How We Prepare Eighth-and Ninth-Graders for the Study of Organic Chemistry.

Now that an entirely new syllabus is being used for the high-school course in inorganic chemistry, pupils are proving to be theoretically better prepared for embarking on the study of organic chemistry, above all because of their more thorough knowledge of the periodic law and the periodic system of elements, learned on the basis of the electron theory. They have a clear conception of atomic structure and of how this structure affects the properties of elements. They are able to see the chemical bond as the product of a specific interaction between the electron shells of atoms, and they understand valence. Finally, they are able to explain the properties of matter in terms of charge size, atomic and ionic radii, the type of chemical bond, and the type of crystal lattice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]