Alternatives and Further Help

The Teacher Support Material (TSM - published September 2023 on MyIB.com) will contain alternatives to the road map to aid with conceptual teaching. It contains ‘big’ questions to help contextualise syllabus content.

The ’big’ questions include;

• How can chemistry address the global demand for energy?

• How can chemists show innovative and responsible environmental stewardship?

• What are the factors to consider in the design of new materials and chemical agents?

• What is the role of chemistry in health, food security and clean water?

The ‘big’ questions also contain relevant links to the subtopics in the concept being covered, which will help link the themes and concepts together.

Linking questions are designed to be two-way and to connect together different, seemingly unrelated parts of the course. They can also be used to help connect:

• Skills (for example, ‘Why can some redox titrations be self-indication?’)

Or

• NoS (for example, ‘How can isotope tracers provide evidence for a reaction mechanism?’)

Perhaps most importantly, they can be used to provide a connection to real-world examples or contexts which will ultimately help with the conceptual approach.

For example, when linking real-world concepts:

• Oxidation of metals can cause corrosion. What are the consequences of this for boats?

• Why are alkenes sometimes called starter molecules?

Using ‘gases’ as a concept is a great example. It is possible to tie together moles, ideal gases, reactions of acids and bases, free radical substitution, bonding, redox and enthalpy changes.

To demonstrate this example, burn some sulphur in oxygen and let the concepts and questions unfold!