Chemistry, made learnable
Study guides for the class everyone says is hard.
Guides and explainers for students and the parents helping them: how to memorize the periodic table, why you blank on tests even when you studied, and how to walk into chemistry with a head start.
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Get Ahead in Chemistry Before Class Starts
The best head start for high-school chemistry: learn the periodic table before class. Ten minutes a day of summer games, and your kid walks in fluent.
Guide · 5 min read →
Acids, Bases, and pH: A High School Guide
An acid gives up a proton and a base takes one. pH is the number for how acidic a water solution is: below 7 acidic, 7 neutral at 25 °C, above 7 basic.
Explainer · 10 min read →
Chemistry Regents Curve: Raw Score for a 65
Is there a Chemistry Regents curve? Not in the grading sense: students needed 50 of 85 raw points for a 65 at every legacy sitting since August 2024.
Guide · 7 min read →
Chemistry Regents Reference Tables 2011/2025
The 2011 Chemistry Reference Tables are 12 pages; the 2025 edition is 4. The edition for each exam through June 2027, what NYSED cut, and where NYSED put it.
Guide · 8 min read →
Greenland Shark Lifespan: How Do We Know?
Greenland sharks can live at least 272 years. Scientists put the largest at 272 to 512 from the carbon-14 in its eye and its length. How sure is that?
Explainer · 12 min read →
How Accurate Is Carbon Dating?
Scientists can carbon-date things up to 50,000 years old, usually to a 120–200 year range at 95% confidence. How it works, its limits, famous cases.
Explainer · 15 min read →
Online Chemistry Games to Play in a Browser
Play seven online chemistry games in a browser. Bond Forge and Pt Paddle are free for 12 elements, Acid Boy & Base Girl for two missions, no account.
Guide · 5 min read →
Acid Boy & Base Girl: The pH Game
Acid Boy & Base Girl is a 3D pH game: two heroes, nine rooms, real substances on the pH scale. The first two missions are free in your browser.
Explainer · 7 min read →
Chemistry Games for High School
Pick a chemistry game for elements, formulas, molecular shapes, or balancing equations. Includes free options and classroom challenges with answers.
Guide · 6 min read →
How To Use A Blank Periodic Table
Use a blank periodic table for symbols, groups, and periods. Free worksheet PDFs, a completed chart, and classroom exercises with an answer key.
Guide · 6 min read →
Bond Forge: Chemistry Dots and Boxes
Play chemistry dots and boxes on a 3D forge table: answer to draw bonds, close boxes, and challenge Cobalt or a friend. Free starter elements.
Explainer · 5 min read →
Element Symbols: Chemistry's Times Tables
Math has a named fact layer parents watch for. Chemistry has one too, still unnamed: element symbols either become automatic or cost attention on every line.
Explainer · 5 min read →
Is Competition Good for Learning?
A teacher’s blunt words about racing to recite times tables, what researchers found testing competition, and a design that is safe for slower starters.
Explainer · 5 min read →
Is Game-Based Learning Effective? 34 Studies
A meta-analysis of 34 chemistry studies, a six-school experiment on the periodic table, and the answer kids give when researchers ask what helps them learn.
Explainer · 5 min read →
Should Students Memorize the Periodic Table?
The chart on the wall is a scaffold for some things and a crutch for others. What researchers found students should memorize, look up, and drill under a timer.
Explainer · 5 min read →
The Science Behind Periodic Mole
We built our chemistry games on published research: game-based learning, spacing, per-fact practice doses. And we say what we refuse to claim.
Explainer · 6 min read →
Why Students Forget Chemistry So Fast
Memory for chemistry fades fastest in the first days after the test. What researchers found about forgetting, and how to schedule practice for a flatter curve.
Explainer · 5 min read →
Your Kid’s Chemistry Homework: Why So Long?
Two hours of homework, and the answers are right. That pattern has a name, a cause you can test at the dinner table, and a fix measured in weeks.
Explainer · 4 min read →
Printable Periodic Table PDFs for Class
Choose a free printable periodic table PDF with names, atomic masses, or blank cells. Direct downloads, paper sizes, and printing tips for class.
Guide · 5 min read →
The New Chemistry Regents (2026–27)
The first Physical Science: Chemistry Regents was in June 2026. The next sitting is January 26, 2027. What changed, how it's scored, and how to prepare.
