Acid Base Theory

November 4, 2019

I’m just about to start teaching the acids and bases topic to my students. Acids and bases are interesting compounds because the terms ‘acid’ and ‘base’ are just labels we have given to explain different types of reactions. The topic always starts with an introduction...

Equilibria part 2

July 8, 2019

Last month I ran over the basics of equilibria. The rationale for this was that I felt that it was a part of the course that had been poorly answered in the recent IB May examinations. I do need to stress that this is my own personal opinion and not that of the IB....

Forwards, backwards, left or right? – Equilibria Part 1

July 5, 2019

There were a few questions on equilibria in this year’s May exams. As a teacher I felt that students didn’t perform very well on these questions (I have no evidence for this apart from conversations with a very small number of students who sat the exams) so thought...

Chernobyl

July 1, 2019

I’m half way through watching the new HBO / Sky miniseries Chernobyl. Have you seen it? Here in the UK it has received some great reviews with some critics claiming it is the best TV series ever produced. Chernobyl, as you probably know was a nuclear power station in...

Get it right – Electrochemical Cells

June 26, 2019

This aim of this blog post is to equip you with an aid memoir – something you can copy, paste, edit and print out to aid your revision. The reasoning behind this post is from my experience as an examiner. In my opinion (and this may not be one shared by the IB)...

Caffeine

June 14, 2019

We all love our caffeine hit in the morning, but what is this magic ‘energy’ giving substance and is it actually good for us? The IUPAC name for caffeine is 1,3,7-Trimethylpurine-2,6-dione and the molecule has the following structure: By Vaccinationist – Own...