Experience Chemistry® – High School Chemistry Curriculum

Experience Chemistry® is a next generation high school chemistry program that puts the focus on the student experience. This modern program implements a learning model that organizes learning around phenomena giving students an authentic, real-world experience.

Experience Chemistry® includes a variety of hands-on and digital activities designed to reach every learner. Students complete hands-on inquiry labs, virtual labs, simulations, data analysis, claim-evidence reasoning exercises and more on their sensemaking journey. An assessment package with formative, summative, performance-based assessments provide opportunity for students to demonstrate their understanding three dimensionally. Instructors have access to a robust support package with print and digital resources designed to streamline classroom management.

Take an Interactive Tour of Experience Chemistry®.

The program components includes:

Experience Chemistry digital courseware on Savvas Realize™ includes robust digital tools that give teachers flexibility to use a digital, print, or blended format in their classrooms. Teachers can customize the program to rearrange content, upload their own content, add links to online media, and edit resources and assessments. Program-specific resources, flexible agnostic resources, and assessments are available in one location for easy lesson planning and presentation.

Teacher Guide - Available in digital and print, the Teacher Guide provides robust lesson planners based on the 5E learning model, explicit directions and explanations for introducing phenomena, instructional strategies support students as they make sense of the phenomena, and classroom modifications to adjust instruction based on the diverse student needs, skills, and interests in their classroom.

Student Experience Notebook - Experience Chemistry® transforms the traditional textbook into a modern interactive notebook that students will actually use. With Experience Chemistry®, students DO chemistry first, by interacting with phenomena and completing hands-on and virtual inquiry activities. Then students complete readings, formative assessments, and math practice in their Student Experience Notebook.

Flinn Scientific Lab Kits - Flinn Scientific is our partner for the Experience Chemistry® curriculum. Optional lab kits are available for each program. Every Flinn Scientific kit supports a classroom of approximately 30 students. Refill kits are also available.

Making sense of phenomena drives student learning throughout Experience Chemistry®. This program engages students directly in different examples of phenomena that relate to authentic real-world scenarios.

Every Storyline (the unit of instruction) begins with an Anchoring Phenomenon — a real-world science phenomenon sparks curiosity as students make observations and ask questions. The anchoring phenomenon gives students purpose as they engage in activities to make sense of this phenomenon and connect the chemistry concepts through a unique, unifying occurrence. Throughout the Storyline, students repeatedly revisit the anchoring phenomenon question and discuss the real-world impact of the problem as they propose solutions – thus building understanding over time. By the end of the storyline, students are able to explain the anchoring phenomenon. Additionally, in each Storyline there are two opportunities for students to be involved in designing solutions to problems. At the Storyline level there is a Problem-based Learning Experience that spans several Investigations.

A real-world Investigative Phenomenon video launches every Investigation (chapter level organization). The Investigative Phenomenon opens different lines of inquiry related to the Anchoring Phenomenon. Students again ask questions, make observations, and track their developing understanding of the phenomenon in Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) or Modeling exercises. At the end of each Experience students revisit their CER worksheet in a sense-making exercise to review, revise or add to their explanation of how the phenomenon occurs – thus building understanding over time. At the end of the Investigation, students once again revisit and make sense of the phenomena by drawing connections.

The lessons, called Experiences, are where students encounter Everyday Phenomena through Flinn Scientific Inquiry Labs, virtual simulations, digital interactivities, videos, animations, Engineering Design Challenges, teacher demonstrations, modeling activities, performance-based assessments, data analysis activities, peer review and more. This wide variety of real-world experiences builds student understanding using DCIs, CCCs, and SEPs by interacting with phenomena over time.

The instructional model is based on research conducted by the Instructional Leadership for Science Practices (ILSP), a National Science Foundation project whose goal was to develop tools that support educators in the integration of the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) along with the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Per ILSP’s framework, the science and engineering practices provide a pathway for students to engage sequentially in the processes of investigation, sense-making, and critique.

This approach has been adapted by incorporating BSCS 5E Model to round out the five-stage learning progression: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate. The role of phenomena has been intensified in the pedagogy in order to address the need for phenomenon-based learning opportunities as outlined in the NGSS.

Experience Chemistry® digital courseware on Savvas Realize™ includes robust digital tools that give teachers flexibility to use a digital, print, or blended format in their classrooms. Teachers can customize the program to rearrange content, upload their own content, add links to online media, and edit resources and assessments.

Program-specific resources, flexible agnostic resources, and assessments are available in one location for easy lesson planning and presentation. Click here to sign up for a demo of Experience Chemistry®.

