Is Chemistry Required in High School in Minnesota?
Minnesota law states that high school students have a choice to fulfill the requirements for 3 Science credits in order to graduate high school.
- One Credit of Biology is Required
- At Least One Other Credit Must Come from Physics, Chemistry, or a Career and Technical Education (CTE) Course that meets the standards found in the Chemistry or Physics requirements.
Minnesota High School Chemistry Standards suggest that students will explore topics that can help them better understand and explain:
The Nature of Science and Engineering
- Explain the political, societal, economic and environmental impact of chemical products and technologies. For example: Pollution effects, atmospheric changes, petroleum products, material use, or waste disposal.
- Use significant figures and an understanding of accuracy and precision in scientific measurements to determine and express the uncertainty of a result.
Matter
- Explain the relationship of an element’s position on the periodic table to its atomic number and electron configuration.
- Identify and compare trends on the periodic table, including reactivity and relative sizes of atoms and ions; use the trends to explain the properties of subgroups, including metals, non-metals, alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, halogens and noble gases.
- Chemical and physical properties of matter result from the ability of atoms to form bonds. Explain how elements combine to form compounds through ionic and covalent bonding.
- Compare and contrast the structure, properties and uses of organic compounds, such as hydrocarbons, alcohols, sugars, fats and proteins.
- Use IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) nomenclature to write chemical formulas and name molecular and ionic compounds, including those that contain polyatomic ions.
- Determine the molar mass of a compound from its chemical formula and a table of atomic masses; convert the mass of a molecular substance to moles, number of particles, or volume of gas at standard temperature and pressure.
- Determine percent composition, empirical formulas and molecular formulas of simple compounds.
- Describe the dynamic process by which solutes dissolve in solvents, and calculate concentrations, including percent concentration, molarity and parts per million.
- Explain the role of solubility of solids, liquids and gases in natural and designed systems. For example: The presence of heavy metals in water and the atmosphere. Another example: Development and use of alloys.
- Classify chemical reactions as double replacement, single replacement, synthesis, decomposition or combustion.
- Use solubility and activity of ions to determine whether a double replacement or single replacement reaction will occur.
- Relate the properties of acids and bases to the ions they contain and predict the products of an acid-base reaction.
- Balance chemical equations by applying the laws of conservation of mass and constant composition.
- Use the law of conservation of mass to describe and calculate relationships in a chemical reaction, including molarity, mole/mass relationships, mass/volume relations, limiting reactants and percent yield.
- Describe the factors that affect the rate of a chemical reaction, including temperature, pressure, mixing, concentration, particle size, surface area and catalyst.
- Recognize that some chemical reactions are reversible and that not all chemical reactions go to completion.
- Use kinetic molecular theory to explain how changes in energy content affect the state of matter (solid, liquid and gaseous phases).
- Use the kinetic molecular theory to explain the behavior of gases and the relationship among temperature, pressure, volume and the number of particles.
Can I Take AP Chemistry in High School in Minnesota?
Minnesota students may be eligible to take classes at a college or university as a high school junior or senior through the Postsecondary Enrollment Options program. If you want to do this, careful planning in ninth and tenth grade is important. Your high school may participate in Advanced Placement, College in the Schools, or International Baccalaureate which allows you to earn both high school and possibly college credit.