Note: see the
home page for the
most recent "recent additions"
2014
An Introduction to Chemistry by Mark Bishop. There are two versions of this current textbook, both containing the same information but organized differently: the "Chemistry-first" version begins with actual "chemistry" — that is, chemical equations and reactions. The alternative "Atoms-first" format saves this stuff for later, and begins with atomic theory and bonding. To download PDF versions, select Chemistry-First or Atoms-First. Please note that although you may download these for free, Mark asks that those who make regular use of them pay a shareware fee of $20. Individual chapters for iPad, iPhone, Android devices and Kindle are also available: Chemistry-First, Atoms-First.
ACS High School Chemistry Guidlines and Recommendations describe broad requirements for teaching chemistry to high school students from diverse populations. These guidelines recognize the professional integrity of chemistry educators devoted to sharing and upholding best teaching practices and optimal facilities to achieve excellence.
Archive of freely dowloadable textbooks - these are mostly entry-level textbooks from an unnamed publisher who offered these for free download under a Creative Commons licence up through 2012. (From 2013 on, texts from this publisher were no longer free, but the CC license is still valid for the earlier editions.) The only Chemistry title is Principles of General Chemistry by Bruce Averill and Patricia Eldredge, but other titles on this list may be of interest to home schoolers and teachers in countries where textbooks are unavailable or unaffordable.
Who's Afraid of Peer Review (Science 4 October 2013) - A spoof paper concocted by Science reveals little or no scrutiny at many open-access journals.
The Elements Revealed: An Interactive Periodic Table -(Scientific American) - Restricted to presenting a small window of "fun facts" about each element; seems ideal for middle-school students.
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.
ChemWiki: The Dynamic Chemistry E-Textbook - a collaborative approach toward chemistry education where an Open Access textbook environment is constantly being written and re-written by students and faculty members resulting in a free Chemistry textbook to supplant conventional paper-based books. The material is organized into sections for analytical, biological, inorganic, organic, physical and theoretical chemistry. Each of these contains topics ordinarily included in "general" chemistry, as well as more advanced ones that go beyond first-year college level. (This has been mentioned here before, but it has grown a lot, and might deserve a re-look.)
"Educator" Chemistry video lectures - Educator markets video lectures on a wide variety of subjects including most of the sciences, but ranging as far as computer software and music theory. These are done by experienced teachers and are organized into general topics, each divided into as many as 20 subtopics running from 3 to 50 minutes each. The current (2014) Chemistry offerings, mostly college level, include the following:
"Chemistry Professor" Video lectures - A series of college-level course segments coverering general- and organic chemistry, using a mixture of narrated video, animation and PowerPoint presentations. Done by Sandra Etheridge, a long-time community college teacher. (Dr. Etheridge also has a number of YouTube videos.)
The Flipped Learning Network - brings together a number of resources, sites, and events relating to the current "latest thing" in Chemistry education.
The Flipped Classroom - Part of the Flipped Learning Network described above, this site provides useful information about creating and using vodcasting.
Note: earlier "recent additions" can be found here.
2013
News Flash! Atomic Weights of Ten Chemical Elements About to Change - The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s (IUPAC) Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights is publishing a new table that will express atomic weights of ten elements as intervals, rather than as single standard values.
Apple's new vision of education (Ryan Fass, ComputerWorld, 21 Jan 2012) - iBooks2 is part of Apple's plan to disrupt and reinvent education.
Online Chemistry degree offered by Western Governors University - WGU, an accredited online university, is offering a B.A. program in Science Education with a specialization in Chemistry. It is intended to prepare students for licensure as high school teachers. The laboratory component of the program is provided by a self-contained kit for use at home. A detailed program guide is available (PDF file).
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.
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.)
Science 2.0 - A lively and engaging "open science network" in which researchers can "dive into direct science outreach and 'be journalists' and make science writing as accurate as they would like and the audience can get information directly from the source, without any editorial or corporate bias." There is a specific section devoted to Chemistry.
Analytical Chemistry 2.0 - A free eText (pdf file) version of the textbook Modern Analytical Chemisty originally published by McGraw-Hill in 1999. The original text has been re-edited and provided with numerous new illustrations and cross-links.
New or Revised Chem1 Virtual Textbook modules
The reference text for General Chemistry is intended to serve as a supplement to or substitute for a conventional textbook. It is freely available and licensed for non-commercial use under Creative Commons.
