What is the point of Chemistry?

It's also important that education "enthuses" people and the teaching methods don't turn people off! Given the state of poor behaviour in schools, I'd say we need to be doing things differently to get pupils interested and enthusiastic.

Chemistry is life itself.
I worked with many brilliant chemists and their intellects never ceased to amaze me.
It’s important that education encompasses as much of the universe as it can.

Anyone else remember this?

This sort of question just depresses me. Education in any area is knowledge. If nothing else, it helps with quizzes.

Exactly. And no matter what you do in life learning different and challenging things is good for brain development and growth.

But at 13/14 you don't know what you are going to be or what you will need to study so education needs to stay broad for as long as possible.

at secondary school it's more about learning to learn.
each subjects requires different ways of thinking/problem solving which is beneficial in the future even if the subject matter itself is not part if future work/hobby.

Kids won't use much of the actual content they learn in most of their school subjects. The aim is for them to be a vaguely rounded person who knows a bit about a variety of things in the world and, even more importantly, to exercise their brains by getting them to learn skills, work out problems, collaborate well with others and remember information and ways of doing things and apply them to different tasks. Chemistry probably does that as well as any other subject does.

It underpins the whole of life, all the other sciences, engineering, building, the environment, agriculture, manufacturing, food, technology, literally everything. So we all need at least a basic understanding of it. I'm a chemist and am fortunate to have worked in science for my whole career, I appreciate that's not for everyone but we all need to know some of it, the same as we all need to know some maths.

I personally think it's a waste of time learning science and maths above a certain point unless you want to study it.

GCSE is the certain point!

We specialise our students way earlier than many countries as it is. So many 15 year olds don’t really know what they want to do or really what they’re interested in other than they have a good teacher who makes it interesting. a broad knowledge base and the ability to learn whatever you need in later life

I know! I would have been horrified if my midwife didn't understand basic chemistry!

Maths and science is absolutely essential for midwives and paramedics.

But your GCSE in Science/Chemistry will have normalised some scientific/chemical understanding.

You may not remember anything specific but the background you had will be helping you to understand and evaluate some of what you read about chemical products etc.

I'm a civil engineer. In the last few weeks my knowledge of chemistry has been useful for:

-Discussing cathodic protection on a submerged steel sheet pile wall.

-Talking to a water company about the quality of effluent coming out of their treatment works and how this can be clean up in reef beds.

• Considering the type, and remediation of, post industrial contaminants on a brownfield development.

• Understanding how long different concrete mixes will take to cure, and the impact on site programme.

Domestically

• organising dm's post chemo + diabetes medication, understanding why things need to be taken in a particular order
• stain removal
• cleaning up burnt pans!
• using bicarb to take the edge of a bitter tomato sauce
• using fat to take the heat out of a chilli

Chemistry is about understanding matter- what we eat, drink, breathe, medication, fuel, the environment, manufacturing, oil/gas/water/mineral resources and the politics and economic issues associated with them!!

how to treat a wasp sting, and sort out overbleached hair

You'd probably be surprised.

If we say "what's the point in learning XYZ, they'll never use it", then we are making decisions for young people and steering them towards careers. If we teach them a bit of everything, they can choose. It's about autonomy.

A cleaner needs to know how to not kill the family pet.

A nursery nurse needs to know how to not give the children chemical burns.

A gardener needs to know how to not kill the plants, the grass, themselves or anybody within breathing range.

A mechanic needs to know how to clean the parts, prevent or treat rust and not cause themselves chemical burns, kill themselves or their customer and anybody else within crashing distance.

A builder needs to know how to not kill themselves or anybody else or have the house collapse due to a substandard concrete mix, the difference between foams, how to clean up, why some adhesives are in two parts.

A decorator, panel sprayer or welder needs to know about reactions to avoid paints falling off the surface or why it's necessary to use flux (and biology/physics to avoid arc eye in the latter example).

Everybody needs to know how to cook, deal with indigestion, burns, clean their homes, etc.

My DS has a masters degree in Chemistry. He enjoyed it at School (I was surprised as my abiding memory of Chemistry lessons was how to make a stink bomb!) I recently finished Chemo for Ovarian Cancer I felt overwhelmingly grateful to the Chemists who made it possible. There seems a rush of threads saying that because a less favourite subject is being taught its somehow "no use" Bizarre !

Chemistry is fun! Colour, fireworks, all sorts. I loved doing chromatography. And growing crystals. But it also helps me understand how I can make cakes rise better; why I shouldn't mix certain household chemicals; how bleaching agents work with laundry; what sort of fertiliser to use in the garden and what NPK values are (and I also understand why mixing chemicals wrongly in an agricultural sprayer can cause great swearing after the time Dad was left with an expensive tank of jelly...) I learnt about acid rain and smog and the ozone layer, about nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria, just the patterns in the periodic table, how some elements have similar properties.

Yes, I could live without knowing most of that, but life would be a bit duller, and a bit less safe.

Chemistry is amazing.
it's about how the very elements interact and how complex compounds can be made.

There'd be no paints, drugs, cleaning products without chemistry.

Yeah you might make things without detailed knowledge but you wouldn't know why you limonene synthesis smelt funny.

And where would we be without chemistry for jokes like:
Two scientists walk into a bar. “I’ll have H2O,” says the first. The other says, “I’ll have H2O, too.”
The second one dies.

This.

This. All of this. Thank you

@icantwaitforsummer

If you are a driving instructor - some basic understanding of chemistry, engineering and physics is useful - from how the gears work, how best to lubricate the car, stopping distances and what those chemical symbols mean on tankers

a dog walker - a basic understanding of biology and anatomy and physiology and when to take an animal to a vet are all useful, as is money management, tax accounting and the laws regarding self employment

a retail manager - mathematics is a strong subject here with mainly logistics and statistics, with some biology, chemistry and then sociology thrown in to help understand employees and customers behaviours - the storage of chemicals in large quantities, how limescale busting toilet cleaners shouldn't be in the same cage or areas of the warehouse as bleach based cleaners, how cleaning chemicals are stored for cleaning the shop, food hygiene management and licencing laws

therapist - drugs and their interactions, sociology, psychology

a midwife - Mathematics, chemistry, biology, human physiology and anatomy, fetal medicine, adult medicine, the law and psychology

a social worker - drugs and signals of drug addiction, psychology, sociology, the law, human anatomy and physiology

a council planner - Physics, engineering, mathematics, chemical knowledge of different mortars, building materials and flame retardant surfaces

a paramedic - Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology all feature strongly with any of the medical professions - paramedics aren't just 'ambulance drivers', they calculate and administer drug dosages, need to know the interactions of prescription drugs, read ECGs, drive and need to prove that they can keep a seriously ill patient alive until they get to the hospital

a marketing manager - Mathematics, statistics, logic psychology and some creativity

primary school teacher - don't be daft, any teacher needs a solid grounding in all the scietific disciplines in order to expand the minds of their pupils

pilot - Again, maths, physics, some chemistry, aeronatics, some knowledge of human behaviour

soldier - chemical actions of some weapons, physics, some biology

You don't need to know it!

Yeah, you do

If it helps we have had similar discussions about poetry, which I think personally is less ESSENTIAL, but all contributes to a wide colourful life

See, this is a good point but one that just wouldn't have come to me on the basis of my incredibly dull chemistry lessons at school.

As @taxguru said in an earlier post

I can't really remember much of what we were taught as it was taught in a way that simply didn't relate to the real World at all.

This really needs to change to attract young people to chemistry.