National Curriculum Framework for School Education

10.4.2 Chemistry
10.4.2.1 Principles for Course Design
The study of Chemistry should be more than learning and remembering the properties of chem-
icals. Equipping students with tools to begin understanding how chemistry works is more im-
portant than knowledge of the facts of chemistry. Courses at this level must deal with content at
an appropriate level of rigor in order to develop the necessary conceptual foundations in stu-
dents and, at the same time, equip students with an overview that is a sufficiently broad intro-
duction to the subject.

The primary goal of the curriculum outlined here is to progressively build a clear framework that
gives a coherent overview of chemistry as a subject, explains why it matters, and shows how
different areas of content are connected. In order to impart a ‘big picture’ with adequate concep-
tual rigour the content of the curriculum is built around the core cross-cutting themes of Chem-
istry shown in Figure X; Structure, Analysis, Transformations, and Modelling.

Further, chemical phenomena can be understood and represented at three levels. At the macro-
scopic level, it is about the properties and transformations in substances that we can observe.
Chemistry interprets these observations in terms of the rearrangements of atoms and electrons.
This is the molecular level – the underlying structure of all matter that we cannot see directly.
The third symbolic level of chemical symbols, formulae and reaction schema is what chemists
use to describe chemical phenomena and link the macroscopic and molecular levels together. It
is essential to build a certain amount of comfort with using all three levels of representation at
this stage of education to enable both preparation for higher education as well as a transition
from rote learning enumerated facts in a fragmented way to developing the skills necessary to
begin to identify patterns and form connections that underlie all chemical phenomena. Curricu-
lum content must ensure that students have, and recognize they have, appropriate intellectual
resources and know how to connect these resources as they construct and revise explanations or
predictions.
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The first course in the curriculum starts at the molecular level with a discussion of atomic struc-
ture and chemical bonding. Instead of structure in terms of abstract and intangible concepts
only, the course relates structure to observable properties in the laboratory and in the real world.

The subsequent courses build on this foundational understanding to examine transformations

of chemical substances. The final course uses the concepts built through the three courses and
exposes students to some applied aspects of Chemistry.

At the end of the final course, students should recognize that chemists are uniquely qualified to
contribute meaningfully to frontier research areas related to climate change, environmental is-
sues, materials science, biology and medicine.

10.4.2.2 Illustrative Courses

Course 1: Structure, Bonding, and Properties in Chemistry

The insight chemistry gives to the student is one that unifies phenomena at the molecular scale
to those of the astronomical. Structure, Bonding and Properties in Chemistry is the first of a se-
ries of 4 courses in the curriculum. The course develops a perspective that sees the universe as
a collection of fundamental particles and their combinations. Eventually building on these to the
realisation that properties of materials, compounds and molecules of life are all consequences of
the fundamental principles that chemistry establishes.

Molecules are invisible to the eye. However, the effects of their existence are observable at the
macroscale. The connection between the invisible molecules and the visible tangible conse-
quences is not obvious to the learner. Through this course, the interconnectedness of structure
to bonding patterns and thereby their influence on observable properties are elucidated. The
connections are explicitly made and woven into the units as an integral part. As concepts are
accumulated, the connections to the real world are progressively more comprehensive. This
model fundamentally removes the inherent abstraction in chemistry via observations of the
wonders of science that the student can see, smell, hear, taste and touch.

The course begins with the structure of the atom and its electronic distributions. The classifica-
tion of elements in the periodic table and their periodic properties are elaborated. Building on
these principles, the combination of elements to form compounds, the nature of these bonds and
molecular geometry are detailed. To illustrate principles of structure and bonding hydrocarbons
and their functional groups are introduced alongside their variations in connectivity and spatial
arrangement via isomerism and the structure-property relationships in transition metal com-
plexes are included.

Course 2 and 3: Principles of Reactivity – I and II

This series of two courses focus on the study of chemical systems; how and why the reactions
occur- drawing upon the properties of elements, bonding and structure learned previously. The
two courses focus on the application of submicroscopic models of matter and structure-proper-
ty relationships to explain, predict, and control chemical behaviour. Students are introduced to
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concepts regarding chemical thermodynamics, acid-base equilibria and chemical kinetics from
the perspective of the transformation of matter and the underlying principles that govern the
reactivity of chemical substances. These courses use reactions of both organic and inorganic
compounds to illustrate the concepts of enthalpy, free energy, equilibrium and kinetics of reac-
tions. They cover the patterns of reactivity in organic and inorganic systems, functional group
chemistry, kinetics, mechanisms, and catalysis. They initiate the systematic study of the common
classes of organic compounds, emphasising theories of structure and reactivity.

The course should enable the students to consider and measure the energies, and rates of the
chemical reactions and to predict the products. At the end of the two courses, students should be
able to connect observations of chemical reactivity at the macroscopic level with the changes at
the molecular level and use principles studied in the courses to predict reactions and use these
reactions to make modifications to small molecules.

Course 4: Modern Applications of Chemistry

Students choose Chemistry at a higher secondary stage with an aspiration to pursue basic, ap-
plied or professional courses after school. It is, therefore, essential to provide learners with
meaningful contexts in their life and provide a ‘big picture’ of Chemistry. This course offers a
space to integrate the essential concepts learned in previous courses with applications of chem-
istry, thereby enabling students to realize the interrelatedness of Chemistry, Society and Tech-
nology.

This course consists of four units covering modern applications of chemistry. The first unit is
devoted to synthetic approaches, analytical methods, and structure-property relationships of
some vital chemicals needed or used in our daily lives in addition to the analysis of their impact
on the environment. This includes natural substances such as biological macromolecules as well
as anthropogenic chemicals such as drugs, food substances, colourants and cosmetics. It also
includes a structural understanding of inorganic and hybrid materials. The second unit looks
into classification, preparation methods, applications and the environmental concerns of poly-
mers. The third unit provides insight and information on fuels and energy and how chemistry
contributes to sustainable energy technologies. The last unit focuses on the structure and be-
haviour of chemical compounds contributing to the biomedical and agricultural fields. The sec-
ond part of this unit applies fundamental chemical principles studied in the second and third
courses to industrial manufacturing processes.

10.4.3 Physics
10.4.3.1 Principles for Course Design
The teaching of Physics must integrate theory and experiment in equal measure. The experi-
ments should be set up with materials that are easily accessible and must not require any sophis-
ticated lab equipment. It is important that every physics student has experiential learning of the
subject at the senior secondary level. The student should be able to relate their own experiences
to what is transacted in the classroom. Ideally, a physics student will take a sufficient number of
mathematics courses, since the description of the laws and phenomena of physics require math-
ematical formalism. This becomes even more important when solving problems in physics. How-
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ever, the courses proposed below do not assume a knowledge of mathematics beyond what is

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