Covering the mandatory practical areas during lockdown

Friday 26 November 2021

With the omicron variant now spreading rapidly through many countries there is real concern that many schools will be finding themselves in lockdown due to Covid yet again. One of the parts of the syllabus that needs to be covered is the Mandatory laboratory components. Ideally students should be able to perform their own hands-on experiments to cover most, if not all, of these mandatory practical areas. This may not be possible during lockdowns.

A still from the RSC video on Rates of Reaction

The Royal Society of Chemistry has produced an excellent series of videos that support the remote teaching of many practical topics. Although they are produced to cover the requirements of the UK system, e.g. A Level and Scottish Higher etc., many also work well for the IB. Together with the videos there are helpful additional resources such as teaching notes and technician notes.

Currently there are videos particularly relevant to the IB on:
Electrochemical cells
Rates of reaction
Titration
Reflux and distillation
Enthalpy change determination
Rates of hydrolysis
Redox

- although not so relevant to the IB mandatory areas in the current syllabus, there are also useful videos on:

Preparation of an organic liquid
Qualitative tests for organic functional group
Qualitative tests for anions and cations
Thin layer chromatography