Find an outline of 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.
This list of core concepts has been generated with the guidance of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) in the physical sciences. The task force identified the concepts that fall into each DCI within the core ideas.
Core Concepts for High School Chemistry
Matter and its interactions
Chemical Principles (DCIs)
- Structure and properties of matter
- Chemical reactions
- Nuclear processes
Chemistry Concepts
- States of matter
- Solutions
- Periodicity
- Bonding and intermolecular forces
- Physical changes
- Chemical changes
- Reaction types
- Stoichiometry
- Kinetics
- Equilibrium
- Nuclear chemistry
Motion and stability: forces and interactions
Chemical Principles (DCIs)
- Structure and properties of matter
- Forces and motion
- Types of interactions
- Definitions of energy
Chemistry Concepts
- Periodicity and atomic structure
- Bonding and intermolecular forces
- Ionic bonding
- Covalent bonding
- Molecular structure
- Types of chemical reactions
- Kinetics
- Electrochemistry
- Materials: properties explained by molecular structure
- Chemical engineering
Energy
Chemical Principles (DCIs)
- Definitions of energy
- Conservation of energy and energy transfer
- Relationship between energy and forces
- Energy in chemical processes
Chemistry Concepts
- Thermochemistry
- Thermodynamics
- Equilibrium
- Bonding and intermolecular forces
- Electrochemistry
- Nuclear chemistry
- Nature of science
- Chemical engineering
Waves and their applications in technologies for information transfer
Chemical Principles (DCIs)
- Energy in chemical processes
- Wave properties
- Electromagnetic radiation
- Information technologies and instrumentation
Chemistry Concepts
- Atomic structure
- Quantum chemistry
- Electromagnetic radiation spectrum
- Quantitative analysis (e.g., Beer’s law)
