The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry
David W Ball, Cleveland State University
John W Hill, University of Wisconsin
Rhonda J Scott, Southern Adventist University
Copyright Year: 2011
ISBN 13: 9781453311097
Publisher: Saylor Foundation
Language: English
Formats Available
Conditions of Use
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
CC BY-NC-SA
Reviews
This text book is adequately comprehensive and covers all chapters of a GOB chemistry course. The content is well organized and explained clearly. Students need to review the practice questions for better grasp of concepts. read more
This text book is adequately comprehensive and covers all chapters of a GOB chemistry course. The content is well organized and explained clearly. Students need to review the practice questions for better grasp of concepts.
Mostly error free and accurate
This text book is highly relevant for GOB course students who need to take this course for Nursing, dental hygiene and other programs.
Very clear and precise and written in a manner which is easily understood at student's level.
Consistent for all chapters.
Each chapter is divided into various sections based on "Learning Objective". Under each section, I like the skill building exercise and practice questions. This way the student can attain mastery in each topic by going through the skill building exercise and solving the practice questions.
Well organized meeting the learning objectives of this course in each chapter.
No issues. Easily able to toggle between various chapters, no distortion of diagrams or images.
Didn't come across significant grammatical errors
Not applicable
I will recommend this for students who need a text book to master topics of GOB. All the chapters which are part of GOB course curriculum are covered in a an easy to understand manner. The application of concepts can be learnt by doing the practice questions under each learning objective. Highly recommended!
Very comprehensive--- Currently pre-Nursing studetns are only required to take the first part of the 2 semester GOB course so only 1/2 of ths text would be used in that course. read more
Very comprehensive--- Currently pre-Nursing studetns are only required to take the first part of the 2 semester GOB course so only 1/2 of ths text would be used in that course.
Very nice treatment of chemical concepts at an approprite level
Text is relevant , but It would really benefit from real world examples of the chemical concepts covered, especially those related to healthh care
Good clarity- concise but not overly so
Cosistent form chapter to chapter
Most chemistry text for GOB are similar-- this one follows that pattern
The material is organized in the manner that I would like to present the information-- one concept follows the next almost seamlessly
no problems here
Seems to read very well using grammatical structure easy for the student to follow
no indication of any cultural references at all
The exercises with answers are helpful as well as those without the answers (in the chapter and at the end of chapater problems). Both could be assigned to the student, one for them to check and the ones without answers to see if the student really understands. The main weakness of the text seems to be not showing the specific work (units crossed out, etc) for numerical problems (unit conversions, stoichiometry problems, etc) Students really need those specific steps to help them build confidence towards attempting them themselves.
The book is great for an introductory chemistry class - it covers all the necessary learning outcomes for my particular course. I would like to point out that perhaps for the Converting Units chapter, perhaps more examples showing explicitly how... read more
The book is great for an introductory chemistry class - it covers all the necessary learning outcomes for my particular course. I would like to point out that perhaps for the Converting Units chapter, perhaps more examples showing explicitly how units cancel would be much more helpful for instructors.
I have not so far seen any errors in this text.
The text is matter of fact, so it will withstand the test of time.
The book is clear and concise, however, I think that it can benefit using more visual aids/illustrations for more visual learners. The addition of visual aids can contribute to its clarity.
The book is consistent in language and style, as well as the format. It is consistent in the presence of end of chapter material, which I particularly like since it summarizes each chapter nicely.
It would help if this textbook was customizable, however, this is easily addressed by assigning specific chapter readings and pages to students.
I like the sequence of the book - the order is how I normally would teach an intro to chemistry class from chapters 1-6, after which I would go to chapters 9-10.
The navigation of the online book is ok, but I wish that the table of contents would be on the side, and it can stay on display as I click through chapters. I wish there were more illustrations and more visual examples, which would really improve on this book , and show more work for the problem solving aspect, such as the stoichiometry part and calculating concentrations and converting units, in addition to mentioning the steps, which it already does.
