Washington-Lee HS 2013-2014
AP Chemistry Syllabus
Ms Stacy Brasfield, Instructor
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Room 4005
(703)228-6200
Stacy.Brasfield AT apsva DOT us
Course Objectives
AP Chemistry is a college level course designed to develop an in-depth understanding of the major
areas of chemistry. The course components are based on the curriculum guides provided by the
College Board.
 The course includes the following general content areas:

Structure of Matter (Atomic theory and atomic structure. Chemical Bonding)
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States of Matter (Gases, liquids and solids. Solutions.)

Reactions (Reaction Types, Stoichiometry, Equilibrium, Kinetics, Thermodynamics,
Nuclear.)

Descriptive Chemistry (Relationships in the periodic table, Qualitative Analysis)

Laboratory
 The course emphasizes chemical calculations and the mathematic formulation of principles,
including the application of significant figures, precision of measured values, the use of
logarithmic and exponential relationships, and critical analysis of the reasonableness of
results. Examples of types of calculation problems are
 Percentage composition
 Empirical & Molecular formulas from experimental data
 Molar masses from gas density, freezing point & boiling point measurements
 Gas Laws, including the ideal gas law, Dalton’s law & Graham’s law
 Stoichiometric relations using the concept of the mole; titration calculations
 Mole fractions, molar and molal solution concentrations
 Faraday’s law of electrolysis
 Equilibrium constants and their applications, including simultaneous equilibria
 Standard electrode potentials and their use; Nernst equation
 Thermodynamic & thermochemical calculations
 Kinetics calculations
 The course is a laboratory course. In the laboratory, students will
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develop and practice laboratory techniques, such as measurement, distillation,
filtration, titration, and making solutions.
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engage in designing experiments, choosing and isolating variables and developing
procedures.
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practice collecting and organizing qualitative and quantitative data,
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develop skills in data manipulation and analysis including graphing, analysis of
uncertainty and reliability, and error analysis
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develop higher-level communication and collaboration skills by working with other
students in the laboratory and through the writing of laboratory reports
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practice proper laboratory safety and waste handling procedures
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have a “hands-on” experience to discover chemical principles
learn to communicate clearly with laboratory reports. All lab reports are saved in a
lab portfolio.
Additional Note: The AP Chemistry test consists of two parts, worth 50% each. Part One consists
entirely of multiple choice questions and calculations that are performed without a calculator. Part
Two consists entirely of free response questions. Calculator use is permitted with a portion of Part
Two. To help students score well on this test, test taking strategies, including mental math strategies
are emphasized and reinforced throughout this course.
Prerequisites
Successful completion of Intensified Chemistry or permission of the instructor must precede this
course.
Requirements
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This course is a double course – 2 consecutive classes which meet every school day for 90
minutes. Students receive 2 credits upon successful completion of the course.
The course includes a laboratory component comparable to college-level chemistry laboratories.
The equivalent of one double period per week is spent engaged in laboratory work. Each student
will complete a laboratory portfolio of lab reports. Students are required to prepare adequately
for laboratory work for the safety of themselves and others. Students who practice unsafe
laboratory practices will not be permitted to continue working in the laboratory.
Students are required to take the AP Chemistry exam that is administered in May. According to
APS policy, students who fail to take the official exam will lose the GPA quality point for the
course.
Students are required to do an independent project. Seniors who are part of Senior Experience
may be exempted from this requirement.
Teaching Strategies/Conceptual Approaches
1)
Promote a yearning for learning.
2)
3)
4)
To tap into a student’s natural curiosity, the instructor poses timely questions. The questions
“whet the students’ appetite” for learning by linking new ideas to prior learning. They bring
to light misconceptions, and they encourage students to develop critical thinking skills by
taking intellectual leaps into uncharted learning territory.
Develop reasoning skills.
Since students remember things that they find meaningful, great emphasis is placed on
learning for meaning. Labs and class work activities use higher-level questioning to help
students make sense of chemical concepts through use of particle level explanations.
Encourage and support intellectual risk taking.
By working together collaboratively in small groups, students can test out their ideas in a
supportive, emotionally safe climate
Practice, practice, practice with problems from the AP Chemistry Released Tests
These practice sessions take place both during class and after class. Students practice
answering free response questions on Unit Assignments, and they practice answering
multiple choice questions on the online Practice tests. Students explain how to solve
problems in class and the teacher explains how the problems are graded on the AP Test.
5)
6)
7)
Write to learn and learn to write.
Writing lab reports and responses to questions requires that students organize and make
sense of their ideas. As they put their thoughts on paper they learn how to complete the
thought, and they recognize weaknesses in their thinking. To promote better written work,
time is built into the schedule for lab groups to meet again to peer edit their papers before
the submission deadline. Students can share ideas, but all lab work must be an original
composition.
Students can learn from their mistakes.
