Although it’s challenging, Mr. Carr’s chemistry class is loved by all who have taken it, especially Miranda Tornatore. Mr. Carr is here to discuss what goes on in the chemistry lab, and Miranda will share her take.
Mr. Carr’s keys to surviving Chemistry
What do students learn in this class? In chemistry, students learn about matter and how matter interacts and changes. We cover everything from studying tips, and lab safety the whole way to counting atoms and investigating different types of chemical reactions.
What materials do students need to bring? I recommend a binder to keep everything organized. I also recommend a scientific calculator. As always, students need to bring lab attire for lab days.
What is your favorite lesson to teach? Most of my favorite lessons to teach are the math units. I love dimensional analysis and stoichiometry. I just think it is so cool that you can do math to count the number of atoms. I also really enjoy the unit where we name chemical compounds.
What, in your opinion, is the most difficult unit or lesson? Predicting products in chemical reactions is the toughest unit I think. It requires you to remember a lot of prior knowledge from past units and it has a lot of parts to it.
What is an activity or project that students enjoy every year? We did liquid nitrogen and fire demos last year and everyone had a blast with that. Lab wise, students really enjoy the lab where we burn different salts to change the color of the flame.
What is one takeaway from chemistry that you hope students will remember? Throughout the class, I always say “If you don’t remember anything from chemistry, at least remember this…”. One of them is to always add acid to water. However, a key takeaway I would like students to remember is that chemistry is fun but can be challenging at times. I also hope that even though challenging, students learn to embrace it and try their best.
What advice do you have for current or future chem students? My most famous advice is to study! Everyday! Practice chemistry everyday! The class often has material that builds off each other and what we learn in October will reappear again in March and May. Use chemistry as an opportunity to refine your studying skills.
Miranda’s opinions
What was your experience like in chemistry class? Chemistry was so fun. The beginning of the year I didn’t try my hardest and received my first failing grade. After that, I needed to change my attitude towards the year and start studying. Once I started studying, I finally understood what I was doing and started getting A’s on all of my tests.
What was your favorite part of chem? My favorite part of chem was balancing the chemical equations. It was so satisfying to me.
What unit or lesson did you struggle with the most? I struggled the most with the second lesson. The first lesson was so easy; so, I didn’t think I needed to study.
What from chemistry do you still remember or use in other classes today? In Microbiology, there are some amazing chemists that get brought up that are also good Microbiologists. Also, in math we do conversions like we did in chem.