I have not found any grammatical errors
The text is matter of fact, so I didn't see any cultural issues with this book
I felt like this book is a basic outline of a GOB course, but felt lacking in many areas. This might be appropriate if you were covering the entire book in one quarter, but not suitable for a full year GOB series. Generally the gen chem section... read more
I felt like this book is a basic outline of a GOB course, but felt lacking in many areas. This might be appropriate if you were covering the entire book in one quarter, but not suitable for a full year GOB series. Generally the gen chem section was good, but was shockingly sparse in gas laws.
Seems accurate, but could use more examples especially of more difficult concepts.
I did like the intro stories in the beginning of each chapter which also helps relate the material, but it needs more pictures to be engaging.
The writing is clear, but a lack of formatting and pictures makes the textbook feel like a huge wall of text which will be difficult for students.
Very consistent with itself.
Unfortunately, this portion hurts the textbook the most. The pictures are extremely small compared to the text and very few and far between. This leaves the feeling of a huge wall of text. Formulas and chemical expressions are given in the same font as the main body which exacerbates the issue.
Generally follows the expected "GOB" series course material. There are a few sections that are lumped together and it is lacking in the biochemistry section.
Very small images especially in the biochem section detract from the experience and make it difficult to comprehend the material.
Grammar is good
Good references!
I hope this book will be developed more. I have been searching for a good open source GOB replacement textbook, but this has been shockingly difficult to find. More engaging and better thought out visuals will help the book.
It also needs more references in the back, standard tables.
There is no glossary or index and the text could really use one. An enormous amount of material is covered, and if a student needs to review something from earlier or look up a definition, the chapter sub-headings aren’t sufficient. The book... read more
There is no glossary or index and the text could really use one. An enormous amount of material is covered, and if a student needs to review something from earlier or look up a definition, the chapter sub-headings aren’t sufficient. The book could also use a more extensive appendix that includes all the tables that normally appear inside the front and back covers of a physical textbook – table of polyatomic ions, list of common ions, conversion factors, etc. Most subjects are covered appropriately but more coverage could be given to chemical equilibrium. Also, condensation and hydrolysis reactions could be more effectively emphasized.
I found no glaring errors.
The book was written before the periodic table was filled in. Also, I would like to see an update in the next year or so that includes a description of SARS-COV-2 in the section on viruses. There is currently a description of HIV and the drugs used to treat it in the virus section, and that probably needs to be updated.
The text is written in simple language appropriate for beginning college students including English language learners.
I found no problems with consistency.
I did not like that the intro to organic compounds, including describing functional groups, occurs in chapter 4: covalent bonding. Then in chapter 12, where organic chemistry really begins in earnest, the authors refer back to chapter 4.
Other than putting the intro to organic compounds in chapter 4, the organization is good.
Some figures were missing in the online version. My browser prevented me from accessing the PDF version.
I liked that there was a choice of reading the entire chapter continuously or proceeding through it section by section.
I found no grammatical errors.
The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive, but there is little cultural diversity in the examples. The main text focuses on the science. Inset “career focus” boxes use gender neutral pronouns, although for “genetics counselor” a photograph is included where the counselor is a white woman and her client appears to be a woman of color. There are only a few depictions of people and they are of dead white scientists: Linus Pauling, John Dalton, William Morton (dentist to first use diethyl ether as a general anesthetic).
This is a standard text for a course intended as an introduction to chemistry, organic, and biochemistry for non-majors. I do feel it could be improved by additional figures and images to explain concepts. It definitely lacked in this. A few... read more
This is a standard text for a course intended as an introduction to chemistry, organic, and biochemistry for non-majors. I do feel it could be improved by additional figures and images to explain concepts. It definitely lacked in this.