They are given two weeks after each test to make test corrections. To “correct” an answer,
students must explain in writing why the correct answer is the correct answer. There must be
enough detail that it would make sense to a fellow student.
Hands-on learning is the most memorable.
Labs convey and cement the chemical principles presented in lectures and demonstrations.
They make visual the language of chemistry. Different labs are assigned for different reasons;
some are summative, some formative. The purpose and requirements of each laboratory are
summarized on the lab assignment handout. Some lab reports are “complete lab reports”;
others require fewer sections. Students maintain a lab portfolio of their completed lab
reports.
AP Chemistry Resources
Text: Ebbing & Gammon, General Chemistry, 9th Ed., 2009, Houghton Mifflin Co., NY
Online Classroom: Online practice assignments, additional copies of class handouts, weekly class
calendars and student grades are posted at http://apsva.blackboard.com
Study Guide: Neuss, Geoff. Chemistry for the IB Diploma. Oxford Press, 2007
Labs are taken from several sources. Often they are modified to make them open-ended
investigation. Several labs are student-designed.
Class Policies
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Course Supplies: Students need a scientific calculator, a binder for class notes and assignments,
pens and pencils and a dedicated lab book. The lab book can be a composition book, a sturdy
spiral graph paper notebook or a separate lab binder.
Attendance: Good attendance is critically important. If a student must be absent, they are
responsible for all work missed. Students can stay informed of assignments either by checking
the class calendar or by calling/emailing the teacher at school. Since most work is assigned well
in advance, missed work is due immediately upon return from the absence, within reason.
Students should be ready to take a missed test or make up a missed lab on the day that they
return to school whenever possible. In extreme cases, other arrangements can be negotiated with
the instructor. The student must keep in mind that the course is cumulative, and it moves
quickly, so it is not in their best interest to let the work pile up. If the absence is unexcused, the
missed assignment should be made up, but it may not count for credit.
Late work: Students will be given ample time to do assigned work so they can do excellent,
thoughtful work. Assignments are scheduled well in advance of the due date. That being said,
the work is more meaningful for students if it is completed in a timely fashion in context with
the unit, so the due dates are assigned for the maximum learning benefit of the student.
o
Lab reports that are turned in late will be graded with a late grade penalty until the final
deadline, after which the lab report will receive no points.
Unit Assignments are take-home, open-note quizzes with free response questions. The
purpose of the Unit Assignment is to give the students meaningful experience with free
response questions, which is 50% of the AP Chemistry exam. The Unit Assignments are
evaluated during class time for maximum feedback potential, so there will be no points
awarded to students who turn in these assignments after they are evaluated in class.
o
Blackboard Practice tests have a hard deadline since they must be completed the night
prior to the unit test. No points are awarded for Bb Practice Tests completed after the
corresponding test.
o
Test corrections must be completed within 10 school days of the date that the tests are
returned to the class. Test corrections work must be supervised by a science teacher.
Collaboration vs. Cheating: Students are encouraged to work together in this class. Copying work,
however, is not permitted. When students collaborate on laboratories, class work and homework,
they are expected to record their work in their own words and design their own method for
recording, organizing and displaying data even when working with others in a group. It is a
violation of the honor code to use resources without giving proper credit, to pass off another’s
work as one’s own work or to give or to receive help on a test. All honor code violations will be
processed according to the W-L regulations as set forth in the handbook.
I am available for extra help during General’s Period, and both lunches on W days. Ms Fretts
has a lunch lab for all science students on L days, both lunches.
o
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Grading Policy: Student grades reflect student achievement and not student behavior.
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Quarterly grades are calculated through the accumulation of summative and formative
assessments, specifically laboratory work, Unit Assignments, Blackboard practice tests, quizzes,
tests, exams (midterm, and mock exams), class participation and homework.
Quarter grades are computed using a point system. Tests are 100 points, labs and Unit
Assignments vary from 10 to 50 points, Blackboard practice tests vary from 10 to 30 points.
According to APS policy, homework will not exceed 15% of any quarter grade. The percentage
of the total points determines the letter grade, according to the chart below.
Quarterly grades will round up to the nearest 1%.
Quarterly tests and mid-terms are calculated into the quarter grade.
The Final Exam will count for a maximum of 20%, and the balance of the final grade for the
year is equally divided across the four quarterly grades. Students who take the AP Exam, as
required by APS policy, will be exempt from the W-L AP Chemistry Final Exam, and their final
grade for the year will be an average of the four quarter grades.
The College Board determines the AP Chemistry grade, based on the AP Chemistry test results
alone.
