I’ve always dreamed of being able to create my own Chemistry curriculum, not bound my specifications or national standards. And next year my dream is coming true for the first time in my eight years of teaching – WOOP!

Some bonuses that I am genuinely super excited about…

a) getting kids to understand concepts rather than memorising facts that they will never use again.

b) assessing students more creatively than simply an exam.

c) encouraging the scientist’s mindset (thanks – @louiebarnett123).

d) building great practical skills.

e) making explicit links between all the science disciplines

I’ve been asked to teach our Foundation to the International Baccalaureate (FIB) programme with the wonderful @GiddinsH and we are currently in the process of creating a conceptual and blended science curriculum from scratch (a mega big project!). This course is for students who arrive in Grade 10 and is designed to prepare students for the IB Diploma program in Grade 11. Whilst there are overarching goals to the program, the content to be taught, the order and the method of assessment is entirely up to us. YAY FREEDOM!

Challenges we’ve come across so far

Do we start with concepts or content?

Which concepts will be most useful to the students in IBDP?

Which practical skills will be most useful to students in IBDP?

What do we do with content that we want but doesn’t seem to link conceptually?

To be continued….