[Dan E.]

I'm only thirteen but I am very bored with my school. I learn absolutely nothing and science class is a joke. It's gotten even worse since I moved to Israel. I'm sick of listening to a teacher who has to check her book to find out the structure of a Hydrogen atom. So I've been considering studying chemistry. I could do the practical part at home and write papers about what I did during science class. I have already discussed it with my parents and I have considered setting up a basic chemistry lab. I used to have a chemistry kit but mixing micro-amounts of diluted acids really doesn't give many results. This would leave me to get my own supplies. First of all, is there any age restriction on purchasing chemicals? And if so, does it exist in Israel? Secondly, what equipment would I need and are there any books you can recommend about the subject? Lastly, if this is in the wrong forum, please move this topic and if this topic is completely irrelevant to the forums, just delete it.

[Dan]

You will almost certainly get teachers who know more about the subject as you get older and the material becomes more advanced, so I wouldn't worry too much at this point in your education.

For home study, I would stick to books. Setting up a basic lab will be tricky, and potentially dangerous, but it can be done. Check out the "citizen chemist" forum for stuff about home chemistry, and you may also find this useful http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_chemistry

For safety reasons, I would not advise you to persue home practical chemistry if your parents are not from a scientific background. You should be supervised.

As for books, check out the sticky threads in the "high school chemistry forum" and "General chemistry forum" that list good books. The general chemistry texts may be too advanced though.

You must be careful and make sure that this does not adversely affect your other school studies, since you need to get through all your exams to progress to higher education. You might end up shooting yourself in the foot. Good luck.

[Dan E.]

All the science teachers in my school are absolutely clueless, and it really doesn't get any better. To give you an idea of what we did today. We watched one of the lab assistants put powdered cobalt, magnesium, and some other compounds in dishes. Then we watched her pour alcohol over them and set them on fire. Everyone was fascinated by the "pretty colors". She didn't even bother explaining anything since my class is too stupid. They literally stuck their faces into the cobalt fumes. This is on a good day. On a bad day the teacher will struggle explaining what H2O is. The only class I have any trouble with is Arabic, self-explainable. I might as well try to get ahead in Science. My dad has some background in Science and Engineering. By the way, thanks for the wikipedia link, the reagent index is useful.

Edit:Nice name