Department Representative: Chemistry

This year Teddies launched the Department Representatives Project as part of Pupil Voice and Action, to celebrate the work and activities of our many subject areas by nominating pupil representatives for each subject. The Department Representative for Chemistry tells us about how the subject is taught at Teddies at each stage in the School.

Lower Sixth Form pupil, Yuki Watanabe, writes:
Chemistry is a subject which explores properties of matter and its interactions. It is crucial in understanding the world we live in. Everything around us is governed by the principles of chemistry. It is heavily involved in our daily lives, from the food we eat, the clothes we wear, to the medicines we take. At Teddies, the Chemistry Department nurtures Pupils’ curiosity towards the subject and develops deep understanding and knowledge throughout the range of topics covered.

In the Fourth Form, pupils learn about different types of chemical bonding such as covalent and ionic bonding and also cover some organic chemistry with a focus on the uses and structures of hydrocarbons. In the Fifth Form, a main topic of focus is chemical calculations: students are encouraged to use their chemistry knowledge they have acquired before in the context of numerical problems. The topic of calculations covers areas such as mole calculations, determining empirical formulae and percentage yields. Pupils also look at enthalpy changes, which involves calculating the energy change of a reaction. Learning how to carry out these calculations is not only a useful skill for a chemist, but also helps students familiarise ourselves with working with numbers.

In the Sixth Form, we learn more in depth about the topics covered in the IGCSE. The department follows a ‘spiral curriculum’, meaning we build on knowledge from the Shell as we go up to Sixth Form. This is beneficial as we can refine our previous knowledge throughout the course, making difficult and sophisticated concepts in the Sixth Form more relatable and approachable. For instance, the Lower Sixth A Level chemists study a topic on developing fuels. In this topic both physical and organic chemistry are covered, for example, we learn the mechanisms behind some reactions that take place between organic compounds, which involve a number of practicals. The practicals not only give us a deeper understanding of what we learn in lessons, but also develop critical thinking skills. Those same concepts are covered by both SL and HL IB students. Through the analysis of results obtained in our practical, we learn to think logically, analyse, and evaluate evidence, make sound judgements, form hypothesis and test theories. In the Upper Sixth, the IB students apply those skills to a practical project of their own devising during their IAs.

The Upper School pupils also have the opportunity to attend our Chemistry and Medicine Societies. In these societies, we explore the subject outside the curriculum. The society meetings involve a diverse range of activities, such as doing more complicated but exciting practicals that we don’t get to do in lessons, looking at recent research, reading around the subject as a group, as well as welcoming inspiring guest speakers from outside of school. These society meetings are an amazing opportunity for pupils to discover and foster scientific curiosity. The Lower School pupils have the opportunity to carry out an interdisciplinary practical project in their Science Society.

Chemistry at Teddies allows pupils to study the subject with great teaching and successful practicals, with the additional opportunities for those interested in the subject to pursue and extend their knowledge through co-curricular activities such as clinics and societies outside of lessons.