It is very comprehensive as a general chemistry textbook, with more information presented than what would typically be required. This resource can be adapted to support students of various majors. Although the subject matter is relevant and...read more
general chemistry bruce averill pdf download
It is very comprehensive as a general chemistry textbook, with more information presented than what would typically be required. This resource can be adapted to support students of various majors. Although the subject matter is relevant and consistent when compared to other textbooks, both the online version and the PDF are due for a major update to the formatting to take advantage of evolving learning styles and the need for quality learning resources as we emerge from the pandemic. The adoption of remote learning technologies during the pandemic highlighted the need for open access resources for teaching, and this textbook could have been a critical tool for instruction. I like the addition of the learning objectives that help maintain a clear focus for the chapters, and overlapping themes help connect the concepts, which is an essential part of learning. Improvements to the navigation of the textbook are still required to help students and faculty, but as a freely available teaching resource, there is a lot of potential.
Both PDF and online versions have good coverage of subjects with some unnecessary overlap of the same topics in different chapters. For example the atomic structure discussion in sections 1.4-1.7 of chapter 1 is more and less is discussed in Chapter 6. Chapter 1 of the book (Introduction to Chemistry) is too long and tedious to read (for the students) since it covers many unfamiliar topics for the freshman students of general chemistry 1. Instead of atomic structure that is discussed in chapters 2 and 6, the dimensional analysis (unit conversion) should be introduced to students in chapter 1 which has been included in chapter 3 of this textbook. PDF version of the book lack Table of contents, navigation bar and glossary. The outline of the book pages in PDF version need to be improved to help with the readability of the material. The images and graphics need to be properly positioned in PDF version as well. The online version lacks glossary as well but the navigation bar and Table of contents are appreciated. Although the subject coverage of the book is satisfactory, I would change the order of topics in some chapters and eliminate the overlap materials. The formatting issues of PDF version and organization of the topics in some chapters make it difficult to adapt this textbook as a standalone teaching book.
Some of the terminology used by the Authors been abandoned and replaced by the recent authors of the general chemistry books. For example in chapter 5, section 5.3 under classifying chemical reactions, 3 classes of the chemical reactions are named as exchange, condensation and cleavage which are known as replacement (double or single), combination and decomposition respectively in the majority of the recent general chemistry books. Although those terminology used in this book are correct, they are not up to date and if this textbook is used in conjunction with the other general chemistry book may cause confusion among the students. In general the book has been written with good accuracy.
This book is very nicely written and easy to follow. The content is accurate, the text comprehensive and could easily be used in a general chemistry curriculum. It is a great online chemistry book and I would certainly think about adopting it for our general chemistry courses in the future. However, at this point, it is not quite ready to be used as there are formatting issues and many missing images which distract from the otherwise very well written text.
As general chemistry concepts are not changing, I find no longevity issues. The examples given are relevant to the real world, and tie in nicely with things that the students are better able to understand. The only issue would be those formatting ones that would be necessary updates for the pdf version.
The text is designed to serve biological and biomedical students, engineering students, general education students, health sciences students, pre-medical science students, and science majors requiring at least one year course in general chemistry...read more
The lack of a table of contents prevents the textbook from being easily reorganized and/or realigned. All of the typical topics for a year-long general chemistry course are present, but having a table of contents the textbook would be very modular. Personally, chapter 8 should have been merged with chapter 2. All thermochemical topics and problems should have been in one chapter.A chapter with covalent and ionic bonds should have presented along with Lewis dot structures. A more definitive chapter on mathematical concepts should have been the first chapter, inclusive of logarithms, indices, standard notation, and significant figures, and some brief statistical analysis.
The stated philosophy of the textbook is sound, and I appreciate its intent. My approach to general chemistry is similar and I would welcome a reliable textbook (especially an open textbook) that aligns well with my preferences. The technical errors in this textbook are glaring and should be unacceptable. I would not consider using this open textbook for my classes, and furthermore, I would encourage the authors, the publisher, and the University of Minnesota to remove this content from the web unless and until it can be presented in a more responsible fashion
The text is designed to serve science and engineering majors requiring a one year course in general chemistry and the text contains all of the required material and topics to accomplish this task. In the preface, the authors list eight specific...read more
The text is designed to serve science and engineering majors requiring a one year course in general chemistry and the text contains all of the required material and topics to accomplish this task. In the preface, the authors list eight specific objectives they wish to accomplish with this text and I feel that they do indeed accomplish their goal. The text contains numerous interesting "real world" examples of applied chemistry (fireworks and their composition being one of my favorite) which will act as effective "hooks" to capture student interest. These examples coupled with classroom demonstrations (various salts dissolved in methanol and ignited, to explore the colors of fireworks) have proven effective in capturing student interest. The text lacks a table of contents, index or a glossary and the lack of these is a serious impediment to students. There are some very serious formatting issues which may have been the result of converting from a .doc or .docx format to a .PDF and these the errors make sections of this text unusable. This is strikingly apparent in chapter 14, Chemical Kinetics where many operators (e, superscript, etc) have been replaced with blank squares. The instructor would need to spend significant time correcting these format errors and very little time would be left for teaching! There are also formatting problems with subscripts in chemical formulas NOT appearing as subscripts, again a formatting issue.
The text has more than adequate clarity, however some of the example calculations would benefit from additional formatting. An example is determining the empirical formula of Penicillin; the calculations are written in a linear fashion such that the average general chemistry student would be lost trying to follow the example given. Also the formatting problems discussed in question #1 make many equations so confusing as to be incomprehensible to a general chemistry student.
The lack of a table of contents prevents the text from being easily reorganized and/or realigned. / / All of the typical topics for a year long general chemistry course are present and with an adequate table of contents the text would be very modular.
It seems like every instructor has their preferred organization/structure/flow preferences for the general chemistry course they teach! This text is written in such a manner that it would be fairly easy to customize the content to fit the particular instructors preferences.
Teaching at a community college with a significant minority population and a large number of first generation students where the costs of a college education is a significant issue, I am always looking for ways to lower the cost of their education without compromising quality. I was excited to learn of the Open Textbook Library as a method of reducing textbook costs and since a major part of my teaching load is teaching the year long general chemistry sequence I was hopeful that this text would meet my needs. Unfortunately, because of the significant formatting issues present I will be unable to utilize this text. If in the future the problems I have highlighted in this review are corrected, I would be willing to adopt this text and I would be eager to hear my students reaction to an Open Textbook Library product.
Topics relevant to materials science are also introduced to meet the more specific needs of engineering students. To facilitate integration of such material, simple organic structures, nomenclature, and reactions are introduced very early in the text, and both organic and inorganic examples are used wherever possible. This approach emphasizes the distinctions between ionic and covalent bonding, thus enhancing the students' chance of success in the organic chemistry course that traditionally follows general chemistry. Finally, the authors made a conscious effort to treat material that has traditionally been relegated to boxes, and thus perhaps perceived as peripheral by the students, by incorporating it into the text to serve as a learning tool.
Consider this text for your course if you are interested in In summary, a text that represents a step in the evolution of general chemistry texts toward one that reflects the increasing overlap between chemistry and other disciplines. Most importantly, if you want a text that discusses exciting and relevant aspects of biological, environmental, and materials science that are usually relegated to the last few chapters, in a format that allows the you to tailor the emphasis to the needs of the class. Request your desk copy today. 2ff7e9595c
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