2026 - 2027 Chemistry Course and Classroom Mangement Handout
Course Outline
Unit 1 - Search for Life
This unit focuses on the substances scientists look for when searching for life on other planets. Students will explore the properties of substances necessary for life on Earth and how they interact with other substances, determining key ideas about charges on atoms and molecules, and patterns of bonding. Students will explore the unique properties of water, and how those properties support life on Earth. Students will use the Periodic Table to predict how atoms will react with other atoms, and identify potential substitutions for elements necessary for life on Earth. Students learn how scientists use probes and information from light to explore materials on other planets to determine what elements are present.
Unit 2 - Fuels
We need to get energy for transportation to limit carbon emissions and curb global climate change. We investigate the question, can we use rocket fuel in our cars and not gasoline. Students look to chemical reactions and energy to really figure out why rearranging matter sometimes seems to result in a net increase or decrease in energy of the surroundings. They then zoom in to the atomic scale to build and refine models of bonding that help explain these changes in energy at the bulk scale.
Unit 3 - Oysters
In this unit on Ocean Acidification, students investigate what is happening to oysters along the West coast of the United States by developing models to represent and explore changes in atmospheric and oceanic carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. Students ultimately explain how this changing equilibrium is affecting shellfish in the world’s oceans and design solutions to limit changes to ocean pH levels.
Unit 4 - Nuclear
In this unit, students investigate how uranium can be used to destroy a city, and we ask ourselves how this energy might be used for good. The unit begins with investigations of fission within a nuclear chain reaction, stable and unstable isotopes, and the role of the strong force within the nucleus in binding protons and neutrons together.
The unit turns to how nuclear chain reactions are controlled in nuclear power plants and explores radiation associated with both enrichment of uranium and waste from nuclear reactors. The unit ends with an engineering challenge that asks them to take up the ethical challenge: Should humans use nuclear energy?
Unit 5 - Polar Ice
In this unit, students investigate the phenomenon of rising sea levels and warming oceans to figure out that thermodynamic energy in a system disperses. In the case of the melting Antarctic glaciers, we figure out that the temperatures of water and its behavior with more and less energy can help us predict changes in the Earth's ocean systems. The unit concludes by investigating the most important mitigation strategies for polar ice melt and students must engage with the constraints of modern life as they argue for a plan that will best fit the scientific evidence of sea level rise.
Patricia Bath
Born: November 4, 1942
New York City, New York, U.S.
Died: May 30, 2019 (aged 76)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Citizenship: American
Alma mater:
Occupation:
Ophthalmologist, inventor, humanitarian
Innovator and Inventor of Laserphaco Probe
Patents:
Pat. No. 4,7443,60: Apparatus for ablating and removing cataract lenses, issued 17 May 1988.
Pat. No. 5,843,071: Method and apparatus for ablating and removing cataract lenses, issued 1 December 1998
Pat. No. 5,919,186: Laser apparatus for surgery of cataractous lenses, issued 6 July 1999
Pat. No. 6,083,192: Pulsed ultrasound method for fragmenting/emulsifying and removing cataractous lenses, issued 4 July 2000.
References:
Patricia Bath. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 09:41, Jul 22, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/patricia-bath-21038525.
Innovative Lives: The Right to Sight: Patricia Bath by Martha Davidson, July 22. Smithsonian Institution. from http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/ilives/bath/bath.html
YNES MEXIA
Mexican-American botanist Ynes Mexia discovered two new plant genera and 500 new plant species—and she didn’t even start collecting plants until she was 51 years old. Born in 1870 in Washington D.C. to a Mexican diplomat father, Mexia spent many years as a social worker before enrolling as an undergraduate at the University of California Berkeley and discovering her passion for botany. In the 1910s and 1920s, she traveled thousands of miles around Mexico, South America, and Alaska, collecting some 145,000 plant specimens in just 13 years. Today, 50 plant species are named for her.
Percy Lavon Julian was an internationally acclaimed scientist whose discoveries earned him more than 130 chemical patents and a host of professional awards. Among his most important contributions were the creation of a synthetic version of cortisone, a drug used to relieve the pain and inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis, and physostigmine, prescribed to alleviate the effects of glaucoma—a disease of the eye that can cause blindness if left untreated. Julian’s work with soybeans and soya derivatives also led to the mass production of the male and female hormones testosterone and progesterone and the development of a powerful firefighting chemical called Aero-Foam, used by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The first African American to direct a modern industrial laboratory, he spent 17 years with the Glidden Company in Chicago before leaving to establish his own successful pharmaceutical enterprise, Julian Laboratories, Inc.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/chemistry-biographies/percy-lavon-julian#D
