......... ............See other courses ............or other schools. I. THE SYLLABUS Here is the official IGCSE syllabus. II. EXAMS Here are five recent IGCSE Chemistry papers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. .........It's worth testing yourself with these in real time: give yourself 45 minutes and see what it feels like. .........But first revise radioactivity and the uranium atom with these wonderful artefacts of the Good Old Days: Dorothy Gray Cold Cream ad, and A is for Atom. .........Let me know when you want more of these things (I mean exams, not 1950s propaganda videos). .........Here is a useful exam checklist. III. MAY AND JUNE 21 May (RJCM): 1. Greatest Chemistry Discoveries (44'), a documentary about the amazingly fast advances chemistry over the last centuries, from the discovery of oxygen in the 1770s, and the first atomic theory in 1808, to fullerenes (vulgarly called buckyballs) in 1985. 2. The documentary is followed by a short test on what you've seen. homework: What do you think was the most important breakthrough chemistry? Decide, and be prepared to defend your answer against a barrage of opposing facts, against the heckling of your opponents with another view, against the sneers of your instructors. 24 May (ST): THE HORROR, THE HORROR homework: 28 May (RJCM): 1. Debate on chemical discoveries. Which one was the greatest of all? Winner of the debate gets nominated for a Nobel Prize. 2. Our most everyday use of complicated chemistry is cooking, and perhaps it's the most important. The documentary Did Cooking Make Us Human? (2010, 44') examines the idea that we are the cleverest species on the planet because we are the only species on earth that cooks its food. Do we cook because we're clever and imaginative – or are we clever and imaginative because our ancestors discovered cooking? Did the discovery of cooking prompt anatomical and neurological changes that resulted in taking us out of the trees? 3. A short test on the chemistry of the kitchen, with recipes. homework: Notice your food this week, and come back on 4th June prepared to explain, with diagrams and chemical equations, the science behind the most interesting thing you have eaten. 31 May (ST): homework: 4 June (RJCM): 1. Brief presentations on the chemistry of what you ate this past week. 2. Cooking is nice and normal. Our most extreme use of chemistry is the atom bomb. This documentary explores the Manhattan Project (parts I, II, III, IV, V, each about 10"), which produced the triumph and horror of Hiroshima. 3. Mitja asks whether there were really scientists who thought igniting the atmosphere with the Trinity test was a possibility. Indeed yes: here is their secret report. 4. A short test on nuclear fission and fusion, and the chemistry of nuclear weapons. homework: Build a small but workable atom bomb at home. Just joshing. No, but do spend 20 minutes producing a clear diagram showing how fission works. 7 June (ST): homework: 11 June (RJCM): 1. Show and explain your atom bomb diagrams. Whose is the most practically useful? 2. Here we sit in Podmilšcakova ulica studying chemistry; but chemistry stretches down beneath us, for four thousand miles. Scientists are uncovering a bizarre and alien world below, a planet buried within the planet we know, where storms rage within a sea of white-hot metal, and giant forest of crystals make up a metal core the size of the Moon. This documentary, The Core (59'), introduces us to scientists who are recreating the Earth’s core within their own laboratories. 3. Or we can be frivolous and admire Journey to the Center of the Earth: the 1959 film (here's the trailer), or the even sillier 2008 film (trailer). Better still, read the actual novel by Jules Verne, which is excellent, and full of sound chemistry. 4. A short test on the chemistry of the interior of this planet. homework: Draw a diagram of the make-up of the Earth, marking the predominant chemical in each stratum. 14 June (ST): homework: 18 June (RJCM): 1. Chemical diagram of the planet collected and assessed. 