Chemistry course support

High school - college level

An Introduction to Chemistry - (MindBites) A commercial product from Thinkwell, this extensive series consists of over 300 lessons (totaling 52 hours) which can be watched online or downloaded. The entire set costs $200, but individual lessons can be obtained for $2.

Take-Home Chemistry: 50 Low-Cost Activities to Extend Classroom Learning - this 2011 NSTA publication is available in both hard-copy and downloadable PDF form.

Chemistryland "A fun place to learn chemistry" - this colorful, visually interesting and quirky site by Ken Costello is worth viewing if only to marvel at its originality.

Chemistry Packets by veteran teacher Mark Rosengarten. A collection of notes and worksheets in pdf format in two 13-unit sets, one for honors, and the other for Regents Chemistry. Each unit begins with a nicely-organized set of definitions and notes, and contines with worksheets that can serve as student homework. Individual units can be freely downloaded, or the complete set with answer keys can be purchased.

Chemical Education Digital Library - "ChemEd DL seeks to provide exemplary resources for chemistry teachers and students—resources that are versatile and reliable tools that span all aspects of chemical education, from middle school science through college-level classes and topics. Our collection includes interactive simulations, tutorials, activities, wikis, reference materials, images, video and even more."

Chalkbored - a set of worksheets, handouts, PowerPoints, and comments by Jeremy Schneider, directed mainly at high school Chem 11-12.

~~CLUE: Chemistry, Life, the Universe, and Everything~~ - An integrated curriculum developed at U. Colorado, claiming robust learning outcomes and available to teachers elsewhere. These materials focus on the "big ideas" that underlie chemistry, such as models and theories, molecular vs macroscopic, energetics, reactivity equilibrium and thermodynamics. (This site was apparently arcived only once.)

{Wilton High School Chemistry page} (Bob Jacobs). Titled "ChemistryCoach", this is an exceptionally comprehensive high school site. There are a large number of tutorial pages (of varying quality), as well as links to experiments, worksheets, demonstrations and lesson plans. (Link is to last archived update, 6/2007.)

{Audrey Sanderson's Chemistry Resources} - a nicely-organized and annotated list aimed at high school level. (What became of Audrey? The link broke in 2005, but this archive still seems to work.)

{Aufbau1} - A remarkable, extensive and somewhat unconventional on-line resource by Roger Peters. It includes tutorials in student and teacher versions (the latter with detailed answers and constructed graphs), Teacher's Notes, and even a dramatic work. Although aimed at British middle-school students, this will likely be more suitable for high school and college students in North America.

> Chemistry, life, the universe & everything (CLUE) project - this ambitious site by two well-known chemistry educators provides readings which are intended to present various Chemistry topics in a broader context, in the hope that this will motivate students to master the underlying chemistry. (The project appears to have lapsed in 2016, but the site is still available.)

ChemistryCoach is a high school course support page of encyclopedic proportions. Authored by Bob Jacobs of Wilton High School, this well-organized site contains hundreds of links that will be of interest to students and teachers. Among the latter is an extensive page of links to lesson plans.

> The Chem Team - a high school chemistry course by John Park.

ChemTutor - a collection of materials by David Wilner. "Basic chemistry help is available here for high school or college students. Chemtutor begins with the fundamentals and gives expert help with the most difficult phases of understanding your first course in chemistry. Chemtutor is not necessarily a complete text for your course or a complete outline, but we are proud to offer some insightful help in the parts of primary chemistry that have been, from our experience, the hardest for students to grasp. "

Regents Chemistry Worksheets - an extensive collection in MS Word for teachers.

Saylor Foundation free Chemistry courses - This non-profit organization serves as a zero-cost alternative to those who lack the resources to attend traditional brick-and-mortar institutions and a complement to willing mainstream education providers. The "content" consists of Web pages from other institutions of varying quality, organized by the Foundation into conveniently-accessible "courses" in the main areas of undergraduate chemistry.

General Chemistry Notes - this commercial site offers PDF downloads of sets of detailed "lecture notes" based on a survey of contemporary textbooks. Each set covers one of twenty topics in first- or second-semester General Chemistry, and consists of an outline followed by multiple pages of lecture-type notes displayed in faux handwritten style. Free previews of each section are available.

College-university level General Chemistry

BestChoice, a Model for Interactive Web-Based Teaching - an article by Sheila Woodgate and David Titheridge of the University of Aukland describing an open-access interactive site that was developed initially to support learning in large first year Chemistry classes. More recently BestChoice has been expanded to provide learning opportunities for a wider ranger of users. The model underpinning BestChoice learning activities is simulation of the interchange of a student with an experienced teacher. Thus student responses on BestChoice question pages generate instant assessment and feedback. BestChoice is innovative in its emphasis on teaching both concepts and problem-solving strategies by guiding students in ways that promote their understanding.

