They had watched the episode and heard the experts suggest using butter to grease the pans and did so themselves. Despite this fact, their cakes still stuck to the pans. We still haven't discovered the problem.

The kids have never made fondant before, and had to learn how. On the emoji episode, some of the bakers had never used fondant and that proved to be an issue. One added too much food coloring ruining the fondant. Therefore, icing was used as a last minute substitute. The result was acceptable, but fondant would have been much better.

Here are the cakes my kids made. Keep in mind, I didn't help in this activity at all. Bonus!

Their biggest issue was creating black fondant. I think you can purchase black food coloring? That however wasn't on their shopping list. Instead, they mixed all the colors and were able to come with a shade of grey. I think it looks pretty good.

The cake tasted good too. Now I'm no expert, but love a little sweet every now and then.

Life of Fred Chemistry

While candy and bread making were tasty fun for chemistry, we also studied the Life of Fred Chemistry book and memorized the periodic table.

I LOVE the Life of Fred Chemistry book! Studying chemistry with my oldest child a few years ago was easy with Life of Fred. Chemistry was put into a context that made sense and was perfect for an in-depth introduction. Now my fifth and eighth graders are getting the same chemistry experience. Since they are both well into algebra, the math portion of chemistry is within their capabilities.

My favorite part so far this time around is the song.... "Johnny was a student, but Johnny is no more, what Johnny thought was H2O was H2SO4."

If you're not familiar with Life of Fred know that it is a series that teaches through story with a heavy emphasis on application. We really like all of the Life of Fred books we have experienced including the entire math series, first to book of the Language arts series and the Chemistry book.

Along with studying Life of Fred Chemistry, we took some time to memorize the periodic table. We did this by learning the Periodic Table Song below.

It took quite a while to memorize the entire song, but we only spent a few minutes a week working on it. By learning around three new elements each time we went slow, but steady. I think the memorization work will make studying higher level chemistry so much easier.

Science has been a fun subject this year as we have been able to incorporate lots of hands on studying of bread making, candy making and microscope work, with memorizing the periodic table and book work from Life of Fred. The kids and I have really enjoyed it.

Making Candy for Science

Once we were through with making bread for science, the kids began making candy.

Like making bread, making candy is also a science. Just melting chocolate involves measuring temperature and a precise heating and cooling cycle. If proper tempering isn't done, chocolate can burn or end up with unsightly white streaks. I liken it to the science of metallurgy where metals are combined, heated and cooled to precise temperatures in order to achieve desired characteristics.

Although there are several science candy making kits on the market, we chose to put together our own. Unfortunately many reviews of such kits stated there really wasn't much inside the boxes. Therefore, we purchased the Candy Making book by Autumn Carpenter and found our own supplies. While there are several websites available for purchasing supplies, we discovered a local candy supply store. We paid the store a visit and left with a big box full of supplies.

Beginning with simply dipping treats into chocolate and making clusters, we learned about candy coatings, flavorings, peppermint crunch and more. The kids made a few friends giving away candy and were thrilled to have so many treats around the house.

Making Bread for Science

My kids have been baking bread to learn about science and satisfy their tummies.

We began our science lessons this year by learning about the microscope. Using the Ultimate Guide to Your Microscope, the kids studied an entire world of small things. Next we moved into hands-on chemistry.

In the past, I have had difficulty making good bread, while my dinners have always turned out fine. I'm a person who doesn't like to follow a recipe exactly as written, but rather use it as a guideline. While this works out fine for culinary dishes, it is a disaster with baking. Why? Baking is a science. It requires careful measuring and proportions. Ingredients must be precisely measured so the chemical reactions can take place. Improper proportions result in dough that falls, or doesn't rise properly, or doesn't cook properly. These are a few of the reasons we chose to learn to make bread for about 10 weeks this year as a small part of our chemistry program.

We followed the book Baking Artisan Bread by Ciril Hitz as a guide. The first section of the book lightly explains the science of baking and goes in-depth into the differences in ingredients. The author recommends weight ingredients instead of measuring with cups and spoons as it is a much more accurate method for proper proportions.

After the introduction section, the book contains ten main recipes for various types of bread such as brioche, baguette, bagels, and whole wheat. Each main recipe can be altered to make many more breads. Some breads can be made in one day, while croissants take three days to prepare.

