Year 11 Preparation for A Level Programme

Chemistry There are three facets to the Chemistry preparation for A Level course: Core Skills – This aspect of the course will focus on helping you to practice and refine the skills that will be important for success post-GCSE. These will include, formula and equation writing and practical and numerical skills.

Green Chemistry – A topic from the pre-2015 specification. Green Chemistry was unfortunately removed from A-level courses, despite being a really interesting and topical area of Chemistry. We are taking this opportunity to revive it, and to give you experience of some A Level qualification material.

Project: Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry – The first two facets of the course will be covered during lessons. This part of the course is chosen as a unit for independent study. Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry is an important part of the A Level specification but this online module goes beyond what you would learn at A Level.

Hopefully it will set you up with a deeper understanding of this fundamental concept.

Lesson Outline: Week 1: Core Skills – We will focus on writing equations and formulae, which is an absolutely fundamental skill in Chemistry. You’re probably already pretty good at it but we’ll aim to test you with some challenging extension tasks.

Green Chemistry – Your introduction to Green Chemistry will concentrate on anthropogenic climate change and carbon footprint.

Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry – This part of the course is intended to be self-directed; however, we would recommend that you at least work through the first section on example mechanisms.

Week 2: Walking the Line – Immersive landscape drawing Core Skills – In the second week of skills practice, we will be looking at practical chemistry and learning about how to work safely and accurately in the laboratory.

Green Chemistry – The chemistry of ozone layer depletion will be our area of interest in week 2. We will bring this topic up-to-date by looking at recent research in the field.

Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry – To keep on track with this part of the course, you should finish working through the ‘Core Background’ section this week.

8