I was curious to know whether it was standardized practice to have labs for chemistry classes in highschool.
I personally have never had labs for chemistry in highschool. In my state we have the Regents. You may or may not have heard of this test, but the reason I mention it is that one night I was watching tv really late and was ...falling asleep b/c I was studying for my analytical chem test final. Well, I kinda ran out of instant mix coffee lol so I was attempting to get myself to drink soda. I hate soda. I turned on the tv and I see this review for chemistry for the regents exam. Well they start doing what they call "cool" experiments with HCL which they dub, "the good stuff." Well this worked in effect to wake me up and I started watching. I just thought about this show I saw for no particular reason and the question as to whether chemistry lab classes are standard in chemistry highschool classes came up.
(I actually had a lab but only went in there to do 1 bio lab which was to dissect a frog which we weren't taught how to open up by the way but I NEVER did any chem labs in the lab and was wondering if I missed out on something good)
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I didn't actually have AP chem in my school that I know of. The only AP classes in my hs was History, Calculus, English, Bio and the year after I graduated they added Physics.
I took AP history and English but didn't score high enough for college credit. That test is expensive I must admit though.
What kind of labs did you do in hs?
I bet it wasn't as complicated as in college right Dr.Bob?
I am not a fan of AP classes for many reasons, the principle reason being that kids think they are getting college experience, and in fact, many are not getting any experience at all.
??
Not a fan of AP classes? Well the setting of the normal classroom in highschool and having constant quizzes really doesn't imitate the college experience at all I must admit. Especially since in college we only have 3 tests each semester in general.
I agree with Bobpursley and DrBob222.
In both my classes we had about 15-20 "select" students. (I seriously don't know how some people got into this class)
What I can say about chemistry in highschool on the topic of learning the basics is that I didn't remember anything chemistry related (the only thing I remembered about pH was the word and that it had to do something with acidity) by my 4th year in highschool. I took a year total in chemistry my second yr of highschool and I forgot everything. I personally have to say that you would have to be interested in a subject before you remember anything for a long period of time.
If your speaking of basics in terms of math skills, critical thinking and such well I would have to say that I know that graduate school is a while away but I'm kind of aprehensive when I think about the GRE exam since from what I've seen online it's just like the SAT's. I didn't do well on the SAT's maybe b/c I didn't practice but I've never been too good at tricky math problems or critical reading. I think it's WRONG that they go and determine how good a student is by a single exam on things you don't even learn in highschool. My friend did great on the test and I did better than her in class. (I get mad just thinking about it).
I don't know if the GRE is very important in entering a grad program but would know by any chance?(even though they probably didn't have this test back then)
With my major now I can actually enter medical school (that test by the way is the MCAT) but I don't want to.
Wow you must have been really close to your students to know that all of them were admitted to medical school.
(I would have to say it's rare as I don't know my teachers and I'm probably just a name on their list)
I guess I wouldn't want a carpenter to build my house if all they knew was from observing rather than actually doing.
P.S I really don't mind about hearing about what's wrong with chem education but maybe that's b/c I don't have much to do until school starts.lol But if you don't want to elaborate that's fine.
:-(.
Aww come on..you can't blame tests for the metal detectors..
That is not true Dr.Bob.
My point is that people aren't going to bring unacceptable items into school because they are stresed about tests but rather because of the drama of school and their aquaintances. Usually the troublemakers don't exactly excell in school. (I don't want to make that generality but it's true [I used to be picked on by them so I know])