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About FOS 3

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FOS III: Inorganic and Organic Chemistry and Biology (Infectious Disease)
This course is designed to prepare students for college level chemistry and biology.  The first semester will focus on inorganic chemistry while the second semester will focus on organic chemistry and biology.  Inquiry, experimentation, analysis, writing, and collaborative participation are the methods that will be used to teach. The first unit, "Designer Chemistry" has students explore the concepts of inorganic chemistry. Topics such as Atomic Structure and Periodic Trends, Naming and Writing Chemical Equations, Thermochemistry and Reaction Rates, and finally Moles, Molarity and Stoichiometry will be covered. The final culminating project, Crash Test "Eggs"periment, has students design and create an airbag system that will protect a passenger egg in a crash. Students will use all of the concepts they learned in the unit to control a chemical reaction in order to deploy their air bag system. 

The next unit, "The Chemistry of Soap" has students explore the concepts of organic chemistry. Students will research the chemical reactions involved in making soap. They will design, produce, package, and promote their own homemade soap with its particular properties. Students will learn how to name organic molecules, how to use electronegativity, VSPER modeling, and polarity to predict solubility. In addition, students will engage in an in-class debate regarding the use, distribution, benefits, and drawbacks of plastics in society as a way of better understanding the world of organic chemistry. 

The final unit, The Coming Plague, covers advanced Biology concepts. In this unit, we will be examining the broad concepts of cell structure, bacteria and virus structure and function, the immune system, some aspects of human body systems as well as western medical treatment and how it all affects your health and well being. The fear of new or remerging diseases has been underscored by the worldwide AIDS epidemic and by resurgent infections of TB, ebola, yellow fever and malaria that are increasingly resistant to drugs. Your final project will be a presentation of a topic relating to a current major issue with a micro-organism. Some examples are: bioterrorism, cancer immunology, prion diseases, antibiotics, and vaccines.