Flinn Scientific is our partner for the Experience Chemistry curriculum. Optional lab kits are available for each program. Every Flinn Scientific kit supports a classroom of approximately 30 students. Refill kits are also available.

Storyline 1: Atoms, Elements, and Molecules

Investigation 1: Atomic Structure

Experience 1.1 The Particle Nature of Matter
Experience 1.2 Modeling Atoms
Experience 1.3 Atomic Emission Spectra and the Bohr Model
Experience 1.4 Modern Atomic Theory
Experience 1.5 Electrons in Atoms

Investigation 2: The Periodic Table
Experience 2.1 The Periodic Table: An Overview
Experience 2.2 The Periodic Table and Atomic Structure
Experience 2.3 Periodic Trends

Investigation 3: Chemical Bonding
Experience 3.1 Ionic Bonds
Experience 3.2 Metallic Bonds
Experience 3.3 Covalent Bonds
Experience 3.4 Intermolecular Attractions
Experience 3.5 Names and Formulas of Compounds

Storyline 2: Understanding Chemical Reactions

Investigation 4: Physical Properties of Materials
Experience 4.1 States of Matter
Experience 4.2 Modeling Phase Changes
Experience 4.3 Comparing Ionic and Molecular Compounds
Experience 4.4 Comparing Metals and Nonmetals
Experience 4.5 Water and Aqueous Systems
Experience 4.6 Properties of Solutions

Investigation 5: Chemical Quantities
Experience 5.1 The Mole Concept
Experience 5.2 Molar Relationships
Experience 5.3 Percent Composition and Empirical Formula

Experience 5.4 Concentrations of Solutions
Investigation 6: Chemical Reactions
Experience 6.1 Modeling Chemical Reactions
Experience 6.2 Predicting Outcomes of Reactions
Experience 6.3 Reactions in Aqueous Solution

Investigation 7: Stoichiometry
Experience 7.1 Quantifying Reactants and Products
Experience 7.2 Chemical Calculations
Experience 7.3 Limiting Reagent and Percent Yield
Investigation 8: Thermochemistry
Experience 8.1 Energy in Chemical Bonds
Experience 8.2 Heats of Formation and Reaction
Experience 8.3 Heat in Changes of State

Storyline 3: The Chemistry of Climate Change

Investigation 9: The Behavior of Gases
Experience 9.1 Properties of Gases
Experience 9.2 The Gas Laws
Experience 9.3 Ideal Gases
Experience 9.4 Gases in Earth's Atmosphere

Investigation 10: Weather and Climate
Experience 10.1 Earth's Surface Systems
Experience 10.2 Water and Energy in the Atmosphere
Experience 10.3 Atmospheric System Feedbacks
Experience 10.4 Long-Term Climate Factors
Experience 10.5 Short-Term Climate Factors

Investigation 11: Global Climate Change
Experience 11.1 The Chemistry of Earth's Atmosphere
Experience 11.2 Evidence of Climate Change
Experience 11.3 Anthropogenic Carbon Emissions
Experience 11.4 Climate Models
Experience 11.5 Consequences of Climate Change
Experience 11.6 Response to Climate Change

Storyline 4: The Dynamics of Chemical Reactions and Ocean Acidification

Investigation 12: Reaction Rates and Equilibrium
Experience 12.1 Rates of Reaction
Experience 12.2 The Progress of Chemical Reactions
Experience 12.3 Reversible Reactions and Equilibrium
Experience 12.4 Free Energy and Entropy

Investigation 13: Acids-Base Equilibria
Experience 13.1 Acids, Bases, and Salts
Experience 13.2 Strong and Weak Acids and Bases
Experience 13.3 Reactions of Acids and Bases
Experience 13.4 Buffered Solutions

Investigation 14: Ocean Acidification
Experience 14.1 Ocean pH Levels
Experience 14.2 Earth's Ocean as a Carbon Sink
Experience 14.3 Oceans and Climate Change
Experience 14.4 Consequences of Ocean Acidification

Storyline 5: Industrial Applications

Investigation15: Oxidation-Reduction Reactions
Experience 15.1 Oxidation vs. Reduction
Experience 15.2 Modeling and Predicting Outcomes of Redox Reactions
Experience 15.3 Electrochemical Cells

Investigation 16: Organic Chemistry
Experience 16.1 Hydrocarbons
Experience 16.2 Functional Groups
Experience 16.3 Polymers Investigation 17: Nuclear Processes
Experience 17.1 Radioactivity and Half-Life
Experience 17.2 Fission and Fusion
Experience 17.3 Nuclear Technologies

Investigation 18: Green Chemistry
Experience 18.1 Industrial Chemicals
Experience 18.2 Principles of Green Chemistry
Experience 18.3 Designing Sustainable Processes