On this page you can read about the history of this site, its purpose and goals and how and why it has been constructed and learn more about its content.
All of these perspectives should add to your appreciation, enjoyment and understanding of the site and increase its usefulness to you.
HISTORY. The site has its origins circa 1998 when I was teaching 9081 EDEXCEL A Level Chemistry in London, England. I had spent several years developing a word-processed set of A level notes which I handed out to the students as a basis for their study. I became tired of photocopying vast quantities of these notes for my students and it occurred to me that publishing them online, with the expectation that each student should be responsible for accessing their own set of notes, would have a double advantage. Not only would it remove a large administrative burden from my shoulders but that, in a small way, it would also pass some of the responsibility for their own learning on to the students. Common sense (as well as complex educational theory) tells us this is a positive thing. It engages students and helps them to make the connection between their actions and the effectiveness of their learning. From that simple origin the site has grown to what it is today with homework's, labs, parental information and other material added, updated and reviewed several times a week. Further, more subtle advantages have since become apparent. By publishing homework's and deadlines in a public, 24/7 type fashion, all ambiguity and misunderstandings regarding expectations of students is also removed. Many classic excuses for failure to meet those expectations are removed by the omnipresent nature of all tasks, deadlines and expectations.
PURPOSE AND GOALS. Simple. To facilitate the learning experience of the students in my classes. Never technology for technology's sake.
CONSTRUCTION. The site is almost exclusively hand crafted HTML, in which I am self-taught. The very few pieces of JavaScript that appear are cut and pasted from free sources on the Internet and then adapted by me for my specific use. All of the pages are written using Notepad and tested on Netscape 6.2 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0. The pages are designed to be viewed at 1024x768 resolution.
UK and US COMPARISONS. As a rough guide, the following comparisons between the chemistry delivered in US and UK high schools should be useful. Regular and Honors chemistry in the US is roughly equivalent to GCSE level chemistry in the UK. My particular brand of Honors chemistry occasionally touches upon some A/AS Level type areas. The Advanced Placement course in the US is extremely similar to the UK A Level, but contains very little, if any, Organic Chemistry. Study of Organics is almost exclusively reserved for US college (UK university).
LATEST WEB SITE STATISTICS. The site was relaunched as www.adriandingleschemistrypages.com in Decemebr of 2004. As of September 30th 2005, the following statistics had been recorded for the current calender year.
DISCLAIMER & COPYRIGHT. Please take a moment to read the disclaimer and the copyright notices.
