Intro to Chemistry

Why learn Science?

Science is a particular way of thinking about and discovering the world, using experiments, observation, and an understanding of the universe and things within it. It allows us to describe how things work, have a curious mind, and helps us solve whatever challenges we may face in a systematic way. All the technology around you has been created through the use of the scientific process to some extent; it's all about having a problem to solve then finding and testing solutions.

What is Chemistry?

Chemistry is the study of matter and its interactions. Matter is the stuff that makes up the universe, taking up space in the form of super tiny particles that combine to form everything. How matter and its pieces interact leads to a better understanding of why materials act certain ways and how they are similar and different to one another. Chemistry is also a part of many different things necessary to everyday life, such as how we use and conserve energy in our bodies and electronics, how weather systems work, and cooking.

The Big Ideas of Chemistry

Chemistry is a broad part of physical science and we also now combine earth science into it as well, meaning we need to cover a lot of topics throughout the year. Together these lead to the following primary topics:

• Evidence and Research: Everything needed to gather and use data

• Fire and Energy: How matter, fire, and energy spread and are contained

• Earth Systems: How the natural world moves matter and energy around

• Environmental Protection: How humans interact with and protect the natural world

• Atoms: What makes up matter and how it combines

• Medical Math: How chemistry and medicine use conversions, geometry, and algebra

• Reactions: How do atoms rearrange

• Reaction Quantities: What happens if we modify or scale a reaction

Chemistry and Public Service (PSA)

Chemistry touches on quite a few sectors of public service. These are just a few examples of how this is the case:

• Chemistry and the Law: Material science (a part of chemistry) has been used to create new and better pieces of safety equipment (such as kevlar). In addition, chemistry is often used in many parts of forensics to aid in solving crimes and as part of the criminal justice system by identifying different materials, chemicals, or biological markers.

• Chemistry and Health: Pharmaceuticals are all about finding the right mixtures of chemicals to treat a problem safely through medicine. Some of the different practices used in the hospital also have basis in chemistry, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy. In addition, many parts of public service deal with responding to contamination or toxins, be they in the body or in the environment.

• Chemistry and Fire Fighting: The process of combustion is chemical in nature, meaning a fire starting happens because of a chemical reaction. We therefore apply knowledge of chemistry to know how to best stop a fire as well as prevent or slow its spread. 

Additional Resources

• Crash Course Chemistry 

Interesting Links

• Applications of Chemistry

• Chemistry Careers