2. Isn't it strange that our picture of the chemist is often of a sinister buffoon (see the bottom of this page). The one famous chemist in literature is of coruse Dr Jekyll. Here is the 1932 film, with Fredric March as Jekyll in the amazing transformation scene; in the 1990 film it's Michael Caine (at 21'30") who mixes his phials and stirs his pipettes and releases pure evil. 3. But seriously. The atomic and nuclear events of chemistry rest on the structure of the universe; well, what is the universe like? Until a few years ago, science seemed to understand it. All things – BISL students, the Earth, the stars, even exotic-sounding supernovae – were made of atoms, which were all created at the Big Bang. In between the atoms was nothing, a void: quite literally, space. But recently this model has started to unravel. According to the best estimates, we only really know what about 4% of the universe is made of. But if only 4% is made of atoms, what about the rest? The rest is made of mysterious entities about which very little is understood, with equally mysterious names: dark matter and dark energy. This documentary, Most of our Universe is Missing (5 parts of 11' or so), explores the alarming new shape of a universe in which atoms are a minority concern. 4. A short test on cosmic chemistry. homework: Over summer, if you pine for chemistry, have a look at this epic documentary, How to Grow a Planet (2012), 3 parts of 59' each, which shows how minerals bring forth plants, and plants animals: chemistry elabroates itself into biology, and biology into the heady complexity of you, the ornament of the British International School of Ljubljana. 21 June (ST): Dr Jekyll GET 1932 IV. ORGANIC CHEMISTRY AND POLYMERS Here, by way of variety from the textbook, is an introduction to the naming of organic molecules; and here's a rap song on the same subject. .......An intensely troubling song about polymers, and an animation on the same topic. .......Mr Bean trifles with organic chemistry. .......The oddly charming chemical party, where monomers get it together and form polymers. V. THE ELEMENTS AND THEIR ATOMIC STRUCTURE The elements: some glorious pictures; an almost obsessive site, with everything you need to know about everything to do with the 118 of the little lovelies. They're too beautiful to say, so let's sing them: here's rap about the elements, which is all very well. But the classical song is by the great Tom Lehrer, recycling a patter song from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. (Here are the words; here it's performed by Daniel Radcliffe). .......A snuff movie of sodium reacting with water .......The mole: an irritating song about the mole, that odd number, six thousand sextillion, or six with 21 zeroes after it. .......If you would like to explore the ideas that underlie all chemistry, I commend Brian Cox's XV-part series on particle physics (2007), In Search Of Giants (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV), or another weighty documentary Structure of the Atom (I, II, III, IV, V). .......What is an element? .......Animated lectures on equations and the mole .......Revision questions: what is an isotope? a noble gas? a transition metal? an actinide? .......Just to remember how serious this all is: contemplate the element uranium wiping out Hiroshima VI. PAST SCHEDULES 20 February (RJCM): revision on atomic structure. homework: revise 3.1 to 3.4; memorise the periodic table as far as argon; there will be 23 February (ST): a class test on atoms and isotopes, and then we will work through the history of atomic structure on pp. 38-41. homework: revise the theory of compounds 27 February (RJCM): valency and electron arrangement 5 March (RJCM): a multi-choice review test on the whole syllabus homework: 12 March (RJCM): revision based on review test. ST will cover organic chemistry and polymers; RJCM the elements and their atomic structure. homework: master section 7.4 of the green book, on the naming of organic molecules (pages 250-251) 15 March (ST): homework: master section 3.4 - 3.8 of the green book 19 March (RJCM): revision: the periodic table (section 12.1, pages 166-7). What is the significance of the f-block? Why does uranium matter so much? A is for Atom, a great, great little film from the Good Old Days. homework: two particularly important non-metals: hydrogen and nitrogen, section 16.1 and 16.2 (pages 224-227) 22 March (ST): term ends 23 March. This term ST will cover organic chemistry and polymers; RJCM elements, atomic structure, practicals (1, 2) 23 April (RJCM): practicals in the lab on equipment and safety homework: finish drawing lab equipmentfs 26 April (ST): sports day 30 April. 7 May (RJCM): chemical safety 10 May (ST): midterm break 14 May. ..... ..... .....