What is the point of Chemistry?

[MealDealDreamz]

Genuinely asking. I understand that it is essential for life and those that excel at science will love it. But my child is currently cramming for tomorrow and I'm looking at it thinking what really is the point of all this? My child will go into more business and languages subjects at A level hopefully. They like biology and physics but they asked me this morning to help them understand why Chemistry is so important. I just could not explain...

Brcsuse it's important to have at least a basic understanding of many things, not just an indepth knowledge of a very few limited things

Yep. And also how will your child know they like biology but don't enjoy chemistry if they don't experience both?

My dad had chemotherapy on Friday. His 6 cycles is expected to give him an extra 5+ years of life. (Which means that he will almost certainly die of something other than his cancer given his age.)

Without chemistry there would be no chemotherapy.

I agree.

It also helps to know why you don't put a random mix of chemical cleaning products down the toilet.

Hmmm maybe as existence is based on a lot of chemical and bichemical processes.. do you feel the same way about all the other subjects? No curiosity at all except on 2 topics?

I was shocked on leaving college that actually most labs want chemistry as opposed to microbiology/ immunology etc- building blocks of chemicals, reactions etc etc. Very necessary in those areas

It is one of the best subjects for giving you the potential to understand the world as an adult. It’s not the fact that when you’re a 30-something working in hospitality or retail you’ll ever need to know how to test for hydrogen or that magnesium burns with a brilliant white flame, but that everyone encounters chemicals while cleaning and doing DIY and dealing with their own medication, and that many elements of scientific progress are better understood if you have the building blocks that some basic chemistry knowledge provides.

i think that students aiming for pass grades are better off doing combined science so that they have an opportunity to consolidate a decent level of fundamental understanding but for high-achieving students the world is made better by people having a broad knowledge rather than stovepipes of specialism.

Mrs Hinch style. Every time someone aska what's the point of basic chemistry, I remember her🙈

I would also add, explosive mixes an basic "do not lick" knowledge.

Yep I’m a microbiologist…lots of chemistry modules in my course too.

If making plaster of paris figures it is useful to know what an exothermic reaction is.

And then you have adults who genuinely believe that ‘no chemicals’ is possible and that ‘only natural chemicals’ is necessarily a good thing (anyone for some tree frog toxin in their face cream?).

If they hadn’t done chemistry GCSE then at the age of about 13 you’d have been blocking off hundreds of careers…medicine and allied ones being the most obvious (yes, you can do medicine without A-Level chemistry but you need that knowledge so without GCSE I’d suggest it’s not a starter).

Absolutely this. Without chemistry we'd all be chewing willow bark to relieve pain, and we'd be limited to growing food using manure as fertiliser and losing a lot of crops to pests and diseases.

Understanding the pros and cons of fracking?

The point being made is that, like most school subjects, the vast majority of pupils won't ever use it and don't actually need to learn it to GCSE level. No one is suggesting that it shouldn't be offered as a subject for those who are interested or think they'll need it in their chosen profession. No problem in having lessons in a broad range of subjects at earlier ages so kids can experience them, but we really shouldn't be forcing pupils to take in subjects in which they have no interest and are likely to get relatively low grades (because they're not interested!)

School isn't just about learning facts. Its learning how to learn, think and analyse.

So yes, he may never use the stuff he learns in Chemistry again... ut he will have learnt something from having to learn it.

Did you shower and brush your teeth this morning? Wash any dishes? Taken any medication recently?

🙂

You need it everywhere, you just don't realise it.

Limescale requires acids to clean.
Your fire needs fuel and oxygen.
Heartburn is treated with bases.
Rust is caused by water, oxygen...
Your plants will grow quicker with more light, carbon dioxide, nitrates, phosphates and potassium.
Baking requires yeast, which requires sugar at 37 degrees
Bleach is an oxidation reaction.

It's a problem solving tool. It's so easy to get into the 'I use this for that' mentality, but if 'this' doesn't work, understanding how it works is critical.

Learning is about how to learn, it's not always about the specific topic. In this case, I'd say knowing basic chemistry is actually quite useful

I love chemistry. It helps me know that chemical free is a selling slogan, that natural isn't always better and if I want to poison someone I can.

Most biology is also ultimately based on chemical reactions and processes - without chemistry nothing exists! Everything is made of chemicals.
Really it would be better if everyone understood a bit more chemistry. Some great examples already given about how it impacts our lives - health/ medicines, food & cooking, transport/ energy, even cleaning as mentioned, all based on chemistry or chemical reactions. I say this as someone that struggled with pure chemistry modules at uni!

I did Chemistry to age 16 and was never told not to put a mix of chemicals down the toilet. In fact, 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. But that was decades ago, so maybe it has changed to be more relevant to adult life and not just for careers??? My enduring memory is learning the periodic table parrot fashion for months on end - spending entire lessons being tested on it, and that spilling sulphuric acid (or hydrochloric acid?) on the bench causes a lot of smoke and a little crater!

My retired friend has a chemistry degree and taught chemistry to A-Level. Hugely helpful when discussing strategies for drain and septic tank issues.

Chemistry is essential. Have a look on some of these threads with people talking nonsense about "harmful chemicals", or unable to understand basic energy functions.
Plus; school isn't about just giving you the knowledge that you need for what you think you might do. It's about the cognitive process and development of processing skills.

Learning things by rote does improve memory function.

Thank you thank you thank you

I will share this wonderful knowledge! It is obvious when I think about it. They're doing combined foundation btw