It’s unclear to me why biology is typically taught before chemistry when so much of biology is chemistry of the cell. How cells capture energy, produce energy, and synthesize proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates, and how cells divide, reproduce, and communicate with other cells are all best understood with an understanding of chemistry.
Apparently, biology is taught before chemistry because the concepts in biology are more familiar and require less math.
As for the math needed in chemistry, it’s rather plain, and as for the unfamiliarity of atoms and molecules, it only takes a few weeks to explain the structure of atoms and how they bond to each other to form molecules with characteristic properties. Here it is in a nutshell.
There are about 100 different atoms in the world, but they only use 1 of 4 ways to bond to each other to form molecules. Each method of bonding creates a molecule with characteristic properties, such as gas, liquid, or solid at room temperature, their solubility in water, acidity, flammability, and so on.
The 4 ways atoms bond to each other is explained in a 1-hour video, entitled “Chemistry in an Hour,” viewable on my website, www.fascinatingeducation.net.
The rest of chemistry is explaining how we measure the number and weight of molecules, their pressure, their acidity, and so on, and how the 4 methods of bonding can be modified to create molecules with unique properties.
Chemistry is not only the basis for biology, it’s also the basis for physics, because physics is the study of forces – the forces of motion, magnetism, electricity, electromagnetic forces, and nuclear energy. Every one of these forces stem from the atom. Mechanical forces stem from the movement of atoms. Electrical forces stem from the negative electrical charges on electrons and the positive electrical charges on protons. Magnetic forces are created by spinning electrons. And electromagnetic forces form when electrons jump from one orbit to a lower energy orbit.
In short, students would get a lot more out of biology if they studied biology with a background in chemistry.