Introduction to teaching ideas The notes included here are intended to provide outline ideas for ways in which you might cover the Cambridge IGCSE Chemistry syllabus with your students. They are not intended to provide a scheme of work or lesson plans. There are several different ways in which the ideas and content of the syllabus can be covered, and the sequence and depth of treatment needs to be tailored to the students’ prior experience and the school’s context. Examples of schemes of work for this and similar courses can be found on the University of Cambridge International Examinations Teacher Support website (http://www.cie.org.uk/profiles/teachers). These schemes do suggest activities that can be used to teach various topics. Remember that a full scheme of work needs to be a ‘living’ document, continuously evaluated and modified as the course evolves. Included on this resource, and on the Coursebook CD-ROM, are tables linking the chapter content of the Coursebook to the syllabus. However, it is most important to remember that chemistry is not just a body of knowledge to be learnt. The questions in the Coursebook, exercises in the Workbook and the worksheets supplied as part of this Teacher’s Resource provide many opportunities for students to develop and assess their learning and familiarity with the subject. However, there are other skills which need to be developed throughout the course that relate to chemistry as a science. Students need to become familiar with scientific method. They should be asked to make careful observations and record them, to display, analyse and interpret results, to evaluate the reliability of results and to plan their own experiments. The content of the final chapter of the Coursebook, exercises in the Workbook and particularly the practical Activities featured in the Coursebook provide many opportunities for developing these skills, and you will certainly also like to add some of your own. Though not exhaustive, we have tried to suggest areas where ideas can be found. In particular, we have included some reference to the use of microscale chemistry and data-logging techniques, both areas that are developing rapidly worldwide. Throughout the Activities and Workbook Exercises we have suggested means for both student self-assessment and teacher evaluation of the development of various practical skills. The notes for each chapter begin with a table suggesting a possible way of breaking up the material to be covered into a number of topics based on the different sections in each chapter. The number of periods suggested for each topic is probably a minimum, and most teachers are likely to want to spend more time than this on many topics. For each topic area, relevant resources in the Coursebook, Workbook and worksheets are listed together with external references to some useful websites. These websites are all active at the time of writing and likely to continue to be so. Outline descriptions of what might be included in each of these lessons are then given. These are no more than suggestions, and they are not comprehensive. You may like to use all of them, some of them or none of them! There is also a list of some of the most common student misunderstandings and misconceptions that are met in teaching the course, and some suggestions for tasks that could be set for homework. Revision checklists relating to the learning outcomes for each chapter, and to these teaching ideas, are provided on the Coursebook CD-ROM. Summaries linking the learning outcomes for each chapter to the sections of the syllabus they relate to are also included on this and the Coursebook CD-ROM. Although the teaching ideas are grouped and ordered by chapter, it is not necessary for the sequence of concepts presented in the Coursebook to be followed exactly. Indeed, teachers are encouraged to present the topics in an order that they feel best suits their class. One possible different teaching sequence for the overall course is shown in Figure 1. The sequence is depicted as a spiral to emphasise that certain topics build on others and the ideas can be revisited, introducing more complex ideas and examples, as the course progresses. The contents of the notes included are simply suggestions, some of which you might like to incorporate into your lessons.
Original material © Cambridge University Press 2014 © Cambridge University Press 2014 IGCSE Chemistry
Introduction to teaching ideas
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