Big Ideas
Big Ideas
Reactants must collide to react, and the reaction rate is dependent on the surrounding conditions.
- Sample questions to support inquiry with students:
- What factors influence the way reactant molecules, atoms, and ions collide?
- How does collision theory explain reaction rate?
Dynamic equilibrium can be shifted by changes to the surrounding conditions.
- Sample question to support inquiry with students:
- What are the conditions that can affect equilibrium?
Saturated solutions are systems in equilibrium.
- Sample questions to support inquiry with students:
- How is the solubility constant useful in studying chemical processes?
- How can ions (e.g., calcium, magnesium) be removed from hard water?
Acid or base strength depends on the degree of ion dissociation.
- Sample questions to support inquiry with students:
- How are the concepts of acid/base strength and acid/base concentration different?
- How can acid/base dissociation be measured?
- How are acid and base systems in equilibrium?
- How are aquatic ecosystems affected by changes in pH?
Oxidation and reduction are complementary processes that involve the gain or loss of electrons.
- Sample questions to support inquiry with students:
- How can electrochemical and electrolytic cells be used in practical situations?
- What are some applications of redox reactions?
Content
Learning Standards
Content
reaction rate
- heterogeneous and homogeneous reactions
- factors that affect reaction rate
- controlling reaction rate
collision theory
- collision geometry
- relationship between successful collisions and reaction rate
- relationship of activated complex, reaction intermediates, and activation energy to PE diagrams
energy change
relationship between PE, KE, enthalpy (ΔH), and catalysis
during a chemical reaction
reaction mechanism
- relationship of the overall reaction to a series of steps (collisions)
- rate-determining step
catalysts
applications (e.g., platinum in automobile catalytic converters, catalysis in the body, chlorine from CFCs in ozone depletion)
dynamic nature of chemical equilibrium
reversible nature of reactions, relationship to PE diagram
Le Châtelier’s principle and equilibrium shift
- concentrations of reactants and products
- enthalpy and entropy
- presence of a catalyst
- applications (e.g., Haber process, hemoglobin and oxygen in the blood)
equilibrium constant (Keq)
- homogeneous and heterogeneous systems
- pure solids and liquids
- effect of changes in temperature, pressure, concentration, surface area, and a catalyst
saturated solutions and solubility product
Ksp as a specialized Keq expression
(Ksp)
relative strength of acids and bases in solution
- electrical conductivity
- table of relative acid strength
- equations of strong and weak acids and bases in water
water as an equilibrium system
weak acids and weak bases
equilibrium systems
titration
the method to find an equivalence point:
- strong acid–strong base titration
- weak acid–strong base titration
- strong acid–weak base titration
hydrolysis of ions in salt solutions
- acidic, basic, or neutral salt solutions
- amphiprotic ions
applications of acid-base reactions
- non-metal and metal oxides in water and associated environmental impacts
- buffers
the oxidation-reduction process
- oxidation number
- balancing redox reactions
electrochemical cells
half-reactions, cell voltage (E0), applications (e.g., lead-acid storage batteries, alkali cells, hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells)
electrolytic cells
half-reactions, minimum voltage to operate, applications including metal refining (e.g. zinc, aluminum), preventing metal corrosion (cathodic protection)
quantitative relationships
quantitative problems using relationships between variables such as:
- in equilibrium systems (e.g., Keq, initial concentrations, equilibrium concentrations)
- in solutions (e.g., Ksp, prediction of precipitate formation, calculating the maximum allowable concentration)
- in water as an equilibrium system (e.g., Kw, [H3O+] or [OH-], pH and pOH)
- in acid-base systems (e.g., Kaa, Kb, [H3O+], [OH-], pH and pOH)
- in a titration (e.g., pH of a solution, Ka of an indicator)
- pH in hydrolysis of ions in salt solutions
- in a redox titration (e.g., grams, moles, molarity)
- in an electrochemical cell (e.g., E0)
Curricular Competency
Learning Standards
Curricular Competency
Questioning and predicting
Questioning and predicting
- Sample opportunities to support student inquiry:
- What observable properties would you use to determine a reaction rate?
- Observe catalyzed reactions, such as
- decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, catalyzed by MnO2
- decomposition of bleach, catalyzed by CoCl2
- autocatalysis of oxalic acid and KMnO4
- Predict qualitative changes in the solubility equilibrium upon the addition of a common ion or the removal of an ion.
Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal, local, or global interest
Make observations aimed at identifying their own questions, including increasingly abstract ones, about the natural world
Formulate multiple hypotheses and predict multiple outcomes
Planning and conducting
Planning and conducting
- Sample opportunities to support student inquiry:
- Determine the rate of a reaction through experimentation.
- Identify an unknown ion through experimentation involving a qualitative analysis scheme.