The Basics of atoms, moles, formulas, equations, nomenclature. Major revision, Feb 2012.
Saylor Foundation free Chemistry courses - This non-profit organization serves as a zero-cost alternative to those that 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.
History and Timeline of Green Chemistry - a nice summary on a commercial site.
KnowledgeDoor - an excellent compendium of Chemistry- and Science-related data, in many ways more comprehensive than the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, and certainly more convenient to use. Should be bookmarked by every serious Chemistry student!
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!
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.
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."
ChemistryLand - An ambitious and innovative collection of visually-rich materials for distance education offered through Phoenix College and Sapling Learning. See also Ken Costello's PowerPoint presentation on this topic.
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, reactivitym equilibrium and thermodynamics.
2012
News Flash! Atomic Weights of Ten Chemical Elements About to Change - The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s (IUPAC) Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights is publishing a new table that will express atomic weights of ten elements as intervals, rather than as single standard values.
Apple's new vision of education (Ryan Fass, ComputerWorld, 21 Jan 2012) - iBooks2 is part of Apple's plan to disrupt and reinvent education.
Online Chemistry degree offered by Western Governors University - WGU, an accredited online university, is offering a B.A. program in Science Education with a specialization in Chemistry. It is intended to prepare students for licensure as high school teachers. The laboratory component of the program is provided by a self-contained kit for use at home. A detailed program guide is available (PDF file).
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.
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.)
Science 2.0 - A lively and engaging "open science network" in which researchers can "dive into direct science outreach and 'be journalists' and make science writing as accurate as they would like and the audience can get information directly from the source, without any editorial or corporate bias." There is a specific section devoted to Chemistry.
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.
New or Revised Chem1 Virtual Textbook modules
The reference text for General Chemistry is intended to serve as a supplement to or substitute for a conventional textbook. It is freely available and licensed for non-commercial use under Creative Commons.
The Basics of atoms, moles, formulas, equations, nomenclature. Major revision, Feb 2012.
Saylor Foundation free Chemistry courses - This non-profit organization serves as a zero-cost alternative to those that 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.
History and Timeline of Green Chemistry - a nice summary on a commercial site.
KnowledgeDoor - an excellent compendium of Chemistry- and Science-related data, in many ways more comprehensive than the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, and certainly more convenient to use. Should be bookmarked by every serious Chemistry student!
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!
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.
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."
ChemistryLand - An ambitious and innovative collection of visually-rich materials for distance education offered through Phoenix College and Sapling Learning. See also Ken Costello's PowerPoint presentation on this topic.
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, reactivitym equilibrium and thermodynamics.
2011
Acid-base tutorial (PDF format; Dan Dill, Boston U) - this excellent tutorial covers all the major topics commonly encountered at the general chemistry level, with an unusually thorough treatment of buffer systems.
Instrumental Chemistry - This anonymous and rather peculiar set of pages deals mainly with analytical separation methods: theory, liquid phase, gas phase, and sample preparation. It employs a series of selectable graphics, many of them very good, and displays some text relating to each one, although it rarely offers a detailed explanation of each image.
The Khan Academy is a remarkable and ambitious non-commercial undertaking that offers over 1600 free Science-related videos (via YouTube), including a sizeable number devoted to Chemistry. The videos I have looked at are basically animated blackboard talks. The talks themselves are exceptionally well presented, and amount to short mini-lectures that can be quite effective.
Chemistry Explained: Foundations and applications - At first glance, this site appears to be just an A-Z index to a series of short definitions of the many topics it covers, but clicking on the name of the topic itself brings up a fairly detailed (but anonymously composed) description or exposition of the subject.
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.
Elementymology & Elements Multidict - Speaking of the periodic table, what do they call the element strontium in Georgia (the country, not the state!)? Answer: ???????????. If gems like this fascinate you, have a look at this site by Peter van der Krogt, which is all about the element names and their origins, not just in English, but in 97 different languages.
Online Books on Chemistry at the Library of Congress - this extensive index is arranged by LC catalog number. From Boyle's Skeptical Chymist to my own Chem1 Virtual Textbook, it's all here! And if you wonder how all those Chemistry catalog numbers starting with Q are organized, see here.
WikiBooks on Chemistry - Many topics in general chemistry are covered here, and are worth looking at. But as in any "wiki-" type project to which anyone can contribute, the quality is variable, and the visual design is primitive.
