Sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn't it? How can chemistry – a word that evokes so much moaning and groaning from high schoolers – be friendly? Not with all that scientific jargon like electron affinities, electronegativities, atomic numbers, and all that other stuff you can only imagine "real" scientists caring about. Nevertheless, it's true, this is truly a chemistry course designed to be "user-friendly" and it covers all the basics of a chemistry course with clear explanations and fun games and hands-on activities to make the knowledge "stick."
Friendly Chemistry is a one-year basic chemistry course, divided into 32 lessons, with an expected pace of one lesson per lesson. Early lessons introduce the structure of the atom, neutrons, protons, electrons, elements and symbols, the periodic table, and atomic numbers. They progress to energy levels, notations, valence electrons and element families, reactivities, ionization energy, affinities, atomic radius, ions, chemical reactions, compounds, bonding, stoichiometry, molarity, and gas laws. Friendly Chemistry focuses on basic chemistry concepts and requires proficiency with basic arithmetic, as well as percentages, positive/negative numbers, proportions, and fractions. Students should have taken or be currently enrolled in Algebra. The course offers a mix of hands-on games, labs (using household or easily sourced items), and worksheets. There are over 50 activities. While the activities are clearly explained and “friendly”, the author provides a free video teaching library of each activity on his website.
There are numerous required and supplemental components for the course. Required components include the Student Book, 2-volume Friendly Chemistry Teacher Edition (Choose either the Homeschool or the Classroom Version), and Friendly Chemistry Manipulative Set. You will also need to supply the household items for the hands-on lab activities. The Teacher Editions are available individually or in a set. The Friendly Chemistry Essential Set provides all of the required components: the Homeschool Teacher Edition (Volume 1 and 2), Student Book, and Manipulative Set.
The Friendly Chemistry Student Book includes the lesson text, worksheets, lab instructions and lab worksheets. It is not reproducible. The 2-volume Friendly Chemistry Teacher Edition is available in one of two versions: Homeschool or Classroom. The essentials are the same: all the teaching information, answer keys (solutions sold separately), supply lists, and reproducible tests/final exam. Each lesson's "Teaching Tips" begins with a "game plan" which lists the activities. Following the game plan are in-depth instructions for preparation and/or instruction for each part of the lesson. And this is where the different Teacher Editions come into play. The Homeschool (or 1 Student) 2 Volume Teacher Edition includes fewer group activities and modified activities for one-student use. The 2 Volume Teacher Edition (for Classrooms) offers more hands-on and game activities designed specifically for co-ops or multiple student classrooms. Answer keys are found in Vol. 2 of the teacher edition. Sold separately, the Friendly Chemistry Manipulative Set is required for the course and includes the game board pieces and card sets for the course. Rules for the games are included in the teacher's manual in the lesson that correlates with the game play.
Numerous helpful supplements are available including the Friendly Chemistry Video Course, Friendly Chemistry Annotated Solutions (print or video format), Audio Book (USB Drive or Digital Streaming), and the Friendly Chemistry Student Workbook. The Friendly Chemistry Video Course offers lessons taught by the author Dr. Hajda. The video course offers unlimited access for the purchasing family. Please contact the publisher directly for classroom or co-op licensing. If the brief answers in the teacher's manual answer key are leaving you stumped, you may find the full solutions in the Solutions Manual helpful. Accessed via an online portal, the Friendly Chemistry Annotated Solutions license provides video solutions for all of the worksheets in the Student Book (test solutions are not included). The instructor talks through solutions while writing on a blue stylus on the problem sheet. The license includes lifetime use for one family in a home setting. The Annotated Solutions printed book offers step-by-step solutions to all the student worksheets as well as all the tests. The Friendly Chemistry Audiobook Digital Streaming includes all the text lessons (with occasional commentary) read by the author. The Digital Streaming is for a single family to use in a home setting. (A group/classroom license is available from the publisher directly.) Please note, digital streaming access is for one year. While supplies last, an Audiobook USB flash drive is available. The optional Friendly Chemistry Student Workbook contains the consumable student worksheets from the Student Book. This is a great option if you teach more than one student, or if you would like to use the course over multiple years as the Student Book worksheets are not reproducible.
We also offer helpful sets for your convenience: The Friendly Chemistry Essential Set which includes the Homeschool Teacher Edition (Volume 1 and 2), Student Book, and Manipulative Set. The Friendly Chemistry Essentials Plus Set which includes the required components included in the Essentials Set plus the following helpful supplemental components: Friendly Chemistry Video Course, Friendly Chemistry Student Workbook, and the Annotated Solutions. Finally, the Friendly Chemistry Complete Set includes everything in the Essentials Plus Set plus the Digital Audiobook.
This is an excellent introduction to chemistry for any age, but if you were planning on using a full-fledged lab course at the high school level (like Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Chemistry), this would probably be best used in middle school to familiarize students with the important concepts they'll have to tackle later on. If your students are not intending to take higher-level science classes you could use this at the high school level, although you may wish to include additional lab experience. Homeschool friendly ideas to supplement the high school labs include the Home Science Tools Introduction to Chemistry Kit or one of the Chem Kits from Thames & Kosmos. – Jess/Deanne