New Chemistry Forum for Homeschoolers

[MomsintheGarden]

Robert Bruce Thompson, author of Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments, has created a new chemistry forum for homeschoolers on his book's website. Here's the link:
http://forums.homechemlab.com/viewforum.php?f=33&sid=164a6f29fff20add995fa7db7dd8ee91

Mr. Thompson is a big proponent of homeschooling, and he wrote his book with us in mind. I just finished reading the book - it's great and I can't wait to get started on them with my dd.

Here, is the main page for the book IGtHCE:
http://www.homechemlab.com/

And the main page for his forums. He has a forum for each chapter of his book, as well as general discussions.
http://forums.homechemlab.com/

HTH,
GardenMom

[Lorna]

Thank you so much. This is the book I was considering using next and so this will be so useful!
:001_smile:

[Karin]

Do you think it would help those of us who have already chosen a different Chemistry program?

[gardenschooler]

That's what I was wondering. We're using Apologia for this first go-round, but I wouldn't mind spicing it up a bit. We could definitely use more experiments.

Is this only for users of this particular book?

[MomsintheGarden]

Karin and Gardenschooler, those are great questions. Here's a try at answering them. First of all, this book is NOT a complete chemistry program. It has explanations of concepts, but they are there to give background information in order to know what's going on when you do the experiments. The author tells you to get an introductory college chemistry text to learn the subject. Second, the experiments explore fundamental concepts well, are very organized, complete, and fun-looking. I think they would be a good supplement for any curriculum that needs spicing up.

I have a student studing for the AP Chemistry test and was searching for something to help me do the 22 suggested AP Chemistry labs. We used Apologia and it has almost no labs that correspond to the APs. I would classify the Apologia experiments as "chemlab lite" compared to the IGtHCE. The book even has a descriptive table in Chapter 1 that tells you exactly which labs correspond to the AP labs - it's very helpful.

There are many more labs than just those recommended for an AP lab course, and the IGtHCE was not written for only those with AP students. The author wrote this book to inspire and encourage interest in Chemistry, and wants to help folks just like us to do labs with our children.

The forums were set up to support the book, but the author is very interested in supporting homeschoolers. You could pick and choose experiments based on your interests and budget. If you had any questions, he would be happy to answer them.

HTH,
GardenMom

PS I'll tell you what we used and are doing - maybe that will help a bit more.

DS is a freshman in college now. He did Apologia Chem I in 9th grade and Apologia Chem II in 11th grade, with A's in both. In the 2nd half of 12th grade I had him study for and take the Chemistry AP. He struggled with the review and ended up with only a 3 on the AP test - he needed a 4 to get chemistry credit from VA Tech. We were so dissappointed, especially since he got 5's on his other two APs so I knew he could do that level of work! I still don't know if his results were because he simply did not remember what he studied from Apologia or if two years of Apologia just didn't cover enough material for the AP test. There are other discussions of the adequacies of Apologia elsewhere on this forum, though. When he took Chem at Tech this past semester, he got an As in both the class and the lab.

DD is a homeschooled high school Junior. She is thinking about studying biochemistry in college, so I want to make sure she has a very strong chemistry background. She did Apologia Chem I in 10th grade and liked it - she felt Dr. Wile did a good job of explaning things and inspiring interest. This year I switched her to the Zumdahl AP Chem book because I was nervous the Apologia wouldn't be in-depth enough. She likes it and is doing well. She feels Zundahl is much more in-depth than Apologia, so it's a good fit for her and her goals. She's doing the virtual labs on the DIVE Chemistry CD course, and supplementing her textbook study with the Princeton Review and 5 Steps AP Chemistry study books. She will take the Chem AP in May. We will start the IGtHCE labs in the summer, stretching them out over next year as well. She also plans to review her chemistry study next year, working on a couple of problems a week from her textbook.

[Karin]

Karin and Gardenschooler, those are great questions. Here's a try at answering them.

Thanks. This is one of the reasons we're not doing Apologia. The other one is that we're going to do Chemistry in gr. 9 (freshman year) so we're doing Conceptual Chemistry. Do you think this book is okay for that or should we wait until she's doing AP Chem? AP is in our plans because dd wants to major in biochem (or perhaps molecular biology or chem). She may do AP at the local hs, but maybe at home.