GRADING SCALE
Letter Grade
A
B+
B
C+
C
D+
D
E
Percentages
Quality Points
AP & IB
Quality Points
90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98, 99, 100
87, 88, 89
80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86
77, 78, 79
70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76
67, 68, 69
60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66
0 – 59
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.0
5.0
4.5
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
0.0
Units of Study and Major Assignments:
Summer Assignment: A review of high school chemistry
As this is a second year course, students should have a sound previous knowledge of
 Molar relationships
 Gas laws
 Electronic structure
 Properties of solutions
 History of Atomic Theory
 Nuclear chemistry
 Periodicity
 Laboratory practices and experimental
design
 Bonding and Intermolecular Forces
 Molecular geometry
This course will take full advantage of this previous knowledge, because although these topics will
be covered again in detail, we will go over them quickly.
Unit 1: Chemistry Fundamentals: Review of 1st Year Chemistry (con’t) & Experimental Design
Lab safety, significant figures and measurement uncertainty, dimensional analysis, separation/
purification techniques, experimental design and data analysis. Writing formulas, computing
oxidation states, nomenclature
Major Assignments:
 Unit Assignment
 Unit 1 Test (Ch 1 & 2)
 Labs #1 - 5
Unit 2: Stoichiometry & Reaction Types
The mole, molar mass, molecular and empirical formulas, molar volume of gases, reaction types,
Stoichiometry of reactions, percent composition, limiting reactants, percent yield and solution
stoichiometry
Major Assignments:
 Unit Assignment
 Labs 6 - 7
 Unit 2 Test (Ch 3 & 4)
Unit 3: Behavior of Gases and Electronic Structure & the Periodic Table
Laws of Ideal Gases: Boyle’s Law, Charles’s Law, Guy-Lussac’s Law, Ideal Gas Law, Combined Gas
Law, Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures, Kinetic Molecular Theory of Gases: Interpretation of gas
laws on the basis of this theory, Avogadro’s hypothesis and the mole concept, Molar Volume at
STP, Dependence of kinetic energy of molecules on Kelvin Temperature, Deviations from ideal gas
laws. The history of atomic theory including Laws of Definite Composition and Multiple Proportion
and Conservation of Mass, Dalton’s theory, Rutherford’s Gold Foil experiment, the CR Tube
experiments, and the current model of the atom.
Major Assignments:
 Unit Assignment
 Labs 8 – 11
 Unit 3 Test (Ch 5, 7 & 8)
Unit 4: Calorimetry and Thermodynamics: Enthalpy, Entropy and Free Energy
Specific heat, calorimetry determinations, enthalpy of reactions, Hess’s law, heats of formation,
bond energies and heats of reactions, work, endothermic and exothermic reactions, entropy, Laws of
Thermodynamics, and Gibb’s Free Energy
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Major Assignments:
Unit Assignment
Lab 12
Unit 4 Test (Ch 6 & 18)
The Chemistry of Coastal Ecology: Environmental Water Quality factors and a Stream Study
Field Trip to local stream site (Lab 13)
Unit 5: Chemical Kinetics, Qualitative Analysis and Chemical Equilibrium
Reaction kinetics, rate law expressions, order of reactions, reaction mechanisms, rate constant,
reaction half-life, activation energy, catalysts, reaction intermediates and activated complexes.
Law of Mass Action, equilibrium expressions, calculations of K and equilibrium concentrations from
initial conditions, LeChatelier’s principle and how the equilibrium shifts with changes in
temperature, pressure and concentration.
Major Assignments:
 Unit Assignment
 Labs 14 – 17
 Unit 5 Test (Ch 12 - 14)
Midterm Exam
Unit 6: Acids and Bases and Aqueous Equilibria (Buffers, Ion Solubility)
pH, Ka and Kb expressions, titration, ionization, Kw, indicators, equivalence points, buffers,
Henderson-Hasselbach equation, Arrhenius, Bronsted-Lowry and Lewis definitions/theories,
structural aspects of ionization, salt hydrolysis, the pH of salts and Kspexpressions.
Major Assignments:
 Unit Assignment
 Labs 18-20
 Unit 6 Test (Ch 15 & 16)
Unit 7: Oxidation-Reduction Reactions, Electrochemistry, Nuclear Reactions and Nuclear
Energy
Oxidation and reduction, half cells and equations, galvanic and electrolytic cells, standard reduction
potentials, Nernst equation, Faraday’s law, writing and balancing redox equations.
Nuclear equations, half-life calculations, fission and fusion, nuclear energy and reactors, types of
nuclear decay, zone of stability and mass defect.
Societal issues of fuels and energies.
Major Assignments:
 Labs 21 – 23
 Electrochemistry Quiz
 Unit 7 Test (Ch 19 & 20)
Unit 8: Bonding & Intermolecular Forces, Molecular Geometry, and Complex Ions
Lewis structures, ionic bonding, covalent bonding, polarity, exceptions to octet rule, resonance,
VSEPR theory, molecular geometries, hybridization, molecular orbitals, diploe-dipole interactions,
dispersion forces, hydrogen bonding, network solids, complex ion formation
Major Assignments:
 Labs 24-27


Unit Assignment
Unit 8 Test (Ch 9-12, 17)
Unit 9: Organic Chemistry
Hydrocarbons, physical properties and reactions, nomenclature, general formulas, functional groups.
