Math and chemistry are two different subjects and need to be taught differently.
Even the packet that you're given to use on the AP test has a periodic table and a lot of formulas on it.
That said, there's still a lot of stuff you need to memorize for chemistry. Just less equations and stuff, as the important thing is to remember how to apply the equations.
In math, you're not given equations/formulas so much as you're given rules. And rules need to be memorized, plain and simple. When I took calculus my teacher (probably the best teacher I've ever had, and I was lucky enough to have him two years in a row) had given us several sheets that were printed front and back with formulas. At the beginning of the year they were all gibberish... halfway through we'd memorized around two of the pages front and back. Most people had lost them as we never used them. Finding something on there is a nightmare, as even being printed front and back there was a lot of information condensed in a little space. But at the same time, it all seemed like it was obvious and didn't need to be said... because that's just how math works. I guess I'm muddling this a little bit but there's a point... and I guess it's that there are no 'big' and 'small' concepts in math, it's just a pyramid that progressively gets bigger and bigger, and if you're like me or any of my friends, it's something that clicks around the time you get to calculus... and all the ways that you've been taught math all of the sudden make sense, and you never ask 'when will I ever use this?' ever again, because you realize that even if something doesn't really seem to be very useful at the moment in a year or two it will be essential, and even if something seems hard in another month it will be step 1 of a 5 step problem and you'll be able to do it without thinking, and you begin to appreciate (to a degree) when your teacher makes you do it 'the hard way' or doesn't give you the shortcut. Math's funny like that.
'Doing it the hard way' is important for stuff like factoring, imaginary numbers, etc.,. However, telling the kids
why they need to do it that way is very important. Imagine trying to win WWII without telling anyone what Germany was doing. It would be very hard to convince someone to build an airplane to bomb them if we told them to 'just do it'. Showing kids what it should look like when they're done is essential. For instance, when teaching the quadratic formula, telling them how it was derived, who invented it, and how it makes life easier goes a long way when it comes to getting kids to memorize:
x=(-b)+-((b^2+4ac)^1/2)/2
Doing the above gives kids a good picture of what the heck they're doing. Just having them memorize different rules will get old quickly. Don't get me wrong, I like math!
-Penguin