Welcome to Educational Vodcasting! - "This site is devoted to teaching educators how to use podcasts and vodcasts to increase student achievement. This is the brainchild of Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams who are pioneers in the field of using vodcasts in the classroom. They have devised a new method of teaching called Pre-Vodcasting. In this model, students watch vodcasts at home and class time is spent in engaging hands-on activities and directed problem solving."
ChemPrime is an NSF-sponsored attempt to illustrate the practical applications of chemical principles. It is set up as a Wiki, to which anyone can contribute. The index is very well organized, but suffers from too many entries (Gay-Lussac's law in Foods?) that lead nowhere. See also this ACS Symposium book chapter abstract by Ed Vitz entitled Developing ChemPRIME: Transforming the Didactics and Pedagogy of the General Chemistry Course with a Wiki Text.
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.
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."
PhET Interactive Science Simulations - This NSF-sponsored site at U Colorado Boulder serves as a clearinghouse for simulation programs and solicits contributions from developers. A fair number of Chemistry simulations are available for download.
Atomic Weights of Ten Chemical Elements About to Change - and you thought that atomic weights were forever? See this December 2010 news release from the US Geological Survey!
General Chemistry Notes - According to the blurb on this commercial site, these note are "written by actual chemistry professors [and are] designed to combine both a student's lecture notes AND textbook materials into one easy-to-read and easy-to-understand format. When one downloads the entire set, 14-page samples of notes for each topic can be viewed without charge.
later 2010
Betwixt AtomSmith Classroom of Molecular Exploration - "... allows students to see the shapes and behaviors of atoms and molecules and interact with them, shedding light on such topics as atomic structure, chemical bonding, gas laws, and phases of matter." Windows only. Student worksheets and teacher guides are available as pdf files.
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.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Science - this extensive A-Z collection by David Darling covers many Chemistry topics.
NIH Institute of General Medical Sciences publishes a variety of materials aimed at the general public, available both online and as free booklets. The interesting chapter titles should appeal to a wide diversity of readers from high school on up. Some of the chemistry-related titles are Inside the Cell - (A very nicely-done introduction to cellular biochemistry), The Chemistry of Health, and Medicines by Design.
O=Chem This University of Maine site consists of a large collection of tutorial lessons covering most aspects of organic chemistry.
Shakhashiri Video DVD - Contains 49 of Bassam Shakhashiri's well known chemical demonstration videos.
What's that stuff? - Archive of those interesting one-page articles that appear occasionally in Chemical & Engineering News.
SciTalks - Chemistry-related video lectures (many of them Nobel lectures).
Early 2010
ChemWiki - This site (at UC-Davis) offers an Open Textbook environment for topics beyond General Chemistry, such as physical, inorganic, and analytical chemistry.
The Chemogenesis Webbook - this extensive, excellent and comprehensive site by Mark Leach tells how chemistry emerges from the Periodic Table and bifurcates into the rich and extraordinary science that we know and experience.
Tanner's General Chemistry - a large collection of pages on matter (including quantum theory), physical chmistry, electrochemistry, and aqueous solutions.
UK's loose libel laws stifle science:
late 2009
SourceBook was a project aimed at bringing a wide variety of chemistry teacher resources together for the teacher's desktop. The materials were published in print form (four volumes) and on the ChemSource CD ROM that was first released in 1994. The collection is most notable for the large number of laboratory and other activities in a variety of topics. Among the most interesting of these is Food and Chemistry SourceBook Module - a 1993 collection of laboratory activities relating to food science.
Experimania ("from molecules to materials") is a European consortium dedicated to revitalize the teaching of science.
Molecular Movies - "A portal for cell and molecular animation" - these excellent videos include organic reaction mechanisms, solids and polymerizations.
In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History (NY Times - August 8, 2009) This article describes how a combination of evolving student expectations and the limitations and costs of conventional textbooks are encouraging the use of digital materials in the classroom.
Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource (VIPEr) "A Cyber-Enabled Community of Practice for Improving Inorganic Chemical Education that facilitates collaborative development of learning materials and their dissemination to the wider inorganic community. ." Collections include web resources, text materials, and in-class activities on topics such as main group chemistry, f-block chemistry, coordination chemistry, organometallic chemistry, solid state and materials chemistry. One topics group of special note is the > Glassware and Apparatus Videos which show students the best way to assemble glass jointware. A variety of different examples are provided, with variations that demonstrate some of the more complicated assemblies that are often used in inorganic synthesis. Includes reflux, vacuum distillation, various three-necked flasks setups.
