More on the new curriculum
I last blogged about the proposed curriculum changes in December. Since then more progress has been reported on the Online Curriculum Centre by the review teams. These reports are available to IB teachers...
A young chemist
I suppose in our heart of hearts IB Chemistry teachers know that they are unlikely to change the course of science by coming up with a revolutionary paradigm shift. It is not that we are lacking in intelligence...
Promoting the IB
As well as teach their subject I guess most, if not all, IBDP chemistry teachers at some time also have to play the role of an IB ambassador. For many this may be counselling pre-IB students and their...
Poisonous clothes
One of the purposes of educating our students is to help them to make sense of newspaper articles about ‘Chemistry’. Almost every day there is some scare that involves the use of ‘nasty chemicals’ – how...
2011 roundup
Too busy teaching to read all the journals (and my blog!)? You can take the lazy way out and catch up on all the latest developments in Chemistry during the past year by reading the article “Cutting edge...
Global skills
An interesting report has just been published jointly by The British Council and Think Global. It is entitled “The Global Skills Gap: Preparing young people for the new global economy”. The report is...
Curriculum review progress
The review of the current Group 4 curriculum is currently underway to produce a new curriculum for teaching starting in September 2014 with the first examinations in May 2016. One report on the first...
Paraquat
I took some time off recently and went on a trip to India. Whilst wandering around the fields adjacent to the backwaters around Alappuzha (formerly Alleppey) in Kerala I came across a farmer spraying...
Peer reviewed articles
Two common errors when students write extended essays in Chemistry are that they only use the Internet as a reference source and that they fail to address Criterion F properly. Criterion F deals with...
Failing Extended Essays
Essentially a student needs 24 points to obtain an IB Diploma but there are also other conditions. For example, they must obtain at least twelve points in their Higher Level subjects and must not score...