[MomsintheGarden]

I don't know what Conceptual Chemistry does for labs, so it's hard to say. I would say that if you got the IGtHCL book and wanted to do the labs, you could start when you begin CC. There are so many labs - it would be good to spread them over a couple of years (the cost, too).

The first few chapters have great background info about equipment, chemicals, and lab technique. Your student could start reading them as his first "labs." You could then begin the real labs a few weeks into the year. The author tells you which labs are more appropriate for middle school and early high school. You could then save the AP labs until later. Robert Thompson's experiment charts in Chapter 1 would make it easy to plan. Also, all of the labs have plenty of explanation, so they would be understandable even for a basic chemist. Mr. Thompson is always available to explain if you get stuck.

And finally, you can buy the answers to the lab questions directly from the author on his website.

Please post later about what you decide to do - it would help others who have chosen Conceptual Chemistry. I'd look at that program, too, but I've already spent too much money on chemistry books!

GardenMom

[Karin]

I don't know what Conceptual Chemistry does for labs, so it's hard to say. I would say that if you got the IGtHCL book and wanted to do the labs, you could start when you begin CC. There are so many labs - it would be good to spread them over a couple of years (the cost, too).

The first few chapters have great background info about equipment, chemicals, and lab technique. Your student could start reading them as his first "labs." You could then begin the real labs a few weeks into the year. The author tells you which labs are more appropriate for middle school and early high school. You could then save the AP labs until later. Robert Thompson's experiment charts in Chapter 1 would make it easy to plan. Also, all of the labs have plenty of explanation, so they would be understandable even for a basic chemist. Mr. Thompson is always available to explain if you get stuck.

And finally, you can buy the answers to the lab questions directly from the author on his website.

Please post later about what you decide to do - it would help others who have chosen Conceptual Chemistry. I'd look at that program, too, but I've already spent too much money on chemistry books!

GardenMom


Thanks. I'll have to take a look. I think there may be experiments already, but I might be confusing 2 different books we have (dd is going to do RS4K II for fun over the summer and it has experiments--it's jr high level but not enough for all of a high school course).

In order to keep costs down, we're not going to do ALL the experiments in Chemistry unless we find others in the area doing Chem that we could combine with. I do want to buy the basic safety equipment (coat, goggles, etc) and have dd practice good lab safety procedures even though we won't do the most dangerous ones even outdoors here. We'll watch videos of the others if we can find them, or just read the results. We may be able to find clips on YouTube or something. Now, even though I should be doing something else, I'm going to finish up here in a few minutes and go check that book.

[gardenschooler]

Thanks, I'm going to check it out. This sounds like just what I've been looking for. We're doing Apologia this year, but as an introductory 'getting our feet wet' with chemistry course. Dd will take a college chem class for homeschoolers at one of our nearby colleges in 11th grade, so I'm planning on (hoping) that will cover her well as far as chemistry is concerned, and that this Apologia course will ensure she's not going into it blind.

Very helpful info, thank you so much!

[JenGeorgia]

Thank you for posting this!

We are actually using this book for our lab book in chemistry this year. I found Apologia all right for a ninth/tenth grade high school intro, but was concerned that it wouldn't be what I wanted for our second round of chemistry, especially with regards to labs and the amount of math covered. I emailed the author about some beefier labs, but he just referred back to the microchem set they advertise--not quite what I want!

Anyway, we went with Chemistry: The Central Science by Brown, Bursten, and Lemay for our text and I was trying to pull together various labs from here and there (internet and college lab books) when I came across this little gem. I have to say, so far I'm impressed!

It's very homeschool friendly in that it's written for a non-classroom situation. However, it is not cheap! We had a fair assortment of glassware bits from previous science courses, but I've spent a couple of hundred dollars on chemicals and equipment (like a calorimeter). I'm a bit of a closet chemistry buff AND I have all three of my teens doing the labs, so I'm all right with this.

[MotherLode]

I'm told where Apologia excels is their subscription to the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Not perfect, according to Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis), but the best thing out there.

My bf thought Apologia was rather light. We just completed General Science (7th) and I wondered if she had her kids do all of it, or did they just read the text?

So far, we're pleased. But it's not chemistry...yet.

ML