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Natural Sciences Open Educational Resources

Chemistry Open Educational Resources (OER)

Harvey D. 2016. Analytical Chemistry, 2.1.

As currently taught in the United States, introductory courses in analytical chemistry
emphasize quantitative (and sometimes qualitative) methods of analysis along with a heavy
dose of equilibrium chemistry. Analytical chemistry, however, is much more than a collection of
analytical methods and an understanding of equilibrium chemistry; it is an approach to solving
chemical problems. Although equilibrium chemistry and analytical methods are important, their
coverage should not come at the expense of other equally important topics. The introductory
course in analytical chemistry is the ideal place in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum for
exploring topics such as experimental design, sampling, calibration strategies, standardization,
optimization, statistics, and the validation of experimental results.

 

Roberts JD, Caserio MC. 1977. Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry, 2nd ed. Menlo Park (CA): W. A. Benjamin.

 

 

 

 

Ball DW, Hill JW, Scott RJ. 2012?. The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry. Washington (DC): The Saylor Foundation.

This textbook is intended for the one-semester GOB course. Although a two-semester GOB sequence is available at many colleges and universities, one-semester GOB offerings are increasing in popularity. The need to cover so many topics in one semester or quarter places additional pressure on the tools used to teach the course, and the authors feel that a textbook developed explicitly for the one-semester course will provide students with a superior educational experience. Many one-semester GOB courses employ either a rewritten, watered-down two-semester textbook or a bona fide two-semester textbook with cherry-picked topics. In the opinion of this author team, neither choice provides students with the best learning experience. This textbook does not have a two-semester counterpart. It was developed specifically for the one-semester GOB course. As such, the chapters are short and succinct, covering the fundamental material and leaving out the extraneous. We recognize that students taking this particular course are likely interested in health professions, such as nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistance, and the like. As such, we have focused certain examples and textbook features on these areas so students realize from the beginning how these basic chemistry topics apply to their career choice. [Introduction to Chemistry: General, Organic, and Biological v.10 — PDF version]

 

Ball, DW. 2012?. Beginning Chemistry, v. 1.0.

Beginning Chemistry is intended for a one-semester introductory or preparatory chemistry course. The goal of this textbook is not to make you an expert. True expertise in any field is a years-long endeavor. Here I will survey some of the basic topics of chemistry. This survey should give you enough knowledge to appreciate the impact of chemistry in everyday life and, if necessary, prepare you for additional instruction in chemistry. [PDF version]

 

 

Ahern K, Rajagopal I, Tan T. 2018. Biochemistry: Free for All. Version 1.3. Corvallis (OR): Oregon State University.

Kevin, Indira and Taralyn Tan's lastest (FREE) electronic book is aimed at helping students at all levels of biochemistry to learn in a fun and engaging format. The iBooks version can run on an iPad or a Mac running iBooks. The PDF version can be used on any computer.

 

 

Flowers P, Theopold K, Langley R, Robinson WR. 2019. Chemistry, 2nd ed. Houston (TX): OpenStax.

Chemistry 2e is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the two-semester general chemistry course. The textbook provides an important opportunity for students to learn the core concepts of chemistry and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them. The book also includes a number of innovative features, including interactive exercises and real-world applications, designed to enhance student learning. The second edition has been revised to incorporate clearer, more current, and more dynamic explanations, while maintaining the same organization as the first edition. Substantial improvements have been made in the figures, illustrations, and example exercises that support the text narrative. Changes made in Chemistry 2e are described in the preface to help instructors transition to the second edition.

 

Flowers P, Neth EJ, Robinson WR, Theopold K, Langley R. 2019. Chemistry: Atoms First, 2nd ed. Houston (TX): OpenStax.

Chemistry: Atoms First 2e is a peer-reviewed, openly licensed introductory textbook produced through a collaborative publishing partnership between OpenStax and the University of Connecticut and UConn Undergraduate Student Government Association. This text is an atoms-first adaptation of OpenStax Chemistry 2e. 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. Additionally, it gives students a basis for understanding the application of quantitative principles to the chemistry that underlies the entire course. It also aims to center the study of chemistry on the atomic foundation that many will expand upon in a later course covering organic chemistry, easing that transition when the time arrives.

The second edition has been revised to incorporate clearer, more current, and more dynamic explanations, while maintaining the same organization as the first edition. Substantial improvements have been made in the figures, illustrations, and example exercises that support the text narrative.

 

Cooper MM, Klymkowsky MW. 2019. CLUE: Chemistry, Life, the Universe & Everything. Lansing (MI): Michigan State University.

General chemistry textbook with chapters on Atoms; Electrons and Orbitals; Elements, Bonding, and Physical Properties; Heterogeneous Compounds; Systems Thinking; Solutions; and more. In addition to the textbook, sample materials are available covering General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry. These materials include curriculum information, recitation activities, and mock exams.

 

Moes S, van Gestel K, van Beek G. 2023. Environmental Toxicology, an Open Online Textbook.

This open online textbook on Environmental Toxicology aims at covering the field in its full width, including aspects of environmental chemistry, ecotoxicology, toxicology and risk assessment. With that, it will contribute to improving the quality, continuity and transparency of the education in environmental toxicology. We also want to make sure that fundamental insights on fate and effects of chemicals gained in the past are combined with recent approaches of effect assessment and molecular analysis of mechanisms causing toxicity.

