High School Core Concepts

The following tables outline the core ideas in chemistry that should be addressed in any comprehensive high school curriculum. Each core idea is further broken into chemical principles, and suggested concepts to teach within those ideas are listed. These tables have been generated with the guidance of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) performance expectations (PEs) and disciplinary core ideas (DCIs). The task force identified the concepts that fall into each DCI within the core ideas.

The content does not need to be learned or shared in the order presented, and this is not an all-inclusive list. For example, there are PEs and DCIs within the Earth & Space Sciences (ESS) as well as the Engineering, Technology & Applications of Science (ETS) standards that could be learned by students within a physical science or chemistry course. (For example, Global Climate Change is a DCI within ESS and could easily be addressed in a physical science or chemistry curriculum.) These tables emphasize only concepts found within the Physical Science PEs in NGSS. Teachers may have additional standards (such as the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts & Mathematics) that they need to incorporate into their teaching practice. Teachers also may need to consult state and local standards to ensure all of the essential elements and assessment boundaries of their curriculum are included.