AP Chemistry A/B

The Advanced Chemistry course is designed around the AP Chemistry Curriculum Framework established by the College Board. The course is presented through the lens of scientific inquiry—the process of channeling human curiosity into purposeful exploration, discovery, and application of observable natural phenomena. In this course, students will grow to understand their physical world in a deep way. At the same time, an inquiry and STEM-oriented approach to chemistry offers students a shared method of asking questions about the world around them. Their experience and knowledge from this course—tied to a strong emphasis on qualitative and quantitative analysis and communication—is designed to enable them to understand important scientific and societal problems and to creatively grapple with such problems. In this blended online course (employing both online and face-to-face learning), students will be taught and encouraged to continually pose questions about the subject matter. Through exploration and discovery of the phenomenon at the core of each lesson, students will be guided to answer their own questions and will be able to discuss the phenomenon in ways that reflect sound scientific practices. In particular, students will explore the six content areas that have been identified as the focus of the AP Chemistry course: Atoms and Elements—composition of matter, conservation of matter, atomic structure, spectroscopy, periodicity, and Coulomb’s Law Properties of Matter—states of matter, physical properties, gas behavior, kinetic molecular theory, solutions, intermolecular and intramolecular interactions, the Lewis structure model, and the VSEPR model Chemical Reactions—chemical equations, types of chemical reactions, endo-and exothermicity, and electrochemistry Kinetics—rate laws, reaction mechanisms, activation energy, and factors affecting reaction rates Thermodynamics—energy transfer, conservation of energy, enthalpy, calorimetry, potential energy and geometric arrangement of atoms, and entropy Equilibrium—reversible reactions, reaction quotients, Le Chatelier’s  principle, acid-base chemistry, solubility, and Gibbs free energy