CM 240 - Chemistry

Chemistry Techniques and Explorations (2023) by Dr. Daniel R. Albert is an eTextbook laboratory manual for first semester introductory chemistry courses. The manual includes two different types of experiments (Technique and Exploration) designed to engage students in chemistry laboratory practices.

Introductory Chemistry Online is an open-source introductory chemistry textbook/workbook that is designed cover a college-level one-semester course. Many contemporary textbooks in chemistry seem have adopted the notion that "more is better"; the books are long, expensive, and the pages are often cluttered with interesting tidbits and restatements of what it is that you have “just learned”. The Chemistry Online text, on the other extreme, is designed to be simple, uncluttered and very much to the point.

“Chemistry Is Everywhere.” Chemistry Is Everywhere” focuses on the personal hygiene products that you may use every morning: toothpaste, soap, and shampoo, among others. These products are chemicals, aren’t they? Ever wonder about the chemical reactions that they undergo to give you clean and healthy teeth or shiny hair? I will explore some of these chemical reactions in future chapters. But this feature makes it clear that chemistry is, indeed, everywhere.

The intention of “atoms-first” involves a few basic principles: first, it introduces atomic and molecular structure much earlier than the traditional approach, and it threads these themes through subsequent chapters. This approach may be chosen as a way to delay the introduction of material such as stoichiometry that students traditionally find abstract and difficult, thereby allowing students time to acclimate their study skills to chemistry.

This collection is presented to redirect the focus of learning. In each concept development study, a major chemical concept is developed and refined by analysis of experimental observations and careful reasoning. Each study begins with the definition of an initial Foundation of assumed knowledge, followed by a statement of questions which arise from the Foundation.