Major Assignments:
 Unit Assignment
 Labs 28 & 29
 Unit 9 Test (Ch 23)
Unit 10: Solutions (Colligative Properties, Redox Titration, Beer’s Law) and Descriptive
Chemistry
Electrolytes and nonelectrolytes, molarity vs. Molality, mole fraction, colligative properties, Raoult’s
law, Henry’s law, freezing point depression & boiling point elevation, osmotic pressure, vapor
pressure, changes of state and phase diagrams
Major Assignments:
 Labs 29 – 32
 Unit Assignment (Ch 12 & 22)
Course Review
Mock Exam/Final Exam
AP Exam
Independent Project
Laboratory Activities
The Instructor provides this schedule as a guideline, but it is not written in stone. Other laboratories may be
substituted, and timing may change due to availability of resources and field trip opportunities, and the needs and
interests of the class.
Month
Laboratory Investigation Title & Purpose
August
1. Investigating Solutions
To design an experiment involving solution properties
2-5 Resolution of Mixtures
To practice several laboratory techniques of separating mixtures:
Distillation, Filtration & Recrystallization, Paper Chromatography, and
Column (Liquid) Chromatography
6 Precipitation Reactions and Solubility Rules
To discover solubility rules and write net ionic equations for the
reactions that take place
7 Gravimetric Analysis of a Carbonate
To perform an analytical gravimetric determination of a carbonate.
To use mass and mole relationships in a chemical reaction.
8 Boyle’s Law
To empirically deduce Boyle’s law
9The Molar Volume of a Gas
To quantitatively determine the molar volume of a gas at STP using the
empirical data
Sept
Oct
Approx.
Lab Time
(hours)
2
6
2
3
1
2.5
Nov
TBD
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
10 Emission Spectrometry
A hands-on experience with simple spectroscopes and line spectra
11 Flame Tests
To learn and apply the basic principles of emission spectroscopy
12 Enthalpy of Solution
To determine the enthalpy change associated with 3 reactions and to
empirically verify Hess’s Law
13 Coastal Ecology
To investigate the environmental health of a rural aquatic ecosystem
using colorimetric & spectrophotometric analysis.
14 Reaction Rates
To determine the order and rate law of the iodine clock reaction with
respect to the iodate ion concentration.
15 From Reactions to Equations
The descriptive chemistry of 3 gases: Production reactions &
Verification of identity with splint tests
16 Qualitative Analysis of Anions
Wet chemistry analysis techniques of an unknown ion
17 LeChatelier's Principle
A hands-on experience with shifting equilibrium systems to validate
LeChatelier’s Principle
18 pH of Salts
To predict and verify the acid-base properties of salts
19 Acid-Base Titration
The titration with primary standard to standardize a NaOH solution and
then use it to quantitatively determine the molar mass of an unknown
solid acid or the percent composition of an unknown acid solution
20 Determination of Ka for an unknown weak acid
To use titration to produce a buffer solution and to determine the
equilibrium constant, Ka, of an unknown acid
21 Activity Series
To determine an electrochemical series of metals and nonmetals and
write the net ionic equations for the reactions
22 Corrosion of Iron
To qualitatively investigate the corrosion of iron and cathodic protection
23 Nuclear Decay Kinetics
To investigate the mathematical patterns of the first order kinetics of
nuclear decay
24 Models of Covalent Molecules
A hands-on inquiry experience with molecular bonding, geometries and
polarity
25 Hydrocarbons Activity
An inquiry experience with the patterns of alkanes, alkenes and alkynes
26 Polymer Synthesis
The synthesis and analysis of an organic polymer
27 Complex Ions Lab
The synthesis and analysis of coordination compounds of copper
28 Beer-Lambert Law
1
1
2
10
3
1.5
3
1.5
1
4
2
2
2
1.5
1.5
2
1
2.5
1.5
May
TBD
Using spectrophotometric techniques to investigate the concentration of
an unknown solution
29A Sequence of Copper Reactions
A 5-step series of reactions involving the compounds of copper that
demonstrates the characteristics of transition metal compounds.
30 Freezing Point Depression: Ice Cream
Possible Field Trips
A tour of the Secret Service forensics lab at the DC Headquarters
and/or
A visit to a local stream site
and/or
A tour of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History’s Gems, Minerals
and Rocks Exhibit
and/or
A tour of the National Museum of Medical History
2.5
1
*All laboratories are student run.
Detach and return to Ms Brasfield
I have received and read the 2013-2014 AP Chemistry class syllabus.
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Student printed name
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Date
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