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Stoichiometry, "the quantitative relationship between two or more substances especially in processes involving physical or chemical change" (Merriam-Webster), is currently a major part of the U.S. high school curriculum. Given a balanced chemical equation, a student must be able to convert the quantity (in moles, atoms/molecules/formula units, mass, or volume) of one substance into the quantity of another substance and/or another kind of quantity in the equation.

However, I was not taught this in my own high school chemistry class, about 47 years ago. Others near my age also were not taught this. So when did this subject begin to be a common part of high school chemistry?

Note that I am not asking when the concept or the term was invented (by Jeremias Benjamin Richter: see this link or this one), just when it was commonly taught in American high schools. My web searches can find many pages on doing or teaching stoichiometry or on its origins, but nothing on the history of its teaching.

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    $\begingroup$ See Jensen's thesis The Secondary Chemistry Textbook and the History of Secondary Chemistry Teaching, 1820–1960, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, 1972. In colleges stoichiometry teaching dates back to Cooke's booklet of 1865, see Jensen's The Origin of Stoichiometry Problems. $\endgroup$
    – Conifold
    Apr 29, 2019 at 0:16

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It is very hard to separate stoichiometry from chemistry just like separating the concept of addition and subtraction from the teaching of mathematics. As long as atomic weights calculations were taught, knowledge of stoichiometry was essential. I think it was a part and parcel of all chemistry curricula since its beginning in Germany. If you see an essay on "The Outlook for a Better Correlation of Secondary School and College Instruction in Chemistry" written by H. P. Talbot in 1906 and published in Science, one can see that a mastery of stoichiometry was essential.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1634694?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

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    $\begingroup$ As I scan the paper, it is not clear to me that the author is saying that stoichiometry is frequently taught in secondary schools--much of the writing is about colleges. One of his points is that secondary school chemistry had a great deal of variety and was often not taught at all. And your viewpoint disagrees with the experience of myself and others. Can you integrate that somehow? $\endgroup$
    – Rory Daulton
    Apr 29, 2019 at 0:00
  • $\begingroup$ I forgot to add that you can also search the Journal of Chemical Education. Do a title search and sort by date. I am not sure about secondary schools but I can recall that stoichiometry was discussed in very old books. $\endgroup$
    – AChem
    Apr 29, 2019 at 0:11
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    $\begingroup$ I think the sort of documentation that you'd want to use to support an answer for this question would be more likely to by syllabus documents rather than academic papers. $\endgroup$
    – nick012000
    Apr 29, 2019 at 2:38
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    $\begingroup$ I am accepting this answer even though it does not quite seem spot on to the question. This is the only answer, and it is helpful. Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – Rory Daulton
    Apr 30, 2019 at 0:09

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