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The examiner’s report – tips for the student from the chief examiner
This month saw the examiner’s report released from the May IB exams. This is a much anticipated document that your teacher’s user to aid their teaching – so even though your teachers may not directly...
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Get it right – DCP tips
Octobers blog post focused on getting Design labs right so I thought it would be worth staying with the theme of IA labs and giving some tips / hep on DCP. There are two ways in which your teacher will...
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CE – Get it Right!
I have already made some blog postings regarding the first two assessed IA criteria, namely ‘Desgin’ labs and ‘DCP’ labs. This posting will focus on the third assessed criteria, ‘Conclusion and...
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Parabens?
Chances are that if you live in Denmark you will have heard of parabens – if you live elsewhere, unless you have a sharp eye and a good memory, you probably will not have heard of them. Why is this...
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Starting to revise
If you are in the second year of your IB studies and in a May session school, now is the time you need to start thinking about your May exams. The exams probably seem a long way off still but believe...
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Graphene
Following on from last month’s theme (subject material that is new to the guide) I thought this month I would concentrate on graphene. Graphene crops up in topic 4, Chemical bonding and structure. You...
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Getting Ready
This blog post is aimed at students who are about to embark on their IB diploma – if you are reading this – well done so far! The fact that you have decided to do some chemistry reading already is a...
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Organic Chemistry – an introduction
Love it or hate it you won’t be able to ignore it – that’s organic chemistry. If this is a new topic to you, I hope that this blog posting will act as a ‘heads up’ something to help you to get ready...
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Writing your EE – how is it going?
This blog post is aimed at students half way through the diploma programme and who are in the process of beginning to write up their extended essay (EE). Hopefully, you will have carried out some lab...
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Welcome to the new course!
Hi everyone, welcome to the new Chemistry course. If school has just started and if you have your exams in May 2016 (yes, talking about exams already!) this is the post for you. The chemistry course is...
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Gold – Au
Christmas is coming and if, as a chemist, I had to select an element that reminds me most of this holiday I would select Gold. Why Gold? Well, the three wise men bought the baby Jesus gifts of Gold (as...
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Hydrogen bonding and the forming of a snowflake
Water molecules are polar molecules, the electronegative oxygen with two pairs of lone electrons providing a ‘slightly’ negative charge that acts with the ‘slightly’ positive hydrogen atoms to form...
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Moles on Mars and Occam’s Razor
Moles, as I hope you realise by now are very useful to chemists. The mole is just a concept, an idea or a number (much like a dozen means 12) that allows us the measure out the right ratios of atoms,...
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Stereoisomers: Organic Topic 20.3
This is a really interesting part of the HL organic course. Structural isomers are substances with the same molecular formula but a different structural formula. I think we can get our heads around...
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Carbon Neutral Fuels
Please note: The blog post works on the premise that you understand that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and it is one of the molecules responsible for global warming. ‘Carbon neutral’ is a fairly...
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The Halogens and the Sea
There are a few references to lab work in this post – I do need to stress that any labs you carry out need to be under the supervision of one of your teachers (and risk assessed by the teacher) and...
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The New Extended Essay
Were you aware that a new EE guide was out? It has been live for around three months and is for first examinations May 2018, so that will be students whom you start to teach this coming August /...
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How well do YOU do it?
ATL or Approaches to Teaching and Learning. Hopefully, this will not be a new phrase or acronym to you and that your teachers will have exposed you to it…. But what is it? Well, ATL has been part of IB...
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Planetary Round Up
Saturn’s hexagon – have you heard of it? It is quite easy to see from the above images – and isn’t it amazing? A near perfect, natural hexagon of immense proportions. The sides of the hexagon are...
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Christmas Plant Indicators
Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, chances are you will be familiar with the Poinsetta plant (see image below). Poinstetta’s are traditional Christmas plants due to their deep red colour and...
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