Best Option in Chemistry? (1 Viewer)

[Aerials]

What do you think the "best" option topic is in Chemistry? Im aware that it doesnt matter which option you pick as long as you know the stuff from cover to cover but, what in your opinion is fun or youve heard that is fun? Your help is appreciated!

 

[hipsta_jess]

i dont think any of us can judge which is the 'best' since we only get to do one.
i did shipwrecks. i didnt mind it...but we were forced to do it, dispite my whole class wanting to do forensics.

 

[Aerials]

I meant, also from other sources (like others who may have done a different option) but thankyou nonetheless

 

[Will_Sparky]

I think were doing shipwreaks, even though (Like Hipsta) we want to do forensics

 

[*girl04*]

we are going to to forensics, but i wanna do shipwrecks~

 

[lil_star]

Industrial is quite fun....except the Saponification part holds lots of stuff to be memorised!

 

[iambored]

forensics

 

[elizabethy]

Originally posted by hipsta_jess
i dont think any of us can judge which is the 'best' since we only get to do one.

this is so true....

 

[speersy]

everybody is just going to say the option that they do. This should give an indication of what options were chosen by members in these forums.

 

[xiao1985]

YAY!!! go ship wrecks!!! =)

 

[CM_Tutor]

This depends so much on the definition of 'best'. For what it's worth, here's my view from the perspective of a chemist.

Easiest - Shipwrecks - note that this doesn't mean you'll get the best marks, because there's a lot of competition, but this is definitely the easiest in conceptual terms.

Chemically most useful - Industrial. If you're going on with chemistry, then the quantitative treatment of equilibrium that is in this elective is something you want to have seen before. I would consider the redox in Shipwrecks as a distant second here - it would be closer, but the syllabus makes such a hash of dealing with the important chemistry, that it ends up a distant second.

Most 'interesting' - most people like the fact that forensics seems relevant (in a societal sense), but I think you really need more background to really appreciate forensics - chemistry of carbohydrates and DNA need so much more than you have at this point to be really understood.

Most dangerous - Chemistry of Art. This has some really nice inorganic and transition metal chemistry in it, but I have serious doubts that there are many teachers actually qualified to teach it. The chemistry here is best left to Uni, IMO.

 

[randhi]

so i suppose i don't have much hope of passing then for chemistry of art.

isn't chemistry of art all about the quality of paint, the changes it has undergone from the old times till now?

 

[CM_Tutor]

Chemistry of Art does cover issues of pigments and absorption of light, but also transition metal complexes which most teachers don't understand because they haven't studied it recently (or ever, in many cases). This elective really depends on the quality of the teaching - Remember, this is just my opinion.

What school are you at? Very few attempt this elective, and the above comments do not apply to the major one I know of that does this elective.

PS: This isn't to say that you can't / won't pass it, I just think it is a dangerous choice, partly because there is the potential to come out of it with some serious misconceptions.

 

[randhi]

i go to baulkham hills high

 

[korry]

im doing shipwrecks...seems like many schools do shipwrecks

 

[Calculon]

We're doing shipwrecks. Our teacher said it was cos forensics is more biology than chemistry.
*goes off to murder teacher in sleep*

 

[xiao1985]

Originally posted by Calculon
We're doing shipwrecks. Our teacher said it was cos forensics is more biology than chemistry.
*goes off to murder teacher in sleep*

ahh... ship wreck is fine... ^^ heaps of electrochemistry... potentials etc... =)

 

[Calculon]

Originally posted by xiao1985
ahh... ship wreck is fine... ^^ heaps of electrochemistry... potentials etc... =)

The point is that the bio bit was meant to discourage us, but I like bio.

 

[CM_Tutor]

The 'bio bit' also isn't true. Forensics has a lot of biologically relevant material, but it isn't biology.

 

[Zarathustra]

Wasn't Forensics the elective known as 'biological chemistry' in the old (Pathways) syllabus? I bought a book of HSC past papers - 82 - 98 - and was wondering if 'biological chemistry' is similar enough to Forensics to be worth my time.