Lower Secondary Science
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tisha,
My dd will be in RV and she will be using the SAME textbooks as your ds. -
Belle2011:
OK, thanks Belle. What about biology? Is there a text book for it?tisha,
My dd will be in RV and she will be using the SAME textbooks as your ds.
Anyway, RV is IP right, so maybe different. -
tisha:
[/quote]
May I ask which sec school your child is attending in 2012?Belle2011:
[quote=\"tisha\"]Physics Matters for GCE 'O' Level (*) Marshall Cavendish
Chemistry Matters for GCE 'O' Level (*) Marshall Cavendish
Are the science text books in the book list(Sec 1) of my DS's school. There is no biology text book :? When will biology be taught?
Do different schools teach different science subjects?
Thank-you.
I've tutored some SJI students using those books and a few other schools use them as well. If a student is ahead in terms of their science learning it might be OK. But at Lower Secondary the comments I get is that most students cannot understand those books as they are really meant for O-Level (Sec 3&4) studies. But if the school teaches to O-Level starting in Sec 1 then you should have them.
The best way to learn science is to start with basic foundations in lower secondary and then work up to the level of those books. It really depends on each individual student as to how quickly they can progress, but spending the time building up a strong foundation is the right way to go vs jumping too far ahead prematurely.
As for Biology, it is usually the easiest of the sciences at lower secondary for the majority of students since the PSLE has a strong emphasis on biology. So many schools spend a bit more time on Physics and Chemistry. Many schools I have seen will cover biology topics of cells, digestion, osmosis, photosynthesis, respiration, transport systems, reproductive systems, ecosystems. It is good to have an introduction to those topics before getting to upper secondary.
As for textbooks, the Lower Secondary books that you can find at Popular will cover some of those biology topics. For O-Level, there is a Biology Matters and a Biology Insights (companion books to the Physics and Chemistry O-Level books of those two series).
The toughest things in Sec1 science for most students are the early physics and chemistry topics. Also, making the connection between what students are learning in their math class and their early physics is also important. -
Thanks a lot for sharing, Dr. Daniel.
May I say that the mentioned 3 books Physics Matter, Biology Matter and Chemistry Matter are meant for students taking pure phy, bio and chem O level?
These books may be too tough for my sec 1 girl and thus am hesitating buying them though listed in the booklist. -
Yes the books mentioned above are meant for Pure Physics, Chem etc. The one I have seen used for the combined science (O-Level) is Discover Physics.
Best thing for starting out in Sec 1 is building a strong foundation on the early Physics and Chem topics. Make sure she knows the metric system well, can convert meters to kilometers to milimeters etc. Then can convert speeds of meters/second to kilometers/hour etc. In chemistry basic knowledge of elements and compounds and the basic structure of the atom is a good place to start. -
Ds has a chemistry question…
He said he knows how to get valency of simple ions - like potassium K has a valency of 1+ due to its electronic configuration of 2.8.1 hence need to get rid of 1 electron.
But he doesn’t know how the valency of polyatomic ions like CO3 and NH3, etc are derived. In my sec sch days, I just memorized the valencies of these polyatomic ions. Now when my ds asks me, I don’t know how to explain.
Anyone can help to explain? -
Verysuperkiasu:
The bonds in CO2 are covalent ie the electrons are shared and not transferred..Ds has a chemistry question.....
He said he knows how to get valency of simple ions - like potassium K has a valency of 1+ due to its electronic configuration of 2.8.1 hence need to get rid of 1 electron.
But he doesn't know how the valency of polyatomic ions like CO3 and NH3, etc are derived. In my sec sch days, I just memorized the valencies of these polyatomic ions. Now when my ds asks me, I don't know how to explain.
Anyone can help to explain? -
Belle2011:
Exactly..the bonds in NH3, CO2, O2 molecules are covalent bonds, unlike simple ions, where electrons get transferred to, or transferred from. So how do we arrive at the conclusion that valency of NH3 is 1-, SO4 is 2- ?
The bonds in CO2 are covalent ie the electrons are shared and not transferred..Verysuperkiasu:
Ds has a chemistry question.....
He said he knows how to get valency of simple ions - like potassium K has a valency of 1+ due to its electronic configuration of 2.8.1 hence need to get rid of 1 electron.
But he doesn't know how the valency of polyatomic ions like CO3 and NH3, etc are derived. In my sec sch days, I just memorized the valencies of these polyatomic ions. Now when my ds asks me, I don't know how to explain.
Anyone can help to explain? -
Verysuperkiasu:
Sometimes the easiest thing is to memorize the charges on these ions, for quick recollection. But it is logical how they form and its good to be able to understand this. Here is an explanation.Ds has a chemistry question.....
He said he knows how to get valency of simple ions - like potassium K has a valency of 1+ due to its electronic configuration of 2.8.1 hence need to get rid of 1 electron.
But he doesn't know how the valency of polyatomic ions like CO3 and NH3, etc are derived. In my sec sch days, I just memorized the valencies of these polyatomic ions. Now when my ds asks me, I don't know how to explain.
Anyone can help to explain?
See if he can make sense out of why the CO2 molecule forms. Carbon has 4 valence electrons and would like to share 4 more to get to 8. Each Oxygen has 6 valence electrons and would like to share 2 more to get to 8. So when the Carbon shares 2 electrons with each oxygen everybody is happy, they all have 8.
Now Carbonate or CO3 has a third oxygen atom. This third Oxygen atom needs to find two more electrons to get to a valency of 8. So what happens is the CO3 molecule can steal 2 electrons from another source to compensate for the need of the third Oxygen atom to have two more electrons. When it does this it becomes CO3 with a 2- charge.
For Nitrate or NO3, the Nitrogen has one more valence electron than Carbon, so NO3 needs to steal one less electron so that all the atoms in the molecule have 8 shared electrons. So the NO3 ion has a -1 charge.
Another easy one to understand is OH- or Hydroxide. Oxygen has 6 valence electrons and would like to share two more to get to 8. So H2O is formed for that reason. The Oxygen shares one electron from each Hydrogen. With only one hydrogen attached to an Oxygen, the molecule steals one more electron, so it becomes OH with a -1 charge.
The understanding of Sulfate and Phosphate is a bit more difficult, but if you follow similar logic you will get there. -
Ah…so! Now I see it. Will try to explain this to my ds. Thanks so much, Dr Daniel, for your comprehensive and detailed explanation. Really appreciate that!!
Just one more question…Carbon has an a valence electron of 4. So, can we say carbon is only found in covalent molecules? That is, it can’t transfer electrons like metals can to form positive ions? And carbon can only share electrons, right?
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