In this course, you're going to take your first detailed look at the science of Chemistry. Chemistry is, quite simply, the study of matter, that is, is anything that has mass and takes up space. There are many subdisciplines that concentrate on specific aspects of chemistry, for example, biochemistry studies the chemical processes that make life possible. Most chemists end up specializing in one of these subdisciplines Nevertheless, before you can begin to specialize, you need a broad overview of the science itself. That's what this course is designed to give you.

The course discusses a variety of topics. It is designed to be the first high school chemistry course that a homeschooled student takes. The course covers the following topics: Nomenclature, Significant figures, Units, Classification, The mole concept, Stoichiometry, Thermochemistry, Thermodynamics, Kinetics, Acids and bases, Redox reactions, Solutions, Atomic structure, Lewis structures, Molecular geometry, The gas laws, and Equilibrium. Student who take and understand this course will be very well-prepared for a tough university chemistry course.

Typically, we recommend that the student take this course during the same year that he or she is taking Algebra II. Thus, we generally recommend it as a 10th grade course. The required textbook for this course is "Exploring Creation with Chemistry" by Dr. Jay Wile. The student is referred to the "Student Notes" section at the beginning of the text for general course procedures. There are, however, a couple of departures from the protocol outlined in the book, described below.

Parents may choose to monitor this course themselves ($49 tuition) or utilize the monitoring services of the author himself, Dr. Jay Wile ($99 tuition). In the latter scenario students may post questions to the class bulletin board and interact with one another and with the instructor via the internet. In either case, the purchase of the $85 textbook set is required. You can complete this course in two 15-week trimesters at the rate of about one module (chapter) every two weeks. This will involve an average of 18 pages of reading per week plus the completion of an average of two experiments per week.

Experiments should be written up in a student notebook as described in the text. "On Your Own" exercises and Study Guide questions may also be written up in this notebook at the parent's discretion. This notebook should be carefully prepared and preserved as part of the student portfolio for future reference by the student. In addition, the notebook is also important evidence of work completed which may be required by college admissions officers or government officials at some point in the future. The average student will probably need to commit an average of three hours per week to completion of his science studies.

The other departure from the procedure outlined in the text is the testing protocol. Rather than the open-end tests found in the "Solutions and Tests" manual, you will be required to take an on-line, objective test upon completion of each module. These tests will be comprised of multiple-choice, true/false, or matching questions, with grades recorded by the computer and saved as part of your on-line portfolio. You should enter the on-line test page only after careful review of all material covered in the module. Many of these test questions are simply modifications of test questions found in the manual. Thus, solutions to on-line test questions may usually be found in the "Solutions & Test" manual. On occasion, an on-line test question will refer you to an illustration or table in the "Solutions & Test" manual.

As noted above, Exploring Creation With Chemistry is divided into two courses, both to be completed during the 10th grade. The first course is completed during the first trimester of the 10th grade and the second to be completed during the second trimester. There are 8 tests in Chemistry I and 8 tests in Chemistry II.

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