Over the past two semesters, a personal initiative has been taken to escape “The Tyranny of the Textbook” by developing an Introductory Chemistry sequence of topics that is relevant and interesting, one that represents a logical sequence, and one that stresses the great ideas in modern chemical science.
The Spring 2005 course taught General Chemistry II principles by focusing on biomedical applications and the fundamental chemical principles required to understand important biochemical mechanisms of action. Inflammation processes and neuroscience were the two major biomedical themes of interest; these provided an effective methodology to implement a biomedically-focused approach. Further information on the specifics of this new framework are available at these General Chemistry II Links:
Gen Chem II Course Description Lesson Topics Course Competencies Review Questions
Gen Chem II Great Ideas in Chemistry Gen Chem II Great Ideas in Biomedical Science
The Fall 2005 course General Chemistry I course used an "atoms first" approach that eliminated the early chapters often covered to address laboratory requirements. This provided time necessary to examine nuclear chemistry and thermodynamics building effectively on the "Structure and Energy" thematic focus of the first semester course. The chapter on gases was not taught since this material is covered in physics and is heavily emphasized in high school An extensive sequence on acid-base property dependence upon molecular structure was included to reinforce concepts of atomic size, electronegativity, charge stability, resonance, and hybridization. Complex ions normally taught during second semester were covered; this coverage included ligand field splitting to tie together concepts from molecular structure, electron configuration, and electromagnetic radiation. Further information is available:
Gen Chem I: Structure and Energy
In teaching this sequence, it was clear that students could very effectively benefit from molecular modeling exercises to supplement these lessons; time was often not available to fully incorporate these.