Is Chemistry Required in High School in Colorado?
Chemistry is not specifically a state-level required course for high school students in Colorado. Rather, local districts are allowed a significant amount of flexibility to set their own graduation criteria and curriculum from a menu of options. However, each school district sets its own standards for graduation. Some schools may opt to have chemistry as a targeted subject, but many allow Physical Sciences with broad chemistry topics covered according to the state’s high school science education standards. Colorado Physical Science curriculum requirements:
PS1 Matter and Its Interactions
Students know and understand common properties, forms, and changes in matter and energy. Prepared graduates can use the full range of science and engineering practices to make sense of natural phenomena and solve problems that require understanding structure, properties, and interactions of matter.
Grade Level Expectations:
The sub-atomic structural model and interactions between electric charges at the atomic scale can be used to explain the structure and interactions of matter.
Chemical processes, their rates, their outcomes, and whether or not energy is stored or released can be understood in terms of collisions of molecules, rearrangement of atoms, and changes in energy as determined by the properties of elements involved.
The strong nuclear interaction provides the primary force that holds nuclei together. Nuclear processes including fusion, fission, and radioactive decays of unstable nuclei involve changes in nuclear binding energies.
Evidence Outcomes Students Can:
- Use the periodic table as a model to predict the relative properties of elements based on the patterns of electrons in the outermost energy levels of atoms. (HS-PS1-1)(Clarification Statement: Examples of properties that could be predicted from patterns could include reactivity of metals, types of bonds formed, numbers of bonds formed, and reactions with oxygen.) (Boundary Statement: Limited to main group elements. Does not include quantitative understanding of ionization energy beyond relative trends.)
- Plan and conduct an investigation to gather evidence to compare the structure of substances at the bulk scale to infer the strength of electrical forces between particles. (HS-PS1-3)(Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on understanding the difference intermolecular versus intramolecular forces and the strengths of forces between particles but not naming specific intermolecular forces, such as dipole-dipole. Examples of particles could include ions, atoms, molecules, and networked materials, such as graphite. Examples of bulk properties of substances could include the melting point and boiling point, vapor pressure, and surface tension.) (Boundary Statement: Does not include Raoult’s law calculations of vapor pressure or the names, shapes, or bond angles associated with VSEPR theory.)
- Develop a model to illustrate that the release or absorption of energy from a chemical reaction system depends upon the changes in total bond energy. (HS-PS1-4) (Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the idea that a chemical reaction is a system that affects the energy change. Examples of models could include molecular-level drawings and diagrams of reactions, graphs showing the relative energies of reactants and products, and representations showing energy is conserved.) (Boundary Statement: Does not include calculating the total bond energy changes during a chemical reaction from the bond energies of reactants and products.)
- Construct and revise an explanation for the outcome of a simple chemical reaction based on the outermost electron states of atoms, trends in the periodic table, and knowledge of the patterns of chemical properties. (HSPS1-2) (Clarification Statement: Examples of chemical reactions could include the reaction of sodium and chlorine, of carbon and oxygen, or of carbon and hydrogen.) (Boundary Statement: Limited to chemical reactions involving main group elements and combustion reactions).
- Develop a model to illustrate that the release or absorption of energy from a chemical reaction system depends upon the changes in total bond energy. (HS-PS1-4) (Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the idea that a chemical reaction is a system that affects the energy change. Examples of models could include molecular-level drawings and diagrams of reactions, graphs showing the relative energies of reactants and products, and representations showing energy is conserved.) (Boundary Statement: Does not include calculating the total bond energy changes during a chemical reaction from the bond energies of reactants and products.)
- Apply scientific principles and evidence to provide an explanation about the effects of changing the temperature or concentration of the reacting particles on the rate at which a reaction occurs. (HS-PS1-5) (Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on student reasoning that focuses on the number and energy of collisions between molecules.) (Boundary Statement: Limited to simple reactions in which there are only two reactants; evidence from temperature, concentration, and rate data; and qualitative relationships between rate and temperature.)
- Define the design of a chemical system by specifying a change in conditions that would produce increased amounts of products at equilibrium. (HS-PS1- 6) (Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the application of Le Chatlier’s Principle and on refining designs of chemical reaction systems, including descriptions of the connection between changes made at the macroscopic level and what happens at the molecular level. Examples of designs could include different ways to increase product formation including adding reactants or removing products.) (Boundary Statement: Limited to specifying the change in only one variable at a time. Does not include calculating equilibrium constants and concentrations.)
- Use mathematical representations to support the claim that atoms, and therefore mass, are conserved during a chemical reaction. (HS-PS1-7) (Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on using mathematical ideas to communicate the proportional relationships between masses of atoms in the reactants and the products, and the translation of these relationships to the macroscopic scale using the mole as the conversion from the atomic to the macroscopic scale. Emphasis is on assessing students’ use of mathematical thinking and not on memorization and rote application of problem-solving techniques.) (Boundary Statement: Does not include complex chemical reactions or calculations involving limiting and excess reactants.)
- Develop models to illustrate the changes in the composition of the nucleus of the atom and the energy released during the processes of fission, fusion, and radioactive decay. (HS-PS1-8) (Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on simple qualitative models, such as pictures or diagrams and on the scale of energy released in nuclear processes relative to other kinds of transformations. Quantitative models for radioactive decay should not require mathematical manipulations of an exponential equation.) (Boundary Statement: Does not include quantitative calculation of energy released. Limited to alpha, beta, and gamma radioactive decays.)