Mr. Joshua Belland MS AP Chemistry

Note to Parents/Guardians

It is my belief that as upper classmen in AP chemistry it is your child’s responsibility to maintain their grade on their own. Students have daily access to grade printouts in the classroom, and skyward can automatically email students and you, the parent/guardian, daily grades for each class. Furthermore I have approximately 180 students this year. Therefore it is unlikely I will ever be the one to initiate contact with you about your child’s grade. It will need to be you, the parent/guardian, who initiates the contact.

Ways to contact Mr. Belland

·  Email will receive the fastest response:

·  Phone: 817-547-6127 – you will need to leave a voicemail message

·  Conferences at the school may occur between 2:00 and 2:40, but please schedule this with me in advance.

Purpose

The purpose of AP Chemistry is to prepare students with the knowledge and skills they will need in order to make a 5 on the AP Chemistry Exam. Along the way students will be faced with college level material, problems, tests, and labs. The depth of knowledge and skills gained in this class will also serve them well if they are required to take college chemistry in the future. The course goes incredibly fast and it is solely their responsibility to keep up.

The AP Chemistry Exam will be given on Monday May 2nd. All AP Chemistry students will take the test. It is required you will attend the many review sessions that will be offered afterschool and on weekends prior to the test. These dates and times will be provided as soon as they are set, but are subject to change as well.

We will be operating a “Flipped” classroom this year. This will lend itself to a decrease in workload outside of class and an increase in efficiency during class time. Students can expect to need to access YouTube almost every day outside of class and have practice or lab in class most days.

Tutorial Schedule

·  Most days before school at 7 am and after school until 3:15. Changes will be noted on the board.

·  If Mr Belland is not available , then try attending tutorials with Mrs Duley in 303

Almost all chemistry materials are available online, including online chemistry tutorials!

From Haltom High School’s website click “Faculty/Staff”, and then “Belland, Joshua”

Required Materials

·  Buff Binder (2” binder suitable for organizing work, paper, writing utensils, etc)

·  Scientific calculator (separate from cell phone and has a “log” and “EE” or “EXP” buttons)

·  Online access for YouTube notes, and reviews (specific access information will be given when appropriate) - use a mobile device, computers in the school library or public library, computer at home or a friend’s house, but you must find a way to access online content

·  $3 lab fee

Additional Resources

·  It is highly recommended that students become familiar with the College Board Website, apstudent.collegeboard.org. Students will need to register to receive your exam scores electronically.

Daily Grades = 40%

·  In-class work will be given most days. Homework assignments are chosen deliberately to teach and exercise the skills and knowledge necessary for success in the course.

·  Most Lab Write-ups

Major Grades = 60%

·  Some Lab Write-ups if a lot is required from the lab. This will be announced ahead of time.

·  Most exams are miniature AP tests consisting of multiple choice and essay questions.

·  Most exams are graded using AP grading criteria, resulting in a score of 1-5. This is then correlated to a class grade (based on a 100 point scale) using a linear regression of past AP Exam scores. The results are as follows:

AP Style Score / Class Exam Score / Indicator
1 or 2 / 69 or below / Failure
3 / 70-79 / Passing
4 / 80-89 / Mastery of Most Concepts
5 / 90-115 / Excellence

Exam Corrections

·  All exams must be corrected, every time. Corrections will increase the score on the exam according to the following schedule. Failure to do corrections will result in an exam score of “3%”, regardless of original score.

Original Score / Corrected Score
59 or below / 65
60-69 / 75
70-79 / 85
80-89 / 95
90+ / 99
original scores above 89 do not need to be corrected, but may up to 99

·  Corrections are to be done utilizing any necessary materials and do not have to be done in tutorials.

Finals

·  Students will not be exempt from any of the semester finals in this course. The fall final is a mock exam and is extremely useful as a diagnostic tool and correlates strongly to probable performance on the actual AP Exam.