This is a collection of resources developed for secondary school chemistry teachers.
These open-access resources have been partly funded by the Ministry of Education through NEX funding. They are made available to any chemistry teachers to download, modify to meet their particular needs, and to distribute to any of their students, but they cannot be used for commercial purposes in either their original or modified forms.
Resources to support the implementation of L1 Chemistry standards 2024
Level 1 NCEA resources
These resources are not intended to be prescriptive but are suggestions that teachers can use as starting point to develop their own teaching and learning programs that best meet the needs of their students.
CB1.2 Chemical reactions
This section contains 4 teaching outlines using different contexts of Health, Household Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry and Chemistry cycles. There is also a curated list of free on-line resources and a generic set of student notes which include exercises, worksheets and experiments.
CB1.2 (v1) Assessment resources (2024)
This section contains Teacher Assessment Guidelines, a generic assessment task template, a list of contexts for teaching and assessment and two formative assessment tasks with assessment schedules.
CB1.2 (v2) Assessment Resources (2025)
CB1.4 Chemical reactions
This section contains 3 teaching outlines using different contexts of Electric cars, Not in my backyard and Vaping. There is also a curated list of free on-line resources and a generic set of student notes which include exercises, worksheets and experiments. The assessment tasks are intended to be used as part of the teaching and learning program to help students develop the skills and knowledge expected in this standard. They are not suitable for obtaining derived grades – that is the role of the CB1.4 mock exam which can be downloaded from the members only section.
NZ Chemistry Olympiad
The International Chemistry Olympiad, ICHO, started in Eastern Europe in 1968 and has grown to about 90 countries with New Zealand first competing in 1992. The NZ Chemistry Olympiad, NZCHO, is a charitable organization managed by a group of trustees and each year the program is run on a voluntary basis by a small group of dedicated secondary and tertiary teachers. This download contains more information about the Olympiad programme
NZ Chemistry Olympiad DownloadStudent notes, Lab Manuals and Worksheets for L2 and L3 Chemistry Externals
These resources were originally intended to support new, isolated or non- specialist teachers of senior Chemistry. However, the consequences of the pandemic plus industrial action have meant that many schools are now struggling to be able to teach all three externals in the time available. So these resources can be provided for independent study by students who wish to take all three externals to prepare for tertiary studies or to enter for Olympiad or Scholarship Examinations. But any of the resources can also be freely used to support any of the external standards offered by the school as part of its learning program. All resources are in unprotected word format so that they can be easily edited to meet specific needs of your students. Documents can be downloaded individually or as a zip file
L2 Chemistry
L3 Chemistry
L3 Chemistry Download
Workshop on Sustainability through a systems approach
A series of 1 day workshops entitled “ Sustainability and Chemistry Teaching” were presented in April 2023 by Dr Seamus Delaney from Deakin University, Melbourne as a collaboration between IUPAC and SCENZ. The workshops introduced systems thinking and its usefulness in helping students to connect chemistry to global sustainability challenges. The collaborative and practical activities, including links to sustainable development-orientated contemporary science innovations, can be downloaded using the link below.
Systems Thinking About Sustainability in Chemistry Workshop downloadC3.2 Spectroscopy
This zip file resource contains a full teaching and assessment package fo the C3.3 standard. It includes a brief teaching guide, student notes and worksheet exercises, power points, data tables, masters for laminated card activities, four practice assessment activities with worked answers and two final assessment tasks with schedules plus other assorted activities and scenarios. Although intended to be used by teachers with their students, it could alo be used independently by reasonably capable students requiring some extra credits, with minimal tutorial support from the teacher.
Spectroscopy zip downloadScholarship Chemistry
These are the first three of a suite of four resources to support students and teachers of Scholarship Chemistry.
The first by Scott Franklin is an overview of Scholarship, its requirements and how to support students prepare for the examination.
The second by Dr Suzanne Boniface provides guidance to students on the problem solving approaches expected for Scholarship.
The third by Ian Torrie is a PowerPoint that provides information and advice on how to encourage and support Scholarship Chemistry students.
The fourth by Ian Torrie (due late 2025) will provide some L3 extension material that supports Scholarship plus more examples (not NZQA or NZIC) with fully worked answers to provide further practice for scholarship students.
Scholarship Chemistry - An Introduction and OverviewScholarship Chemistry - Problem Solving Skills
Scholarship Chemistry Powerpoint
Video resources
Prof. Allan Blackman (Auckland) has started a YouTube channel containing videos which explain important concepts in First Year Chemistry (link).
Let’s Talk Chemistry
Packer and Scott’s “Let’s Talk Chemistry” is an introduction to the basic concepts, vocabulary and language of chemistry. As it was written over 20 years ago, the exact definitions of the basic SI units in it are no longer up to date but this is not of consequence to chemists.
Let’s Talk ChemistryChemistry Olympiad Resource
This resource contains the following items to assist students prepare for the selection exam held at the end of term 3:
The resource can be given to students to work through independently or could be used within series of tutorials with a group of students.
Chemistry Olympiad Resources