California State Univ - Dominguez Hills Lecture Help Pages - An extensive set of exercises covering a variety of topics and involving Web-based drill, word problems and data analysis. (George Wiger)

ChemistryLand - this visually-striking site (annoyingly anonymous, but possibly by Ken Costello) provides support for several courses at Maricopa- and Mesa Community Colleges, and Phoenix College. One especially interesting page consists of a PowerPoint presentation Learning Chemistry Close to Home that describes Costello's use of a portable laboratory set in connection with a distance learning course.

Concepts of Chemistry - this on-line textbook for the Chemistry course at Worcester Polytechnic Institute by Nicholas Kildahl is far more detailed than the brief outline-type summaries so often found on the Web.

ChemPaths: Student Resources for General Chemistry - This site is the Student Access Portal to many of the Chemistry Education Digital Library collections, and has been built to assist instructors in providing a means to bring all of these multimedia resources into one cohesive package ready for student-use.

General Chemistry - a Virtual Textbook by Michael Blaber of Florida State U., 1998. {First-semester} and {Second-semester} Coverage. Similar note collections for several Biochemistry courses are also available at the same site. (Links are to last archived updates, 9/2007.)

Concept Development Studies in Chemistry is an on-line textbook for an Introductory General Chemistry course by John S. Hutchinson of Rice U. Each module develops a central concept in Chemistry from experimental observations and inductive reasoning. This is part of the Connexions collection which is licensed under Creative Commons. Unfortunately, authors are constrained to a format that lacks almost all qualities of good visual design.

Introductory Chemistry OnLine - Offers page-by-page views of various general chemistry topics. A hard-copy version (Introductory Chemistry Online by Paul Young) is also available. (This is part of the tutorial site for the Introductory Chemistry course at U Illinois-Chicago; most of the material is inaccessible to the public.)

{MIT Biology Hypertextbook} has a {Chemistry Review) section covering chemical bonding, pH, organic functional groups, stereochemistry, and some review problems. Note: this site has been withdrawn as explained here. The above links are to the last 2006 archived version, but the last update was in 1993.

{Kitchen Chemistry Course} - syllabus of a MIT seminar course designed to be an experimental and hands-on approach to applied chemistry (as seen in cooking). [≤ 6/2008]

ChemThreads is a very elaborately constructed course support site for first-year Chemistry at U. Arizona. The sections related to laboratory work are especially interesting.

First-year chemistry lecture notes by Michael Mombourquette of Queens University in Canada.

Purdue University General Chemistry Topics - Notes and practice problems on a large number of topics (Bodner group).

John Denker's page of physics notes, many of which relate to chemistry

{Ralph Logan's home page} is especially valuable for its links to sources of distance education, chemistry faq's, and Web page construction. (link to a 2007 archived version)

Sheffield Chemputer web site contains on-line calculators covering isotope patterns, reaction yields, element percentages, VSEPR shapes, oxidation state of d-block metals in a complex, electron counting for metals in a complex, MLXZ.

Thall's Website - lots of interesting stuff from Edwin Thall of Florida Comm. College

{UC Berkeley Digital Chem 1A Lab Manual} profides an interesting example of integrating technology into a large-enrollment course. It "seeks to make the extensive online course materials used to teach General Chemistry at UC Berkeley freely available to the large online community." (Withdrawn: link is to April 2007 archive.)

see also: Digital Chem1a Study: Costs, Culture, and Complexity: An Analysis of Technology Enhancements in a Large Lecture Course at UC Berkeley. As is usually the case with even the richest institutions, this project seems to be dependent on external support from NSF and other sources.

University of Florida General Chemistry site - lecture notes with some very good graphics, and some audio lectures.

Univiversity of Illinois General Chemistry site - an exemplary support site.

UNC Chapel Hill Chemistry Fundamentals Course - contains fairly good surveys of the topics it covers, and offers on-line pre- and post-tests.

Virtual Chembook - a nicely-done site by Charles Ophardt of Elmhurst College covers a wide swath of general, organic, and environmental chemistry. All the pages have a similar format, with text in one column and illustrations (usually very good ones) at the side. The text material is interesting and well written without attempting to be encyclopedic.

WikiPremed MCAT Course is a comprehensive review of science indended specifically to prepare students for the MCAT exams. The collection is extensive and well-organized. It covers basic physics and chemistry, including organic chemistry.

Chemistry blogs, lectures and instructional methods

Everyday Scientist - a very nice blog run by a grad student at Stanford U, with contributions from several other authors. The emphasis is on physical chemistry, but the topics are quite wide-ranging and always interesting. We can hope that this guy will continue blogging after he graduates!

Michelle Francl of Bryn Mawr College has an engaging and insightful series of commentaries relating to selected first-year Chemistry topics, and on The Culture of Chemistry ("the who, what, when, where and why of chemistry.")

Challenging Chemical Misconceptions in the Classroom - this project "was carried out in the academic year 2000-2001. It was funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSCTFProject) and based at the University of London Institute of Education." The individual chapters are availble for free download.

