Introduction

There are seven options and students must answer questions on two of them in Paper 3 of the examination. For most teachers this means teaching two of the options to their students - 15 hours each for Standard Level and 22 hours each for Higher Level. Thus each option has 15 hours of common SL/HL material divided into sub-topics together with an additional 7 hours of extension material for Higher Level students. If you do the sums you will see that the options constitute 30 of the 110 hours (27.3%) of the theory part of the programme at Standard Level and 44 of the 179 hours (24.6%) of the theory part at Higher Level. (Actually the IB is not very good at doing its own sums as the total 240 hours at Higher Level is made up of 80 (Core) + 55 (AHL) + 44(Options) + 60(IA) which comes to 239 hours!)

The seven options are:

• Option A: Modern analytical chemistry

• Option B: Human biochemistry

• Option C: Chemistry in industry and society

• Option D: Medicines and drugs

• Option E: Environmental chemistry

• Option F: Food chemistry

• Option G: Further organic chemistry
   

 

What is on this site under ‘Options’?

This website looks at each of the options in detail. ‘Lesson plans’ are given for each sub-topic including key concepts and vocabulary, important points are emphasised and suggested resources such as video clips etc. are given.  On the CD-ROM which comes with the 2nd Edition of the Chemistry Course Companion I have included four sample complete Paper 3 exams (two at SL and two at HL) together with the markscheme and answers. Because the Course Companion is endorsed by the IB I have been able to include some past questions in these sample examinations but for copyright reasons I cannot re-use them here. Therefore on this website I have included completely new questions and included them after many of the sub-topics. You can use these questions either as class tests or to give to students for homework or to work through in their own time. All the answers are provided.
 

 

Teaching the options

Most teachers tend to teach the options at the end of the course after they have taught the Core (and AHL at Higher Level) although a few tend to integrate them into the course throughout the two years. This is particularly easy to do with the Further organic option as mechanisms can be included at the same time as teaching the organic reactions listed in Topics 10 and 20. A few teachers do not teach the options but give their students time to teach themselves the particular two options they wish to study. There is one advantage to this as it means that all the students in the same class do not have to study the same two options. However I would strongly recommend not doing this. I have written many of the Paper 3 examinations and acted as Principal Examiner for marking the scripts many times. Schools where the students answer questions from a variety of options virtually always do less well than those where all the students have answered the same two options. (The exception to this is schools with large numbers of candidates where students have been taught by different teachers in different classes and hence may have covered different options). A few schools that have more time do actually teach three rather than two of the options to give their students more choice when it comes to the examination.  Whilst I cannot see that this disadvantages the students (and they get to learn some more Chemistry) I cannot see that it has any real advantages as far as the examination goes either. 

One of the questions I am asked most when I run workshops is: How do you choose which options to teach? So what is the answer?

 

 

Choosing the options

Take a look at the photograph of bikers enjoying themselves at the famous Ace Café just outside London, U.K. It may be a little fanciful but we can make connections to all the seven options:
 

Option A: The composition of the bikes' fuel can be determined using analytical techniques (A 1.2)

Option B: The majority of the bike riders are male – it is a testosterone thing! (B.6.1)

Option C: The bikes are made from alloys of iron and aluminium (C.1.4)

Option D: When they ride the bikes the riders get a surge of epinephrine (adrenaline) (D.5.2)

Option E: The internal combustion engines on the bikes emit NO_x which cause air pollution (E.1.1)

Option F: The bikers themselves need to refuel (hence the café). Hopefully they eat nutritious food (F.1.1)

Option G: The gasoline (petrol) used is obtained from the cracking of oil and the other products are alkenes which can undergo electrophilic addition reactions (G.1.1) to form many of the plastics used on the bike accessories.

The point is that you can take almost any situation and by being imaginative can make connections with all the options. Apart from Option G, which is mainly theoretical, all the other options relate to Chemistry and Society and in a sense there is no need to emphasise ‘Aim 8’ when studying the options as they embody what it concerns. All of the options have their merits so the simple answer is that it really does not matter which two you teach.

Some of the reasons teachers give as to how they decide which two they teach include:

“Options A and G are the most academic and are better for students who like to solve problems.”

“Options B and D are the best for students who want to go on and study medicine.”

“Options E and F are better for those students who rely more on memory”.

“I choose  Option C and one other as that fits best alongside my own national system”.

“I choose the options that I feel most comfortable teaching”

“I let my students vote for which two options they want me to teach”

“I don’t teach Option F as it is 12 pages in the guide and all the others are 5 or 6 pages!”

There is probably some merit in all of these reasons. I am not convinced that Options B and D are best for potential medics – in many ways knowing more organic chemistry and being familiar with modern analytical techniques may prove more useful. My advice is to go initially with the two you feel most comfortable with teaching and as you become more experienced ‘take a risk’ and teach those you are less confident about. This will increase your own knowledge and enjoyment of Chemistry and give you more examples and anecdotes for when you teach the Core/AHL.

Three facts are worth remembering:

1. Every year teachers make claims to the effect that the questions on one (or more) of the options are easier to answer than the questions on the other options. When the paper is written considerable care is taken to try to balance the paper and ensure a genuine 50:50 split between Objectives 1 and 2 and Objective 3. When all the papers are marked it is amazing how many students score roughly similar marks on the two options they attempt and there is no evidence that it is easier to score higher marks on any one option compared to the others despite the perceptions of teachers.

2. Whichever two options you choose to teach, ultimately you have no control over which two options the students choose to answer in the exam. Sadly some students think they know the answers to options they have not studied but often they give only journalistic answers and score zero marks as there is not enough Chemistry in their answer. Yes, a natural source of methane is cows’ farts, but the answer required to score the marks must involve some mention of the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter. Impress upon your students that they should only answer questions on the options you have taught.

3. The options taken do not appear on the IB Diploma the student receives. This means that universities will know the final grade in Chemistry a student receives but unless they ask specifically they will not know which options the student studied.