Chemistry 101: An Overview of God’s Chemical World

The curriculum uses strong direct instruction through video lessons with clear explanations and demonstrations. The teacher uses storytelling and visual methods to explain concepts explicitly.

Wes Olson 'teaches through storytelling' using 'live film footage, graphic animations, demonstrations' and provides explicit explanations of chemistry concepts

The curriculum provides broad chemistry knowledge but lacks depth in core problem-solving areas. While students learn extensive history and element facts, key topics like balancing equations and stoichiometry receive minimal attention.

Reviewer notes that 'chemical bonds and chemical equations are given relatively brief attention' and 'students never have to write an equation, much less balance one,' with missing content in 'chemical reactions, stoichiometry, and acid-base chemistry'

The curriculum appears to lack alignment with rigorous chemistry standards expected for high school. Content coverage gaps suggest it doesn't meet typical state standards for chemistry.

Reviewer states it 'lacks some of the content expected of most high school courses' and 'needs beefing up for students heading to college,' suggesting insufficient alignment with standards

Lab activities are simple household-based experiments that lack rigor. While activities are integrated with instruction, they don't provide authentic chemistry lab experiences expected at high school level.

Labs use 'household items' and are 'typical of what you might see in programs for younger students' without 'actual lab equipment, measurement, data collection' and are 'not very challenging'

The curriculum provides structured support through detailed lesson plans and an accreditation booklet. These materials help guide instruction but may not constitute comprehensive teacher training.

Includes 'The Accreditation Booklet for parents has lesson plans' with 'charts show how much time is likely to be spent on each activity' and lists required materials

Limited retrieval practice is built into the curriculum structure. Students have some review opportunities but not systematic retrieval practice.

The guidebook 'includes a few discussion questions for each section plus a ten-question multiple-choice quiz' and lesson plans direct students to 'watch each video lesson twice and read each lesson twice'

The curriculum appears to introduce chemistry vocabulary through video instruction and reinforcement in the guidebook. However, depth of vocabulary development is unclear from the review.

The 120-page guidebook 'repeats the information presented on the videos' and covers standard chemistry terms like 'atoms, neutrons, isotopes, molecules, compounds'