During the year a number of probes were developed and tested, designed around common alternative conceptions and learning difficulties in chemistry learning.

Blogging the Periodic Table - "a series of 28 "Wild, weird, wonderful stories about the elements that make up our universe" by Sam Kean. This series appeared in Slate in mid-2010.

Stoichiometry is easy - a discussion of the algorithmic approach to teaching stoichiometry by David Licata (ChemEd Xchange)

Food Science Videos - Kirsten Sanford uses food-related topics to illustrate some important chemistry concepts. iTunes subscriptions available.

Physical Chemistry and You - A series of blogs for the physical chemistry courses at Cal Polytechnic U. The series seems to have ended in 2008, but there's some interesting stuff there.

Everyday Scientist - an interesting blog run by a grad student at Stanford, with contributions by several other authors. The emphasis is on physical chemistry, but the topics are quite wide-ranging.

Laboratory course materials

Analytical Sciences Digital Library - This NSF-sponsored site contains links to a variety of materials relating to analytical chemistry, including Web pages and lab manuals for individual courses.

LabPaqs: Teaching chemistry laboratories entirely online - "Chemistry LabPaqs, in continuous use since 1994, are unique science lab kits that have redefined the online laboratory experience. These LabPaqs contain comprehensive hands-on laboratory experiments that are academically aligned and mirror those performed on college and university campuses. LabPaqs allow instructors to teach Chemistry courses online, on campus, or in a hybrid format, enhancing the laboratory experience for their students and institutions". Some related YouTube videos:
Panel discussion (Missouri State U, 1 hr) - LabPaq Introduction (HandsOnLab, 7 min) - LabPaq Safety (11 min)

RSC Practical Chemistry - This Royal Society of Chemstry site, sponsored by the Nuffield Foundations, offers a variety of well-documented laboratory experiments covering various areas of Chemistry. The page Chemistry for non-specialists will be of special interest to instructors of General Chemistry; most of the 80 topics listed include an overview, teacher notes, and procedures for either a student experiment or demonstration.

Analytical Chemistry 2.0 - A free eText (pdf file) version of the textbook Modern Analytical Chemisty originally published by McGraw-GHukk ub 1999. The original text has been re-edited and provided with numerous new illustrations and cross-links.

> Dartmouth ChemLab - An exeptionally well-done lab course support site which features links to specific instruments and techniques such as pipetting, use of a balance, spectroscopy, and chromatography, all containing excellent photographs and illustrations. The pages relating to specific experiments provide quick access to information on pre-lab preparation, safety, and nature of the write-up required for each experiment. This link is not to the original site, which is unavailable in the archive.

{Lab Archive clearinghouse} at Everett Community College is an extensive, searchable collection of experiments for all levels. Contributions of new experiments and ratings of existing experiments are solicited. There is also a user forum for lab-related discussions. Although this site is no longer active, most of the links in this archived version still work.

LateNiteLabs offers Reactor, a Web-based laboratory simulation package that allows students to carry out virtual-hands-on experiments, either as pre-lab exercises or as a major part of distance-education courses.

UC Berkeley "Digital Lab Manual" - a good example of a comprehensive collection of pre-lab tutorials to support a laboratory course.

Virtual ChemLab is a set of sophisticated and realistic simulations for high school, freshman, and sophomore level chemistry classes. It is being developed at Brigham Young University.

{Microscale lab experiments} compiled at U. Nebraska - Lincoln (Archive from 2015; the site apparently disappeared in/after 2016.)

Virtual Chemistry Experiments - a collection of interative web-based chemistry tutorials. The tutorials employ Physlets and Chemistry Applets to simulate experiments or depict molecular and atomic structure. Topics include equilibria, kinetics, coordination chemistry, and crystal structure. (David Blauch, Davidson College)

{Food and Chemistry SourceBook Module} (pdf) - a 1993 collection of laboratory activities relating to food science. (Archive from 2012)

Microscale Gas Chemistry experiments - a well-organized compendium of safe experiments on 13 different gases, using 60-cc disposable syringes. (Bruce Mattson. Creighton Univ.)

The visual organic chemistry laboratory (Dan Straus, San Jose State U.) By using visual methods, i.e. photos and short animations, students gain visual familiarity with various organic chemistry lab techniques and set-up. It is recommended that this information be reviewed before the beginning of each lab period.

{Instrumentation modules} developed at U. Michigan - Dearborn provide pre-lab information on topics such as use of automatic pipettes, atomic absorption, gas chromatography, etc. (Archive from 2009)

{Basics of scientific glassblowing} - detailed instructions and information compiled by Joseph Walas of East Carolina U. (Archive from 2007)

DVAction is a database of digital video and images comprised of techniques and equipment used in the general chemistry laboratory. It is a free resource designed for instructors to aid in the development of multimedia materials for their courses.

Chemistry course support sites