- Devise a method for determining the concentration of a specific ion by titration or gravimetric methods (e.g., concentration of chloride ion using a precipitation reaction with silver ion).
- Design, perform, and analyze a titration experiment involving:
- primary standards
- standardized solutions
- titration curves
- appropriate indicators
- proper technique
- Prepare a buffer system.
- From data for a series of simple redox reactions, create a simple table of reduction half-reactions.
- Construct an electrochemical cell. Determine the half-reactions that take place at each electrode, the overall reaction, and the resulting mass of the electrodes.
- Design and label the parts of an electrolytic cell:
- used for the electrolysis of a molten binary salt (e.g., NaCl(l))
- capable of electrolyzing an aqueous salt (e.g., KI(aq), not requiring the use of overpotential effect)
- used to electroplate an object
Collaboratively and individually plan, select, and use appropriate investigation methods, including field work and lab experiments, to collect reliable data (qualitative and quantitative)
Assess risks and address ethical, cultural, and/or environmental issues associated with their proposed methods
Use appropriate SI units and appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data
Apply the concepts of accuracy and precision to experimental procedures and data:
- significant figures
- uncertainty
- scientific notation
Processing and analyzing data and information
Processing and analyzing data and information
- Sample opportunities to support student inquiry:
- Research the types of materials that are present in clay deposits traditionally used to treat skin conditions.
- Compare and contrast factors affecting the rates of both homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions.
- Predict, with reference to entropy and enthalpy, whether reacting systems will reach equilibrium when:
- both favour products
- both favour reactants
- they oppose each other
- Calculate the rate of a reaction using experimental data.
- Draw and label PE diagrams for both exothermic and endothermic reactions, including ΔH, activation energy, and the energy of the activated complex.
- Use a KE distribution curve to explain how changing the temperature or adding a catalyst changes the rate of a reaction.
- Interpret titration curves plotted from experimental data.
Experience and interpret the local environment
Apply First Peoples perspectives and knowledge, other ways of knowing, and local knowledge as sources of information
Seek and analyze patterns, trends, and connections in data, including describing relationships between variables, performing calculations, and identifying inconsistencies
Construct, analyze, and interpret graphs, models and diagrams
Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions that are consistent with evidence
Analyze cause-and-effect relationships
Evaluating
Evaluating
- Sample opportunities to support student inquiry:
- Explore variables and assumptions (e.g., cost, demand, location, environmental considerations) to evaluate the feasibility of bringing a chemical industrial process to your local area.
- Explore chemistry-related careers (e.g., chemical engineer, clinical biochemist, pharmacologist, environmental consultant, patent attorney, science writer).
Evaluate their methods and experimental conditions, including identifying sources of error or uncertainty, confounding variables, and possible alternative explanations and conclusions
Describe specific ways to improve their investigation methods and the quality of their data
Evaluate the validity and limitations of a model or analogy in relation to the phenomenon modelled
Demonstrate an awareness of assumptions, question information given, and identify bias in their own work and in primary and secondary sources
Consider the changes in knowledge over time as tools and technologies have developed
Connect scientific explorations to careers in science
Exercise a healthy, informed skepticism and use scientific knowledge and findings to form their own investigations to evaluate claims in primary and secondary sources
Consider social, ethical, and environmental implications of the findings from their own and others’ investigations
Critically analyze the validity of information in primary and secondary sources and evaluate the approaches used to solve problems
Assess risks in the context of personal safety and social responsibility
Applying and innovating
Applying and innovating
- Sample opportunity to support student inquiry:
- Investigate how green chemistry is used to reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances in commercial chemical processes (e.g., production of pharmaceuticals, paints, plastics).
Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individual or collaborative approaches
Co-operatively design projects with local and/or global connections and applications
Contribute to finding solutions to problems at a local and/or global level through inquiry
Implement multiple strategies to solve problems in real-life, applied, and conceptual situations
Consider the role of scientists in innovation
Communicating
Communicating
- Sample opportunity to support student inquiry:
- Cooperatively plan and present a chemistry-related project to an interested or simulated stakeholder group such as:
- an industrial process (e.g., electrolytic refining, hydrogen fuel cells)
- an environmental concern (e.g., ozone layer depletion, mine-waste-water remediation, carbon sequestration, the ocean as a carbon sink)
- a biochemical equilibrium process (e.g., blood chemistry)
- Cooperatively plan and present a chemistry-related project to an interested or simulated stakeholder group such as:
Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon
Communicate scientific ideas and information, and perhaps a suggested course of action, for a specific purpose and audience, constructing evidence-based arguments and using appropriate scientific language, conventions, and representations
Express and reflect on a variety of experiences, perspectives, and worldviews through place
Place is any environment, locality, or context with which people interact to learn, create memory, reflect on history, connect with culture, and establish identity. The connection between people and place is foundational to First Peoples perspectives.