Chemistry and Chemical Reactivity (with CD-ROM)
Overall, I think the chapter model is excellent. In particular, I like the Chapter Outline, Chapter Goals, and the ’Before You Begin’ sections. Many students in non-chemistry majors general chemistry classes are oriented at either medical school or engineering, and such students tend to be very objective-oriented. Having the outline and goals spelled out for them will help them to focus on the material. It will also tend to help students who have difficulty in determining what they are supposed to be learning in a given chapter."I particularly like the way the sample problems are broken down into ’strategy,’ ’solution,’ and perhaps most importantly, ’comments.’ Too often, in my opinion, students lean to solve problems in general chemistry by ’pattern-recognition.’"I find clear explanations, and many of the graphics are well chosen and cleverly crafted to support the explanations. My experience looking at introductory chemistry textbooks is that usually graphics add points of interest but contribute little to the primary concepts. Here I find the graphics constitute part of the instructional fabric."I especially liked the (Chapter Goals). It helps the student focus on the subject at hand, and lets them know where they are in relation to what they are trying to accomplish. Also, the references back to specific topics, in this chapter or that page, were extremely valuable to a beginning student.