American Chemical Society

Did you know that the American Chemical Society has a FREE chemistry curriculum for middle school students? You can find it here: middleschoolchemistry.com. The book is available for free download. Lessons include activity sheets, simple animation videos, labs and assessments! The lessons are lab-based, meaning that students learn by doing. Every Single Experiment we have tried from this curriculum has been successful, which is not something I've been able to say for other science lessons I've found online. I am totally impressed with this as an inquiry-based intro to chemistry!

In our first week, we made thermometers and learned about molecules in motion...

 

We made rain and frost...in lessons about evaporation, condensation, sublimation, deposition...

We watched alcohol, water, and oil separate out into three layers in our lessons about density...

I cannot say enough good things about how these lessons systematically reinforce concepts, particularly if you actually work through all of the labs and questions for each chapter. Embedded in the labs are lessons on the scientific method, variables and constants, control groups, and confounding factors. 

Hats off to the American Chemical Society! I am looking forward to digging into their other resources when we finish this set of lessons!