New Chem1 Virtual Textbook modules
This reference text for General Chemistry is intended to serve as a supplement to a regular textbook or as a substitute for one. It is licenced for non-commercial use under Creative Commons.
Liquids and their interfaces - An introduction to liquids: viscosity, surface tension, interfacial effects including wetting, capillary rise, and bubble formation.
Polymers and plastics: an introduction - Their general properties, how polymers are classified, how they are made; survey of common synthetic polymers, some important natural polymers, problems of plastics in the environment, recycling.
Changes of state: vapor pressure, boiling, phase maps - Vapor pressure and the stabiity of a phase, condensation, boiling and nucleation, phase diagrams of representative substances, phases at the extremes of temperature and pressure, helium phase weirdness.
Early 2009
Pearson Foundation Science and Math Education - Report and Recommendations - This 2008 report focusses on the outstanding success of Singapore's educational system in facilitating student achievement in science and mathematics.
DNA Structure - An Interactive Animated Nonlinear Tutorial by Eric Martz, adapted for JMol. This tutorial is designed to complement an introduction to DNA, by providing tools for a self-directed exploration. The site includes a lesson plan for teachers.
Biochemistry of metabolism: Instructional materials for a studio-format course. This Rensselaer Polytechnic site provides an extensive set of tutorials on molecular and cellular biochemistry.
The WikiPremed Project 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.
The Periodic Table of Videos - click on an element, and watch a two-minute video from the U. of Nottingham that describes the element and its uses.
Food Science Videos - Kirsten Sanford uses food-related topics to illustrate some important chemistry concepts. iTunes subscriptions available.
Polymer Chemistry Hypertext - this somewhat advanced material ( for a second-semester polymer course) is organized by concept.
2008
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.
Structures of Simple Inorganic Solids - This site by S.J. Heyes of Oxford offers an exceptionally complete coverage of elementary crystallography and the representation of crystal structures. Lots of good illustrations.
Starting points for teaching - This Carleton U (Ontario) site is oriented toward teaching geoscience, but it provides a wealth of well-organized suggestions that should be of interest to anyone setting out to teach an entry-level course in the natural sciences.
Chemistry Times - a compilation of recent news items relating to discoveries in Chemistry.
Linus Pauling Lectures - This Oregon State U. site has videos of several NSF-sponsored lectures by Pauling.
Human Thermodynamics Wiki - Yes, this sounds a little fringey, but there is much interesting stuff here, such as a history of the concept of the "human molecule".
This Bad Chemistry page by Kevin Lehmann of U. Virginia takes a poke at the hydrophobic effect, the common explanation for how ice skating works, and the nature of ionic solutions.
Quantum Tutor Chemistry Tutorials is a set of tutorials covering different aspects of beginning chemistry. It offers a variety of problem quizzes organized in a framework that allows students to explore and ask questions about specific compounds or topics. Students can retain records of their interactions with the program, and additional problems relevant to a specific curriculum can be added. The materials can be accessed on-line by annual subscription. An impressive on-line demo is available at this site.
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.
Art, Artifacts, Archives & Photos - This Chemical Heritage Foundation site offers a searchable database of items in CHF’s collections. It contains sections on Fine Art (ranging from alchemy through the 19th century), Instruments and Artifacts, Photographs.
MIT Kitchen Chemistry course - This course, given in 2006 by Patricia Christie, was designed to be an experimental and hands-on approach to applied chemistry (as seen in cooking). The materials are available by download.
(a new addition to the flim-flam file:) Institute of Human Thermodynamics - stuff such as: "Human chemistry is the study of reactions between individuals who are viewed as chemical species and with the energy, entropy, and work that quantify these processes. In modern human chemistry, people are viewed as chemical species, or specifically “human molecules” (a term coined by Charles Galton Darwin), A or B, and processes such as marriage or divorce are viewed as chemical reactions between individuals..."
Science songs - this Haverford College Physics site has links to a large number of online recordings.
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 seemed to be dependent on external support from NSF and other sources.
Late 2007
The Concord Consortium is a nonprofit educational R&D organization that produces high-quality educational software that is offered free of charge. Most of it is open-sourced so you can adapt it to your own needs or use it as the basis for your own software development efforts. Of special interest to Chemistry are their Molecular Literacy Project, Molecular Rover Project, and Science of Atoms and Molecules Project— all of which are described elsewhere on the Development Projects page.