A few things I noticed:
-the text does not teach students how to draw covalently bonded lewis structures (it does teach ionic)
-drug kinetics are not mentioned in the organic/biochem section
-quantum description of atoms does not explain the electron jump in the d orbitals
-no arrow pushing is used in the organic section and students are required to memorize reactants and products instead
However, all of these things may be fine depending on the course. Other than the omission of lewis structures, I found this text adequate but high on the memorization requirements in the organic and biochem sections.
The book was accurate. Most of the issues I felt came from issues of omission. This happened by not going into more depth on explanations of topics to help improve student comprehension instead of focusing on memorization based learning.
This again may be fine depending on your course.
I liked the examples relating chemistry to the real world at the beginning of each chapter often having a medical focus. As many students who take courses like this are in medical related fields, I find it very helpful.
This book reads like a dense workbook. It has very good definitions of terms and lots of practice problems with solutions, however, it lacks images and figures to help describe concepts and ideas. So if your students need a lot of practice problems, and your class is supplemented with a lecture with lots of images to help the students visualize concepts, this would be an ideal text. It is also intended for non-majors.
Book was very consistent and easy to locate content. A lot of problems are included in the text and nearly all had solutions. So it provides a lot of practice for students.
The text was very easy to read. It was also very concise which I appreciated. Very good definitions!
I felt this text was very well organized. Everything was where it was supposed to be and the material covered is standard for what is expected in a non-majors course.
The text had no interface issues I noticed.
No Grammatical Errors that I saw. Sometimes it would gloss over or skip more complex explanations of topics.
The text was not culturally insensitive in any way.
In summary, this is a standard text for a course intended as an introduction to chemistry, organic, and biochemistry for non-majors. I do feel it could be improved by additional figures and images to explain concepts. It definitely lacked in this.
I would also appreciate a lessened focus on memorization in the organic and biochemistry portions (personal preference). Nearly all practice questions and topics were based on memorization. The reason as to why certain chemical and biochemical reactions happen was not included. There was a good focus on applications in the organic and biochemistry sections however.
In my opinion, the best parts of the text were how concise and clear the definitions were and how all of the problems had solutions for the students to check their work with.
The book is quite comprehensive. Given that this course can be either 2 semesters (16 week each) or 1 semester (8 weeks each module General + Organic & Biochemistry), the book is detailed enough in materials presented to be adapted for an... read more
The book is quite comprehensive. Given that this course can be either 2 semesters (16 week each) or 1 semester (8 weeks each module General + Organic & Biochemistry), the book is detailed enough in materials presented to be adapted for an abridged, more focused direction.
The informations are accurate and concise for the course the book is intended for.
The health science references were well placed. Given that the majority of the readers of this kind of textbook will be allied health science majors, the examples and extrapolations are quite relevant.
The language is simple and lucid. The technical terms are both defined and explained with adequate examples.
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The organization of the chapters are pretty standard. For this kind of a textbook, atoms first approach suits better and that is how exactly the book is laid out.
The formatting requires a lot of work. The figure headings and the actual figures must be in the same page. The subheadings or the headings with their accompanying texts should have been tried to be kept in one page, wherever possible. This book should have been under the scanner of a compositor for much better visual appeal. Use or certain colors (like orange) was a disaster. It actually distracted the reader and made it harder to focus. The organization will tremendously enhance the learning and teaching experiences.
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As the authors stated in the preface of this book, this book is ideal for the survey of the GOB chemistry full semester course. However considering I teach at an institution that teaches in quarters semester instead of a full semester, I need to... read more
As the authors stated in the preface of this book, this book is ideal for the survey of the GOB chemistry full semester course. However considering I teach at an institution that teaches in quarters semester instead of a full semester, I need to cut down on a couple of chapters and topics from this book to make it appropriate for my students. I do want to use this book for single quarters to teach general, organic and biological chemistry in separate quarters. I find that the general chemistry component is very comprehensive to teach in the one-quarter semester. However, the book went lighter in content for organic and biological chemistry. Which makes me need to look for supplemental content to make up for the needed content for the quarter semester for each of organic and biological section. I find that this book uses much fewer images than a regular textbook. It would be great if this book can add more images throughout the book to keep a student engaged.
