LOWER SECONDARY CURRICULUM CHEMISTRY SENIOR TWO

This course is part of the reform of the school curriculum in Uganda which involves changes in what is taught in schools, how it is taught and how long it should take. This will make you a unique person when you leave school, whatever you do thereafter. In the past, the main aim of going to school was to acquire knowledge-that is facts and ideas about each subject. Now, the main aim is that you should be
able to acquire both knowledge and understanding as you develop skills, values and competences. These skills or competencies include the ability to think for yourself, be able to communicate with otherand explain what you have learnt, to be creative, and to be able to think critically, that is, develop your own ideas, not just to follow those of the teacher and the textbook. You should also be able to find out
information and ideas for yourself, rather than just relying on what the teacher or textbook tells you.

This means that this course has a variety of activities for you to do, as well as information for you to read. The activities present you with the opportunity to learn and find out things for yourself. You already have a lot of knowledge and ideas based on your own experiences in life and within your own community. Some of the activities, therefore, require you to think about the knowledge and ideas you already have. In using this book, therefore, it is essential that you do all the activities. You will not learn properly unless you do these activities. They are the most important part of the book. In some ways, this makes learning more of a challenge. It is more difficult to think for yourself than to copy what the teacher tells you. But if you take up this challenge, you will become a better person and become more successful in life.

You can also learn a lot from other people within the groups created in class. Ideas are shared together. You learn and achieve together. A learning problem can easily be solved by discussing it with others.
Opportunities to learn are well shared and different tasks are given to every member of the group. Many of the activities in the book, therefore, involve discussion or other activities done in groups or pairs.
Your teacher will help to organise the groups and may arrange the Classroom in such a way that you sit facing each other. You cannot discuss properly unless you are facing each other.

One of the objectives of the new curriculum is to help you find things out for yourself. Some activities, therefore, ask you to do research using books in the library, the internet if your school has this, or other sources, such as newspapers and magazines. This means you will develop the skills of learning for yourself when you leave school. Your teacher will help you if your school does not have a good library or internet.

A programme planner is also given hereunder to guide you on what to learn throughout the year of study. The Senior Two Chemistry covers one theme reflecting different chapters as indicated below in the programme planner.