By making the breads, the kids learned how adding yeast in different amounts at different times during the preparation process can affect the final bread. Making bread was a tasty experience the kids really enjoyed.

Teaching Homeschool Chemistry

We are tackling the intimidating subject of chemistry with lots of success.

As I see it, there are two main issues when it comes to teaching chemistry. One is finding the necessary resources, and the second is tackling the material.As we are a secular homeschool family, finding resources for teaching science throughout the years has been a bit of a challenge. For the most part, we have used a variety of science based story books available at libraries, on-line and through Amazon. It has worked well.

Following the living book approach for chemistry, we are reading the Mystery of the Periodic Table, but that book alone is just not enough. After all, we are covering material at a high level. In addition to understanding the history of chemistry, it is necessary to do lab work and problems associated with chemistry to really understand the subject.

When it comes to highschool level science classes, many homeschool parents begin to doubt their teaching abilities. Fortunately, there are kits and resources available. For lab work we purchased the CK01A Chemistry Laboratory Kit from The Home Scientist, LLC. The kit is wonderful. It comes with just about everything required: tons of small bottles of chemicals, beakers, testubes and goggles. Also included is a lab manual of highschool level experiments.

The trick for us was finding a text book. After looking at popular homeschool chemistry curriculum, I began to wonder what Michigan Technological University, uses for chemistry.... It turns out they use a text called Chemistry by Raymond Chang, the tenth edition. Well the book sells for over $200 on Amazon. After thinking a little more, I decided to check out earlier additions of the same book. After all, how much do you think chemistry has changed in the past few years? Well the eighth edition only cost about $1 plus shipping. Perfect!

Chemistry by Raymond Chang is an extensive college-level chemistry textbook. It covers at least two full semesters of chemistry and begins covering organic chemistry at the end of the book. We are covering one chapter every week or two and doing lab experiments each week. It is intense, but now that my daughter is older, she can work quite independently. I'm currently trying to keep up with her weekly chemistry reading in order to help answer questions. So far it's working well.

At the end of the year, or when we are through the book and labs, she will take the chemistry CLEP exam. I'll do an update post then to let you know how it goes.

Science Fair Project - Step 1: Ask a Question

What type of solution cleans pennies the best?

My son loves science and metal detecting, so in designing a project for the science fair this year he wanted to combine the two topics.
 
Scientific Method
Ask a Question
Research
Hypothesis
Test
Analyze Data
Report Results

The first step in the scientific method is to ask a question. My son had many questions:
What type of solution cleans pennies the best?
What type of solution cleans coins the best?
How long should the coins stay in the solution?
Are some types of pennies cleaned more easily than others with the same type of solution?
What ratio of ingredients in the cleaning solution works best to clean pennies?

Selecting only one question can be a challenge, but is an important step in the scientific method as it provides focus for experimentation. Once one question is answered, other questions can be more easily addressed.

Engineers are constantly faced with organizing questions into an order that makes sense from an experimentation standpoint. For example, if his first question was "What ratio of ingredients in the cleaning solution works best to clean pennies?" He could chose to test a solution of sugar, dirt and water,  only to find that the solution had no effect on cleaning pennies. While that would have been good information, perhaps, it would have made more sense to first explore different solutions? Although there are no right and wrong answers, some procedures make more sense than others and considering options before testing is part of forming a good test plan.  

Not all pennies are created equal. Older pennies contain more copper than newer pennies. In order for the penny composition to not have an effect on the experiment, they were separated.

After watching the video Clean Pennies with Vinegar and Salt this solution was added to the test plan.

The preliminary results were good. Now the rest of the test needs to be designed and the test repeated. Stay tuned for more science fair cleaning pennies updates.



Check out these great blogs full of educational activity ideas.

Getting Iron from Breakfast Cereal

Did you know you can get iron back out of fortified breakfast cereal?

My son got a chunk of iron from his breakfast cereal.

By crushing breakfast cereal into fine grains,

 adding water,

 and pouring the concoction into a plastic bag,

then dragging a strong magnet, iron can be collected. The dark spot in the upper left hand corner of the bag is a small glob of iron.

This video shows the entire procedure.

Thanks to Lucinda at Navigating by Joy for the idea for this cool science experiment. Once I mentioned it to my son, he was immediately working on getting iron.