Organic Chemistry WikiBook - "This free online text is intended to become a complete replacement for your printed book."
Some unusually good animated visualizations of atomic and molecular orbitals can be found at this site by Stefan Immel of the Technical University of Darmstadt.
The ChemCollective "is a collection of virtual labs, scenario-based learning activities, and concepts tests which can be incorporated into a variety of teaching approaches as pre-labs, alternatives to textbook homework, and in-class activities for individuals or teams. It is organized by a group of faculty and staff at Carnegie Mellon University for college and high school teachers who are interested in using, assessing, and/or creating engaging online activities for chemistry education."
Chemistry Visualization Resources for Teachers - an extensive annotated list by Rosa Hemphill.
This BlackLight Power site offers some unusually vivid animations of lattice structures, atoms and molecules, and quantum mechanics.
MIT Open CourseWare Chemistry site contains lecture notes and in some cases video lectures for a large number of undergraduate and graduate courses.
Virtlab is a "virtual laboratory where students deduce scientific principles by performing laboratory experiments." It employs Flash- and JavaScript-enhanced Web technologies, as well as spreadsheet files. In addition to various simulatins, they claim to offer considerable flexibility in model-building for more curious students to explore.
Musical "visualizations" of protein and DNA sequences - This site by M.A. Clark of Texas Wesleyan University is something "completely different"!
Early 2007
Michelle Francl of Bryn Mawr College has prepared an extensive set of blogs, webcasts and podcasts. Some of these support first- and second year courses, others are for a wider, non-technical audience. All are thoughtful and engaging examples of ways to make Chemistry more interesting, and of how non-traditional media can be incorporated into a course. Some of the more interesting collections include Culture of Chemistry: The Who, What, When, Where and Why of Chemistry, and Chemistry 104 Lecture summaries
Library of inorganic structures - over 1600 structures of inorganic molecules, polyhedra and bioinorganic compounds, accessed through an interactive periodic table. Also at this site, a gallery of visually interesting molecules.
Physical Chemistry OnLine (PCOL) is a consortium dedicated to improving and enriching the learning experience for students of physical chemistry.
UC Berkeley offers webcast/podcast archives of lectures in certain courses, including the first-semester course Chem 1a. Do any other places do this? Please let me know!
late 2006
"Don't try this at home" - a 2006 article from Wired Magazine that shows how suppliers of chemicals to scientific amateurs are being hounded out of business by U.S. terrorist-paranoia. See also this page from one of the afflicted companies.
CMU on-line Chemistry course - as part of an "Open Learning Initiative", Carnegie Mellon University offers what appears to be a demonstration course on chemical stoichiometry that illustrates several innovative approaches, including a simulation-based Virtual Laboratory. The "open and free" version is available to anyone; an Academic Version is also available that can be used in connection with existing courses.
"Never mix alkali metals with water" - "not your usual boring science video" from Braniac Science Abuse (Movie; 3 min 16 sec)
Quantum States of Atoms and Molecules is the first of a series of digital "Living Textbooks" published by the Journal of Chemical Education.
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.
Molecular Logic Project - The goal of this project is to improve the ability of all students to understand fundamental biological phenomena in terms of the interactions of atoms and molecules. The Molecular Logic project aims to do this by enhancing biology courses with guided explorations of powerful atomic and molecular computational models. These models are embedded in an easily implemented database linked to both typical textbooks and standards. Over one hundred models of chemical and biological phenomena are available.
What is Chemistry all about? An introduction to chemical science. This tutorial attempts to present the major concepts that define modern chemistry, without, of course, getting into the gory details! As far as possible, macroscopic and microscopic views are presented in parallel; thus the concept of composition is divided into formula and structure. Energetics, dynamics, and synthesis are the other principle concepts. The unit concludes with an illustrated summary of the main currents of modern chemistry. (S. Lower, Chem1 Virtual Textbook)
Preliminaries: stuff you should know before delving too far into Chemistry - a set of five elementary "pre-Chemistry" tutorials covering the following topics: classification and properties of matter, density and buoyancy, energy, heat and temperature, units and dimensions, measurement error, significant figures and rounding off (these last three topics are identical with the first three in the lesson described immediately below.) (S. Lower, Chem1 Virtual Textbook)