Guide · 8 min read →
How the Hunt Brothers Cornered Silver
In 1980 two Texas brothers drove silver from $6 to nearly $50 an ounce, then couldn’t meet their margin calls in the crash. Industrial metal is hard to corner.
Explainer · 7 min read →
Helium Was Discovered on the Sun First
Helium is the only element found in space before Earth. Astronomers saw its yellow line in an 1868 eclipse, and chemists found it here 27 years later.
Explainer · 6 min read →
When Aluminum Was Worth More Than Gold
In the mid-1800s aluminum cost more than gold, because no one could free it from its ore. Then two young inventors did, and the price collapsed.
Explainer · 6 min read →
Chemistry Apps for Teachers
Students drill chemistry fluency in our mastery-gated games; you keep class time for reasoning and phenomena. Free full access for chemistry teachers.
Guide · 7 min read →
What Happened to Collisions?
PlayMada wound down Collisions, its free chemistry game, in 2022. What happened, whether you can still use it, and what to use instead.
Guide · 8 min read →
Why Your Kid Has Gaps in Chemistry
A class has one pace, but every kid is missing different pieces. Here's what mastery-based learning is and how we find each kid's gaps automatically.
Explainer · 7 min read →
Free Chemistry Printables for Teachers
Free, CC-licensed chemistry printables: periodic tables in Letter, A4, and 11×17, a blank worksheet, a wall poster, 118 element posters, and flashcards.
Guide · 7 min read →
Fireworks Chemistry: Every Color in the Sky
Fireworks are flame tests at full scale: strontium burns red, barium green, copper blue. The chemistry of firework colors, and the chemicals we retired.
Explainer · 8 min read →
The Best Interactive Periodic Table
Most interactive periodic tables are for looking elements up. On the best one for learning them, you recall each element, with games and spaced repetition.
Guide · 7 min read →
What Every Element Looks Like
Most elements are silvery metal, but bromine is a liquid, cesium is gold, gallium melts in your hand, and bismuth grows rainbow crystals. A visual tour.
Explainer · 6 min read →
Master the Periodic Table, Earn Real Money
The Element Mastery Prize is open June 12–Sept 15. Master all 118 elements and earn money: at least $25 for every kid who finishes, $250 for the fastest.
News · 5 min read →
The Mole, Explained With a Carton of Eggs
A mole is the chemist’s counting word, like a dozen, and not a weight. Our egg analogy for molar mass, plus a free poster.
Explainer · 4 min read →
How to Pass the Chemistry Regents in 2027
Is the Chemistry Regents hard? Students needed 50 of 85 raw points to pass recent legacy exams and 21 of 50 on the new one. A study plan for 2027.
Guide · 7 min read →
Is High School Chemistry Hard?
Chemistry is harder than the courses before it, but the difficulty is specific and fixable: you work in three languages at once. How to make it easier.
Explainer · 5 min read →
Anki for High School Chemistry: The Catch
Anki is the best flashcard engine there is, and solo, blank, and dry, so a lot of high schoolers quit. Where it fits, and the game-based complement.
Guide · 4 min read →
How to Help a Teen Struggling in Chemistry
A teen failing chemistry is usually just weeks behind on the basics. They can rebuild the foundation in short daily games, and you need no chemistry to help.
Guide · 5 min read →
How to Memorize the Periodic Table Fast
What you cram is gone by Monday. To remember the table long-term, learn symbol-to-name for the core elements in short daily games, mnemonics as backup.
Guide · 4 min read →
How to Study Chemistry With Friends
Study chemistry with friends through head-to-head games in Bond Forge and Pt Paddle, or solve pH puzzles together in Acid Boy & Base Girl.
Guide · 4 min read →
How to Study for a Chemistry Test
Understanding chemistry in class but freezing on the test means you studied the comfortable way. The fix is active recall across days, as a game.
Guide · 4 min read →
Periodic Table Games: What to Play
Choose a periodic table game for symbols, names, or timed recall. Compare free and paid options, see the questions, and try a short practice session.
Guide · 5 min read →
The Quizlet Alternative for Chemistry
Quizlet is fine for quick vocab, but it is solo and mostly multiple choice. To make the periodic table actually stick, try learning it by playing games.
Guide · 4 min read →