I used this book for the introductory general chemistry one quarter and covered chapters from 1 to 11. I didn't find any inaccuracies with the text in these first 11 chapters. I also adopted this book for the survey of GOB chemistry class with selected topics and I find no issues so far.
This book does a good job of covering necessary basic topics to introduce chemistry for non-majors students. However, many of my students are non-chemistry majors and they always look for justification to learn any new chemistry concept. The book will look much more relevant for students if it includes a few more health-related applications for the major concepts.
This follows a pattern similar to any GOB textbook available in the market. So, it does have good clarity of chapters' progressions and the content discussed under each chapter.
The book is consistent in its style of presenting information in each chapter. Each chapter starts with an opening essay, followed by sub-sections that discusses that covers parts of the chapters in a progressive manner.
I like how this simplifies each topic by consistently presenting learning objectives, concept review exercises, answers, key takeaways, more examples, and answers before moving on to another topic in the same chapter.
No problems here. As I previously mentioned in the modularity section, the book is very organized and very easy to find the information especially if you use an online textbook. For my online chemistry class, I copy and paste the link of the specific chapters on the canvas shell page for my students to directly access it online.
I commend the author's effort to put together this book available in OpenStax mode. However, this book could use some formating help to make it more attractive for aspiring users. For example, it is uncommon for a textbook to left indent through the book instead of adjusting the sides. The book at times has less clarity element symbol. For example, for example, 5 on page 107 of the textbook has given mass and atomic number information of the elements Cl, I and other elements. The authors try to paste an image instead of using MS word to present this information, which leads to blurry images of the elements. It is still readable but it feels low clarity. I have observed these types of similar issues when the textbook presents problem-solving equations using conversion factors.
There are no obvious grammatical errors. The students in my class liked the way the book is written as it is very easy for them to read. For a professor who used publisher books in the previous years, this book might seem a little informal in writing. However, it doesn't bother me much, because as I won't require to read this as thoroughly as students since I am already familiar with the content over the years.
No issues here.
I commend the effort put in by the author to make this book available for free. Thank you on behalf of all the students who are using this book.
The coverage of general chemistry topics in this text is very good considering the level of course for which this is intended. However, I feel that there are a couple of areas that could use improvement: The discussion of nuclear chemistry in... read more
The coverage of general chemistry topics in this text is very good considering the level of course for which this is intended. However, I feel that there are a couple of areas that could use improvement:
The discussion of nuclear chemistry in Chapter 11 does not cover electron capture, or positron emission. Not all texts of this type cover this information, but I feel it would be useful to do so.
Chemical equilibrium is minimally discussed, with no mention of Le Chatelier’s principle. There is no mention of chemical kinetics. I would prefer a basic chemistry textbook to at least cover these topics in a qualitative fashion, if nothing more.
Coverage of organic chemistry and biochemistry topics is very good, and is similar in scope to other GOB textbooks. I don’t have any suggestions for improvement on these topics.
On page 866, there is a discussion of D- vs. L- forms of carbohydrates; the structure of L-(-)-glyceraldehyde appears to have an error.
Few, if any, other errors were noted. Most other errors are likely artifacts from conversion to pdf format, as they involved mainly formatting issues in equations.
The content of a chemistry text at this level is unlikely to see drastic changes over time, with the exception of newer techniques and technologies seen in biochemistry. As such, I feel this book would not need updates very often.
Perhaps the periodic table given at the end of the text could be updated to be current. Based upon the information given, it appears to date from the late 2000’s.
The text is written very well. Topics are presented in a clear fashion. The text is written at a level appropriate for the intended audience. Flowcharts, photos, and figures are well-designed in general. Some tables (e.g. the amino acids table) could use reformatting for better clarity of the information contained therein.
Chapters are written and organized in a very consistent manner. Terminology is up to date and used consistently throughout the text.