The book consists of six chapters, with each chapter being divided into several sub-chapters to enable covering all aspects relevant to the topic. All chapters are designed in a modular way, which each module having clear training goals and being flagged with a number of keywords. Most modules have an average length of 1000-2000 words, a limited number of references, and 3-5 figures and/or tables. A few modules are enlighted with short clips, animations or movies to allow better illustration of the theory. The introduction chapter of the book, for instance, contains a short interview with two key experts reflecting on the development of the field over the past 30 years.

The book contains tools for self-study and training, like a (limited) number of questions at the end of each module. For the future we foresee the addition of separate exercises and other tools that may help the student in understanding the theory.

 

2012?. General Chemistry: Principles, Patterns, and Applications. Washington (DC): The Saylor Foundation.

The overall goal is to produce a text that introduces the students to the relevance and excitement of chemistry. Although much of first-year chemistry is taught as a service course, there is no reason that the intrinsic excitement and potential of chemistry cannot be the focal point of the text and the course. We emphasize the positive aspects of chemistry and its relationship to students’ lives, which requires bringing in applications early and often. Unfortunately, one cannot assume that students in such courses today are highly motivated to study chemistry for its own sake. The explicit discussion of biological, environmental, and materials issues from a chemical perspective is intended to motivate the students and help them appreciate the relevance of chemistry to their lives. Material that has traditionally been relegated to boxes, and thus perhaps perceived as peripheral by the students, has been incorporated into the text to serve as a learning tool. [PDF version]

 

Lucia L. 2018. Key Elements of Green Chemistry, 3rd ed. Raleigh (NC): North Carolina State University.

 

 

 

 

Liu, X. Organic Chemistry I, Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

An open textbook that is suitable for the first semester of Organic Chemistry. Basic concepts of the structures and reactivities of organic molecules are covered in this open textbook. Besides the fundamental discussions of organic acids-bases, stereochemistry, IR and NMR, this book also includes the topics of substitution and elimination reactions, radical substitution of alkanes, preparation and reactions of alkenes and alkynes.

 

McMurry J. 2023. Organic Chemistry: A Tenth Edition, Houston (TX): OpenStax.

John McMurry's Organic Chemistry is renowned as the most clearly written book available for organic chemistry. In John McMurry's words, "I wrote this book because I love writing. I get great pleasure and satisfaction from taking a complicated subject, turning it around until I see it clearly from a new angle, and then explaining it in simple words." In Organic Chemistry: A Tenth Edition from OpenStax, McMurry continues this tradition while updating scientific discoveries, highlighting new applications, scrutinizing every piece of art, and providing example problems to assist students. Organic Chemistry: A Tenth Edition continues to meet the scope and sequence of a two-semester organic chemistry course that follows a functional group approach. A highlighted list of changes, along with a detailed table of contents and ancillary descriptions, can be found on the Instructor and Student resources sections.

 

Nichols L. 2017. Organic Chemistry Laboratory Techniques, 2nd ed. Oroville (CA): Butte Community College.

In this resource you will find theory and procedures on the main organic lab techniques (chromatography, crystallization, extraction, distillation) as well as general concepts on how to set up and heat apparatuses. All procedures are accompanied by step-by-step pictures, and graphics are heavily utilized throughout the resource.

 

Soderberg T. 2019. Organic Chemistry with a Biological Emphasis (vol. 1 and vol. 2), Morris (MN): University of Minnesota, Morris.

The traditional approach to teaching Organic Chemistry, taken by most of the textbooks that are currently available, is to focus primarily on the reactions of laboratory synthesis, with much less discussion - in the central chapters, at least - of biological molecules and reactions. This is despite the fact that, in many classrooms, a majority of students are majoring in Biology or Health Sciences rather than in Chemistry, and are presumably taking the course in order to learn about the chemistry that takes place in living things.

In an effort to address this disconnect, I have developed a textbook for a two-semester, sophomore-level course in Organic Chemistry in which biological chemistry takes center stage. For the most part, the text covers the core concepts of organic structure, structure determination, and reactivity in the standard order. What is different is the context: biological chemistry is fully integrated into the explanation of central principles, and as much as possible the in-chapter and end-of-chapter problems are taken from the biochemical literature. Many laboratory synthesis reactions are also covered, generally in parallel with their biochemical counterparts - but it is intentionally the biological chemistry that comes first.

 

DeVoe H. 2020. Thermodynamics and Chemistry, 2nd ed. College Park (MD): University of Maryland.

The book is designed primarily as a textbook for a one-semester course for graduate or undergraduate students who have already been introduced to thermodynamics in a physical chemistry course.

Scattered through the text are sixteen one-page biographical sketches of some of the historical giants of thermodynamics. A list is given on the preceding page. The sketches are not intended to be comprehensive biographies, but rather to illustrate the human side of thermodynamics—the struggles and controversies by which the concepts and experimental methodology of the subject were developed.

 

Pakay J, Duivenvoorden H, Shafee T, Clarke K. 2023. Threshold Concepts in Biochemistry. Melbourne (VIC): La Trobe University.

This book is designed as a succinct and focused resource, specifically aimed to help students grasp key threshold concepts in Biochemistry. Due to their troublesome nature, understanding threshold concepts is a cognitively demanding task. By using a series of thematically linked case studies that accompany theory, the cognitive load will be reduced. This will free up students to focus on learning concepts rather than distracting them with unnecessary specifics. Please note this book is being published iteratively and the final four chapters will be available in the first half of 2024.

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