Friday, August 5, 2011

Looking Back at Grade 11 Chemistry

Note: I took this course in grade 10

Overall grade 11 chemistry was an easy course— the marks were mostly based on quizzes and tests, and the course material really wasn't that difficult. As a result, I got a pretty good mark in it.

However, I wish the course was a bit harder and that the teacher covered more material in it.

From my memories, there were about twenty or thirty minutes of free time at the end of almost every chemistry class. In addition, there were probably more than 7 "free study periods," in which we could do whatever we wanted. I feel that we could have accomplished a lot more in the course if the teacher hadn't given us all this free time. Perhaps he could have taught us some of the grade 12 material, or gone deeper into each of the topics.

Nevertheless, I learned quite a lot of stuff in the class. I learned to name the most basic of the organic compounds, to do stoichiometric calculations, as well as to identify the various periodic trends. I also learned more about acids and bases, nuclear reactions, and significant digits. In addition, through the final project at which I failed, I learned about the most common ways in which cancer cells could resist cancer drugs. So it wasn't that I learned nothing from the course, just that I could have learnt a lot more.

Next up: Looking Back at Grade 10 History
Or, go back to intro and a list of all posts in my grade ten reflection series