Each chapter is broken up into sections, followed by a series of practice exercises. Some readers may find this distracting and choppy, but it is a matter of preference.
The chapters are organized in the order typically found in GOB type textbooks, which is just fine.
In-text exercises and end-of-chapter questions have the answers given immediately afterwards. I suggest moving the answers to another portion of the book (perhaps an appendix). This would improve student learning, in my opinion.
The pdf version of this book does not include a table of contents, nor does it include an index. This makes navigation to a particular topic more difficult unless you happen to know which chapter contains the desired material beforehand.
When the book was converted from online to pdf format, the embedded links within the text remain blue in color, suggesting that the links are still active. However, those links are all inactive. This could be remedied in a number of ways.
Other links are embedded in the text (such as those on page 479), and they are active. However, the links might need to be updated, as the material on those webpages does not fit with the context of where they are in the book itself.
Figures and tables, in general, seem to have retained their proper formatting during the conversion to pdf. They seem to be well thought out and convey their information well.
Mathematical formulas (such as those showing conversion factors) are not always consistently formatted…they appear as though they have been copied from one place to another, and appear blurry as a result. This may be an artifact of the conversion to pdf format.
I did not run across any errors in grammar.
I did not see any issues here.
Please note that this review is of the PDF version of this textbook. The online version of this text may not have as many formatting issues. Even though this text is listed as being intended for a one-semester GOB course, I feel it could also be modified for use in a two-semester GOB sequence. The first semester could cover the general chemistry topics, followed by the second semester being half organic chemistry and half biochemistry. This book should serve the intended audience well.
This textbook addresses all the major topics that I would expect to see in a General, Organic, and biological Chemistry textbook. It could benefit from added material in the following areas: chemical reaction rates, organic molecule chirality,... read more
This textbook addresses all the major topics that I would expect to see in a General, Organic, and biological Chemistry textbook. It could benefit from added material in the following areas: chemical reaction rates, organic molecule chirality, and nutrition. The topic coverage compares favorably to other common textbooks used for these courses.
The content is very accurate, with very few errors in its treatment of the subject. More specifically, the content review exercises included with each section are salient and accurate, sometimes giving important context to the material that preceded them.
Many chemical concepts are timeless, but particularly in biochemistry, the pace of advancement is very high. Some of the material related to biochemistry is already dated and should be updated with more modern techniques and examples. To be clear, nothing is inaccurate-- it’s simply not the ‘state of the art’ anymore, and it’s better to expose students to more up-to-date information. Particularly given that this textbook will be used in pre healthcare-focused careers, it’s important to supplement the text with examples of techniques that students are likely to encounter in their future careers.
This textbook does an excellent job of using short, direct language to express important concepts, avoiding jargon and speaking at the appropriate level for its audience. This is one of the great strengths of this textbook.
It is clear that this textbook originally had one author; it is very consistent and clear in its terminology and tone throughout.
This textbook is extremely modular and self-contained; each section stands on its own with internal introductions, concept reviews, exercises, and summaries. You could take any chapter and use it independently or interweave it with other resources.
This textbook follows a very common organizational pattern for General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry textbooks, making it easy to adapt for instructors used to other resources. Within each chapter, topics are presented in a logical manner and build appropriately in complexity.
The web interface of the book is clear, well-organized, and accessible. The PDF version has topics span pages without clear breaks for different topics at times, and could use effort at better interactive hyperlinking.
The text has some noticeable typos and formatting errors, but very few hinder comprehension. Core concepts are clearly presented, and the English style and tone is appropriate.
I did not observe any topics or discussions in the book that would be considered culturally offensive. For instance, its discussion of genetic diseases was very respectful.
This textbook is comprehensive and correct, but barebones. A concerted effort to add 3 to 5 additional exercises and challenge problems to each section of the book would be worthwhile and dramatically increase its impact.
