By the end of S4, pupils will have explored a variety of chemical concepts, developed skills in scientific inquiry investigation and analytical thinking. Pupils will also gain valuable transferable skills such as numeracy, literacy and communication.
The course will cover the following broad areas:
Chemical changes and Structure
This unit covers some of the fundamental concepts in chemistry including; rates of reaction, atomic structure and bonding related to the properties of materials, formulae and reaction quantities, acids and bases.
Nature’s Chemistry
In this unit, pupils will study chemicals obtained from a variety of natural resources such as hydrocarbons from crude oil. They will develop an understanding of associated products and how these are inter-related by different types of chemical reactions. Numeracy skills will be developed in the quantitative treatment of energy from different fuels.
Chemistry in society
This unit includes study of modern materials such as plastics and ceramics and more traditional materials such as metals. They will develop an understanding of the production and use of agrichemicals and explore various methods of chemical analysis. Nuclear chemistry will also be studied.
