Much as the Sunburst / Treemap visualizations are invaluable for exploring the syllabus, teachers certainly need tabular / spreadsheet versions of the syllabus to organize the lessons. You can find here two variations for different use cases.
Note that the syllabus misses specifics for the Practical components, do not allocation of time within a single subtopic, and do not provide sub-subtopic numbering. I created these to facilitate usage and providing a standard language for us to talk about the course.
Also available en 🇦🇷 Español, 🇫🇷 Français, and 🇯🇵 日本語. (TODO)
Interactive Web Viewer
Topic details
This first variation categorizes syllabus lines (subsubtopic) by their topic and subtopic. Built-in controls make it quick and easy to look for / isolate a specific entry.
Click on a header to collapse or open a section, and use the controls at the top to filter and search for particular syllabus lines. Use “view larger version” button on lower-left to open in a new window.
Guiding and Linking Questions
The 2025 syllabus also provides guiding questions and the linking questions. Guiding questions helps provide the focus for each topic; for example, for S1.5 the central point is “How does the model of ideal gas behaviour help us to predict the behaviour of real gases?”.
Linking questions are interesting and potent. Chemistry concepts intertwine, but without having (yet) holding the entire syllabus in your head, it may not be so clear what the connections are. The linking questions, crafted by the syllabus authors, provide stimulations for how the different parts of the syllabus can be related to one other.
Here is where I find the interactivity (esp. filtering and sorting) becomes useful (these controls appear when you browse this page using a desktop browser). Each linking question joins several subtopics, but in the Subject Guide each question exists only along its primary subsubtopic: reading the entire S2.1 section, you would find 9 linking questions. However, by filtering on S2.1, you can now get all 19 references — e.g., “What are the conjugate acids of the polyatomic anions listed in Structure 2.1?” that is listed under R3.1.
The linking questions are also found in the Syllabus Line table. You will need to scroll across to see them, and not all topics have a linking questions so some rows are blank (while others can be heavily populated!)
Spreadsheet
The second variation, as a Google Sheet, shows all the entries by default.
You can create personal copies by visiting the original spreadsheet (🔗 link), and then select File / Make a Copy.
I added Column G Status as an open-ended convenience, where you can choose between ✅ 🚧 🚫 through a drop-down menu:
Some uses may be to indicate whether you have finished with an entry with a class. These ✅ 🚧 🚫 values are specified in a hidden sheet called Options, and by editing that you can control what appears in the drop-down.
If you re-purpose this content for distribution, please include a link back to this page: http://www.jon.hk/chem/syllabus/table.
Changelog
- v1.0. 2022-09-07. Interactive syllabus and spreadsheet formats.
- v1.1. 2022-09-24. Added interactive table for guiding and linking questions.
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