Chemistry 101 {Review}

This is my last review for the Homeschool Review Crew and what a product to end on!  As you all know, Thomas is taking an IGCSE in Chemistry next June, so I begged to be on this review.  I kind of had a feeling it would be a good fit, and boy was I right!  Chemistry 101 from The 101 Series is a fabulous Christian view of high school chemistry, starting from the end of alchemy in history and postulating what might be the future of chemistry in the years to come:

What is Chemistry 101?

As its name suggests, this is a complete chemistry course, running for a little under 11 hours.  That is 11 hours of solid, yet very interesting Chemistry tutoring, all from the comfort of your living room 🙂  It covers an enormous amount, all in the context of God’s Kingdom:

It was the perfect supplement to Thomas’ study of IGCSE Chemistry, covering pretty much the entire syllabus in a very accessible way.  In fact after the first few viewings, I decided that we should all watch it as a family.  My older girls are not taking any science but I still felt it would be a useful introduction to the subject, even if they only watched the dvds and nothing else.  These are such well done DVDs which suited us particularly well because, in many ways, they tell the story of science through its players:

and through the inventions that science has given us over the years, that we might otherwise take for granted:

But this course contains so much more than just the dvds.  For starters there is the Course Accreditation Program, for use for those who wish to use this as a credited high school course.  This booklet contains a ‘Getting Started’ section, which goes into detail about how to make the most of the course, including:

• Planning
• Notes about the Guide book and how to print it
• How to print and use the huge three spread page of the periodic table
• How to create a Chemistry 101 scrapbook/notebook
• Introducing the list of items required for each section
• Watching the film and the importance of discussing what you have seen
• Information about the labs and the 200 word reports required for the labs
• The importance of the student explaining what they have learnt to the parent before getting it signed off

The guidebook is basically a written reproduction of the lessons…

…which also contain a side bar with extra tidbits of information; text boxes which include extra biographical information and questions for extra discussion and/or deeper thinking and footnotes which complement everything on the sheet offering references and further study.  At the end of each section is a quiz based on all that has been learnt:

The labs use everyday chemicals found around the house, so should be incredibly easy to get hold of.  All in all, this chemistry course has everything a young (and old) science student could wish for.

How Did We Use Chemistry 101?

Thomas is already doing an IGCSE course in Chemistry and I thought these videos would be excellent supplementary material for him.  He watched approximately one section per week.  He will have finished his IGCSE course by Christmas and he has enjoyed the dvd’s enough to go through them all over again in the new year, this time doing the experiments, and maybe even the quizzes 🙂

What Did We Think of Chemistry 101?

We LOVED this curriculum.  I think it is very well done from the dvds to the labs to the quizzes.  It is a full on course and yet somehow was accessible and understandable for my eight year old (who is ALL about the science).  For Thomas though it was literally a perfect complement to the course he is working his way through at the moment.  I am over the moon with all he is learning and the videos put all the dry text of his IGCSE course into a wonderfully bright and interesting context.  It has not ever been a problem getting him to watch the dvds and he would often choose to watch the dvds instead of completing his course.  And who am I to argue?  He is clearly learning using the dvds and it is in an easy effortless way.  I truly believe these dvds will help him to achieve the grade he wishes to achieve in his exam next June.  Thank you so much Series 101 for giving me the opportunity to review this wonderful product 🙂

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Further Science Courses From The 101 Series

The 101 Series also produces a Physics 101 course and a Biology 101 course.  We are all reviewing different courses, so if you are interested in finding out what the rest of the review crew thought of all three science courses do click on the graphic below: