VCE Chemistry curriculum gets longer, tougher, more interesting in 2016!

VCAA has just released its proposed draft VCE Chemistry study design for 2016-2019.

Major changes are in store for future VCE Chemistry students.

First, the Key Knowledge points have been restructured into subheadings. These subheadings represent 37 enquiry-based “topics” across Years 11 & 12 that each take 1 or 2 weeks to teach. This makes planning the curriculum a little easier, and makes the course structure a little more visible for students.

Second, the school-assessed coursework tasks are more specific and more exciting. units 1-4 include extended investigations (like the EPIs done in Physics). Students produce posters, reports or do presentations at the end of each unit. Some examples are shown below (there are more choices available in the full Study Design):

“the properties of a chemical or material that make it useful with specific reference to its structure and bonding, analyse its life cycle and evaluate the impact of its production and use on resources and the environment.” (Unit 1);

“a quantitative laboratory investigation related to the quality of water.” (Unit 2);

“analysis and evaluation of two or more media articles related to energy options.” (Unit 3);

“response to an issue related to food and diet.” (Unit 4)

Third, history of the atom and history of the periodic table have been taken out of the curriculum and replaced with something far more exciting: the Big Bang and how the universe started. The first three chapters of the text book will have to be re-written! Many other (minor) course changes have also been made.

Finally, the entire Chemistry course is much more detailed. Organic molecules now include alkynes and are studied up to C10, for example. The only problem is that it’ll be more difficult to squeeze all the topics into the same amount of time. Students and teachers will probably be working a little harder as of 2016…

What do you think of the new 2016-2019 study design? Read it and give your feedback on VCAA’s Chemistry page (click here).

Links

Draft Study Design (pdf – 655.45kb)

Summary of proposed changes to the Study Design (doc – 423kb)

Visual Chemistry Student Booklet v1 is Out Now!

I’ve just finished making Visual Chemistry Units 3&4.

There are no questions in version 1; just high-quality visual notes. I’m debating whether to add questions at all: companies like NEAP and STAV create excellent questions for Units 3&4, so there’s less of a need for them here than in Units 1&2. Questions might feature in later versions of this booklet. Would you like practice questions for Units 3&4?

Get the 39-page Student Booklet by clicking the link in the sidebar.

VCEasy Visual Chemistry v1.1 ready!

VCEasy Visual Chemistry v1.1 is now online!

The booklet contains almost everything you need to know for the VCE Chemistry Course. You’ll notice, however, that it still lacks comprehension questions. These will be included in the next update (v1.2).

Follow @VCEasy on Twitter or click ‘Follow’ to receive email updates when new VCEasy booklets are released.

In the pipeline:

Add comprehension questions to Visual Chemistry Units 1&2
VCEasy Visual Chemistry Units 3&4
Visual Year 10 Science (Pre-VCEasy)
iBooks integration

There’s a lot of work to be done.

If you have any comments or suggestions, just send me a message @VCEasy or visualvce@gmail.com. Enjoy 🙂

VCEasy Visual Physics v1.1 (updated)

I try to keep updates to an absolute minimum, but this one is a necessity.

New in version 1.1:

New Detailed Study section: Energy from the Nucleus
Minor bug fixes (thanks to those who were very quick to point them out!)

Download the new version 1.1 here.

I will remove the detailed study from this VCEasy booklet after the mid-year exams because Energy from the Nucleus will not be assessed at the end of the year. The next update will go online in June 2014. 🙂

VCEasy Visual Physics has arrived!

It’s taken all weekend. My first version of VCEasy Visual Physics Units 1&2 is now ready for use in the classroom.

Visual Physics Units 1&2 is a set of concise, visual teaching notes. It contains all you need to know for VCE Physics, and nothing else. For teachers, it’s a whiteboard plan plus quizzes. For students, it’s a go-to resource for high-quality, primarily visual notes.

There also exists a teachers’ version, which contains lesson plans and worked answers to all the quizzes. This is available by request only.

During high school, I created similar notes for all of my subjects and tacked them onto my bedroom wall. I ate, worked out and daydreamed while staring at these notes. I obsessed about the layout and re-designed them several times. All that effort paid off: I got an ATAR score of about 99+ (four A-grades at A-level).

The Visual Physics project is designed to evolve, but to do that, it needs more input and more feedback.

Download it for free here or by clicking on the banner above.

All feedback is welcome. Enjoy 🙂

Twitter: @VCEasy
Email: visualvce@gmail.com

Visual Physics is almost done. Here are two more pages I’m proud of.

VCEasy’s Visual Physics book is almost ready for download. The visual pages are now 90% finished.

VCEasy Visual Physics is a concise, visual study companion for high school students and teachers. It contains all the Physics on the VCE course, and nothing else. Its pages are arranged according to the VCAA Study Design, with one Key Knowledge point covered on each page.

The left-hand pages contain all-original quiz questions to which only your teacher has the answers. These are designed to be completed straight after learning the theory.

Here are two more samples from the book: Unit 2.1.8, which explains Newton’s 3 Laws, and Unit 2.2.1, on longitudinal and transverse waves. Take a sneak-peek below!

VCEasy Visual Physics Unit 2.1.8