Foreword

You are looking at the Orbital 1 learning material, which covers the first module of high school chemistry, CHE1 Chemistry and Me. The modules CHE1 and CHE2 are the starting point for your high school chemistry studies and the only compulsory modules in high school chemistry. We are glad that you have chosen to begin your chemistry journey with the Orbital series of electronic learning materials.

The Orbital series is a modern chemistry teaching tool that encourages learners to think about, explore and understand the world of chemistry. The text is written in an engaging way. Chemical phenomena are explained with the help of examples from everyday life. Animations, videos and 3D models have been used to visualise the phenomena. The tasks follow the structure of the new digital matriculation exam, progressing from memory-testing tasks to concept tasks, and finally to applied and more challenging tasks.

Models and visualisation are central to learning chemistry. Learning chemistry is easier when you visualise your own ideas and present them to others. Through group discussions, you learn to develop your own thinking. Simulations are used for modelling chemical phenomena, but pencil and paper are also needed. It is up to the student to decide which visualisation methods work best for them.

We also learn chemistry together. Learning is a social process, which is why the material encourages learners to work collaboratively.

We wish you success in your chemistry studies! In our opinion, chemistry is the greatest science.

The authors

The book’s exercises are divided into three categories, which follow the distribution of tasks in the matriculation exam.

• Test your knowledge exercises include simple multiple-choice or matching tasks.
• Basic exercises consist of tasks where the student is asked to define, explain or reason different concepts.
• Applied exercises require the student to compare, evaluate or apply their knowledge of chemical phenomena. They may be data or research tasks that involve the production of a text.

Some of the Test your knowledge exercises are provided alongside the text to support revision. Other tasks are found in the exercise kits of the book’s subchapters and Experiments sections. Tasks requiring mathematical text can be answered using the internal formula editor.

Solutions to exercises

The book’s Test your knowledge exercises give automatic feedback on the student’s skills and knowledge. For the other exercises, the solutions can be found in the teacher's guide.

A work report is written on the same principle as a scientific report. It is a written or electronic presentation that presents the theoretical and experimental methods and results used in your experiment in a clear and coherent manner. The length of a work report is not an indication of its quality. 

A work report must contain the following sections:

• Name
• Abstract / Summary
• Theory
• Experimental methods and tools
• Results and error evaluation
• Conclusions
• Bibliography and sources
• Appendices

Abstract / Summary

The abstract or summary briefly describes the subject of the experiment, the methodology used and the results obtained. Conclusions are drawn from the results. Writing the abstract or summary is usually the last step when writing a report.

Theory

The theory section can start with a short introduction in which you describe the phenomenon or device you are studying and the concepts relevant to your report. The aim here is to explain why the topic is being studied and how the research relates to chemical phenomena. List all of your source materials at the end of the paper.

Experimental methods and tools

Be sure to describe the equipment and/or tools used in your experiment. You may use a drawing or photograph to illustrate your set-up.

Results and error evaluation

Describe what you learned, or calculate the results based on your observations. When presenting the results of your experiment, an assessment of their reliability and probable sources of error should also be made.

Conclusions

In this section, you evaluate the results of your experiment, present critiques and draw conclusions based on them. Compare your results with relevant literature and point out any discrepancies.

Bibliography and sources

List the literature and other sources used in your report in this section.

Appendices

Add the original measurement results, pictures and larger graphs to this section.