Home Page News   St Benildus College "THE BEST EDUCATION MONEY CAN'T BUY" Irish Independent   Sciences 2009/2010 < back   Chemistry 2009/2010 Leaving Certificate Chemistry Studying Chemistry  Studying chemistry Why ice melts and water evaporates? Why leaves turn colours in the fall and how a battery generates electricity? Why keeping food cold slows their spoilage and how our bodies use food to maintain life? Chemistry supplies the answers! We live in a world of chemistry, and you don’t need the men in white coats to tell you that!  Chemical substances are around you all the time, from the sugar you put in your coffee to the cosmetics you wear, from the dyed fabrics in your wardrobe to the medication you take for a head-cold. Chemistry is the study of what substances are made of, what effects they have on one another and what changes they undergo.  Without this branch of study, we wouldn’t have unbreakable bottles or synthetic fabrics, CD players or the silicon chips that drive our TV sets, computers, and mobile phones. The Leaving Certificate course has recently been revamped and is designed to stimulate interest in, and enjoyment of, the subject.  It encourages an appreciation of the social, economic, environmental and technological aspects of chemistry. It seeks to develop a facility for scientific method and rational thought, and the skills of observation, evaluation, and problem-solving that will stand to you in other areas of life. But chemistry is not just for those who want to work in a laboratory — the knowledge provided by the course gives a scientific base which is useful for a multitude of courses and careers. Assessment Of Leaving Certificate Chemistry  It is a 100% exam . 30% is based on chemistry as it applies to every day problems. The other  70 % is more so based on the theory  and experiments within topics. Experiments There are 28 experiments on the leaving certificate  Chemistry  Course. These can appear on ether section of the paper. Students Carry out all of these experiments in groups of two or three. There are two sections in the Chemistry leaving certificate exam must answer seven questions Section A Three questions on Experimental work carried out. You must answer  2 But you can answer 3 Section B You must answer 4 or 5 questions in this section  depending on whether or not  you answered  3 or 2 in  section A.