Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Questions about US high-school

heya!

I got a few quick questions about high-school in the US -- I searched a bit on the net, but it's just gotten me eve more confused then I was before. *lol*

If a teenager was taking "chemestry 101" in high-school (that makes sense right? that they'd give this course in high-school?) - what grade would they be in and how old would that make them?

I just want to make sure I get this bit right so my story holds up.

Thank you!!

Well, I'll admit that my high school years were some time ago (ehem -- we won't go into how many) but where I went to high school, you took General Science the first year, Biology the second, Chemistry the third and Physics the fourth. I didn't get into Chemistry 101 or 102 (Organic Chemistry) until my first year at Indiana University. I'm quite sure that different high schools have different science requirements, but the chemistry we had in high school was basic inorganic chemistry. I realize Chemistry 101 was also basic chemistry, but it was a bit more complete at the university. If you want to avoid possible inaccuracies, I'd just call it Chemistry if your character is in high school.

Nan

I took Chemistry in Sophomore year, and Advanced Placement Chemistry in Senior year. The science requirements are different by county and state, I'm assuming, but where I went to school, we were required to take 3 years of lab science for the easier diploma, and 4 years for the harder one.

The people on the slower track general started with Earth Science in 9th grade, followed by Biology in 10th, and then I'm not entirely sure what came next. The people on the faster track generally took Bio, Chem, and Physics respectively, and then an advanced placement science in 12th grade.

At my school, we didn't have Chemistry 101 -- it was just called Chemistry. And Chemistry itself was broken down into Chemistry and Honors Chemistry. Same with Biology and Physics. Earth Science and Astronomy were not broken down. I think naming classes with number schemes is more of a college/university convention since they tend to have multiple levels of any given class.

If the school participates in the International Baccalaureate program (which is not common in the US), the AP classes might be combined with IB, though if there is sufficient demand, they might be separate.

My school had the following course options:
Earth Science, Astronomy, Honors Bio, Bio, AP/IB Bio, Honors Physics, Physics, AP/IB Physics, Honors Chemistry, Chemistry, and AP/IB Chemistry.

I ended up following this schedule:
9: Honors Bio
10: Honors Chem
11: Honors Phys
12: AP/IB Chem, Astronomy

Anyway, hope that helps. I know I kind of rambled.

Thanks Nan! Hey, no worries, it's been almost 20 years since I graduated from high-school myself. ;-)

And thanks Aria for the explanation.

I'm a little worried I'm screwed with this chemistry class now.... would it make sense for, let's say a 14 year old, to be in a chemistry class and be doing some experiments with liquids in test tubes and Bunsen burners and all that? Or would the kid need to be a few years older than that for it to be realistic?

I mean, I don't want to send him through the whole curriculum or anything - I never took chemistry in high-school myself, I took music instead, so I don't think I could manage to write anything so closely related to the science... I just want to make sure I get his age right, really. ;-) (the rest of it, I'm sure I can manage to fix)

thankies!

Well, I was 16, so that's not far off. It was my 3rd year of high school, but as Aria said, her school had Chemistry the second year. My dad gave me a chemistry set when I was in elementary school. It didn't have a Bunsen burner, but it had an alcohol lamp to heat the chemicals, so that's not too far off. I think you could probably get by with it at 14. I don't see any reason why not, unless someone else can come up with some.

Nan

cool deal - thanks so much!

That totally sounds fine. When I was in high school, I'm pretty sure we did biology and biology labs for the first two years, and then we did organic chem when I was a junior. But the curriculum could have easily started off with chemistry (which would have been so much more interesting :p ).

Jen

My particular high school didn't have any restrictions that I recall, as long as you took a science. I took Biology in 10th, Chem in 11th, and Advanced Bio in 12th. Some people took Physics in 12th. I think there were a few people that didn't take Chem or didn't take Bio, just took regular of one, then advanced, then physics. So someone in regular Chem could be 10th, 11th, or 12 grades. I don't recall any 9th graders, but I could be wrong.

All of the chem rooms I took classes in (several high schools) had gas faucets, for lack of a better term. You fitted the rubber hose of the burner onto the spigot, turned it on, then used the scraper/lighter to light the flame.

Through my experience it seems like the school systems in North America have been changing the names of basic grades and classes. I know where I am when I was in high school they changed the naming from the kids prior to me. When my brother went about seven years later, they changed the naming again!

eg. Grade 10 math became 201 math then S2 math. I think. That was for the 'normal' level math.

Mind you I don't live in the States, but at the time I had many penpals who claimed they got all twirly in the head because of changes they had to deal with too!

It depends on the high school. I took Chemistry my freshman year and biology my senior year. I was more interested in chemistry. In my school the only requirements were English and Physical Ed. each year. After that there were requirements of so many classes in each subject certain subjects in order to graduate. When you took what was up to you.

hehe - and I thought I was asking an easy question. LOL!

Thanks everyone for your input. I really appreciate it. I'm going to finish this story and post it real soon -- someone told me I ought to make up for posting a death fic my very first time around, so I've been working on this much lighter lil thing. hehehe!

Cheers!

This post is a little late since you have already posted your story (which was great).

Most high school classes do not have numbers attached to them such as Chemistry 101. It would just be Chemistry. The attached numbers are used for college level classes.

I took Chemistry in 8th grade when I was 13, but it was an honors class. By the time I was a freshman in high school, I was stuck in a Chemistry and Physics class.

In my high school, only honors students could take Chemistry classes. Biology could be taken by mid / upper level students. Most students took Earth Science.

thanks Classicalla! It's never too late to learn about things, so even if the story is all done, I do appreciate the information.

About the numbering - I guess it must be a Canadian thing? Or a Quebec thing, even? Classes were definitely numbered when I was in High School. I guess depending on the number you'd know which level it was, as well as if the course was regular or advanced. For instance, I clearly remember a course I had which was "Math 532" (don't ask why I remember this useless stuff, 20 years later.. I just do.) This was the advanced math class for the 5th year of high school. There were 2 other classes, less advanced but I don't recall the numbers precisely, something like 512 and 526.

Anyway... to quote John Travolta in Pulp Fiction "It's the little differences. A lotta the same shit we got here, they got there, but there they're a little different.". ;-) Ain't that the truth!

When I was in high school and I took different biology classes, they were called Biology 1, Biology 2, and Biology 3. I don't remember if there was a Biology 4 or not since I didn't take biology until I was a sophomore.

Canada has five years of high school? In the US we only have four.

Actually, in some parts of the US it's just three (because 9th gets clumped with 7th and 8th as junior high).

Yeah, 5 years of high school. It goes like this over here:

- kindergarten (it's 1 or 2 years now, apparently, used to be just 1)
- 6 years of elementary (starting at age 7)
- 5 years of high school
- 2 years of what we call College (or 3 years if you're taking a technical course and not going onwards to University)
- University (unless you completed a technical course in College, in which case, most people don't go)

In my case, for instance, I started elementary school at 7, was in high school at 12 and went on to College (called Cégep in Québec) at 17 where I took a technical course in journalism and radio broadcasting, therefore I never went to university. I graduated College I was 20. Went back again at 28 to learn computer programming, though - that's what I should have done in the first place, but what can I say when I was 17 my ambition in life was to be Lois Lane (I'm absolutely not kidding..!)