First Week of Chemistry Class: What Teachers Need (and Students Should Know)

The first week of a chemistry course sets the tone for the entire semester. For teachers, it's about establishing expectations and quietly diagnosing where students actually are. For students, it's about building the daily habits that prevent the mid-semester crisis that everyone in the department pretends doesn't happen but absolutely does.

For teachers: the essentials for Week 1.

Lab safety and equipment identification come first. No student touches glassware or chemicals without knowing the difference between a beaker, an Erlenmeyer flask, a graduated cylinder, and a burette. They need to know where the eyewash station is, where the fire extinguisher is, and what to do if they spill acid on their skin. A lab equipment identification activity on Day 1 accomplishes two things: it familiarizes students with the tools they'll use all semester, and it gives you a low-stakes way to observe how they follow instructions and handle lab materials. Both of those data points are useful going forward.

A diagnostic assessment on Day 2 or 3 is invaluable. This doesn't need to be graded; in fact, it's often more honest when it isn't. Give students 15–20 questions covering basic algebra, scientific notation, unit conversions, and maybe some simple conceptual chemistry. The results tell you who has solid math foundations and who is going to need extra support when stoichiometry hits in a few weeks. You can't intervene if you don't know where the gaps are.

Significant figures and measurement make a natural first-week teaching topic. They're low-stakes conceptually, they ease students into the pace of the course, and they reveal quickly who struggles with the mathematical reasoning that underpins everything else. A ruler-and-graduated-cylinder measurement lab on Day 3 or 4 is a low-prep, high-value activity.

Finally, set lab report expectations early. Show the format (Title, Abstract, Introduction, Experimental, Data, Discussion, Conclusion) during Week 1 and provide a template or annotated example. The first graded lab report should never be the first time students encounter the expected format. It saves hours of grading headaches later and dramatically reduces the number of "but I didn't know we needed an abstract" emails in your inbox.

One more teacher tip: assign a short, low-stakes math assessment during Week 1 that covers scientific notation, unit conversions, and basic algebra. Make it ungraded or minimally weighted. The purpose isn't to penalize students; it's to generate data. Which students can rearrange PV = nRT? Which ones struggle with scientific notation on their calculators? That diagnostic data lets you target your early interventions precisely. The students who need a math bootcamp can get one before stoichiometry arrives and turns a fixable gap into a failing grade.

For students: what to do before and during Week 1.

Get comfortable with your calculator before the first exam, not during it. Find the EE/EXP button for scientific notation entry. Learn how to switch between degrees and radians (you'll need degrees for some VSEPR bond angle problems). Practice entering and interpreting results in scientific notation.

Preview Chapter 1 before classes start; even a quick skim of measurement, significant figures, and unit conversions gives you a framework to hang the lecture content on. Students who preview outperform students who don't, consistently, across every section I've taught or tutored.

Start memorizing the first 20 elements and common polyatomic ions now. Not the night before Test 1, not the weekend before the nomenclature quiz, but now. Future you will be grateful, and present you will be surprised how quickly they stick with 10 minutes of daily flashcard practice.

One more thing for students: take the first homework assignment seriously. First-week homework in chemistry often covers measurement and sig figs, which feels easy and tempts students to blow it off. Don't. The grading standards your professor sets on Assignment 1 carry through the entire course. If you lose points on sig figs in Week 1 because you didn't read the instructions carefully, that same deduction will appear on every assignment and exam for the rest of the semester. Establish good habits early, when the material is forgiving, so they're automatic when the material gets hard.