This GOB book is well-written for non-majors who required to learn basic chemistry in a semester. The topics in the book are adequately described without going into much details. The text provides good numbers of exercises relating to real-world... read more
This GOB book is well-written for non-majors who required to learn basic chemistry in a semester. The topics in the book are adequately described without going into much details. The text provides good numbers of exercises relating to real-world problems which I think is beneficial to the students to understand the relevance of the topics. The introduction of opening essays in the beginning of chapters is a great way to connect the relevance of the information in the chapters with real problems. There is no index or glossary.
The content and the information provided in the book are accurate. However, I find quite a few space errors in the text, especially on page #141 (chapter summary section of Chapter-2). Besides answers of the exercise on the page #207 (problems- 5, 7, 9, 11) does not match with questions.
The chemistry content in this book should remain relevant for long period of time. It includes up to date information.
The book is written in an accessible way by keeping non-majors chemistry students in the mind. All terms are well-defined and explained in simple (yet scientific) language.
Each chapter in the book does follow a consistent pattern including Learning objectives, examples, skill-building exercises, concept review exercises and key takeaways. The text, font and language used throughout the book is uniform.
The sections and information provided in the book can easily be divided (into subsections or reading assignment) depending on course requirement.
The chapters in the book are written in well-organized and consistent manner. The flow of chapters in the book is logical.
The PDF version of the book offers poor interface. The lack of clickable links for tables and figures is the biggest negative. The resolution of formulas in the text as well as in the problems can be better.
The book has quite a few typos and space errors but not a major issue.
I did not find anything that might be considered as culturally offensive in the book.
This GOB text delivers in providing just what the title denotes. In this era of having to cram two semesters of material into a one semester course, the text adequately provides basic level content. The text lacks an index and glossary. read more
This GOB text delivers in providing just what the title denotes. In this era of having to cram two semesters of material into a one semester course, the text adequately provides basic level content. The text lacks an index and glossary.
The text appears to be mostly accurate with minimal detection of errors.
In the last 13 years, I have had to utilize several GOB texts, as well as textbook written for non-science majors. I would definitely attest to its relevance. Some instructors might like to see more information provided in key areas, but overall, it follows the norm in up to date content.
I find this GOB text to be clear with concise step by step examples for students to follow.
This text shows consistency throughout in its progression of terms and concepts.
The text is presented clearly and concise in "bite-size chunks". Students are often intimidated by the subject name as well as the content. These compartmentalized smaller reading sections help students to master concepts before moving on to others too fast.
The organization of the topics in this text were mostly standard.
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There were no distortion of images or confusing displays during the review of this text. The navigation capabilities are limited to scrolling only.
There were only a few grammatical errors detected during my review.
There were no cultural sensitivity issues detected during my review of this text, based on the lack of cultural material provided.
The textbook provides adequate coverage of the topics that would be discussed in a one or two-semester introductory chemistry course for health science or other non-science majors. It presents topics with an appropriate level of discussion and... read more
The textbook provides adequate coverage of the topics that would be discussed in a one or two-semester introductory chemistry course for health science or other non-science majors. It presents topics with an appropriate level of discussion and provides real-world links to the topics discussed to make the material relevant to students. There is no glossary or index; however, there are bold-face terms throughout the text, which show definitions as screen tips.
The content reviewed in the textbook is accurate, error-free and unbiased.
The textbook contains up to date information and provides examples and additional information that cover scientific advances from the last decade.
The text is written in plain language, with content specific language as necessary. New technical or scientific terms are defined within the text as presented.
The textbook is consistent in layout and levels of content from chapter to chapter.
The content is divided into sections within each chapter, which facilitates reading and comprehending the material. Students can be assigned individual sections or groups of sections to read rather than the entire chapter at once. There are pre- and post-checks for each section and the sections reference appropriate material in other sections and chapters. However, the material easily can be reorganized if necessary.
The topics in the textbook are arranged in a logical manner, albeit slightly deviated from the common presentation of general chemistry topics, but pleasantly so. I believe the chosen organization groups all of the related materials and orders them in such a way as to allow the students to get a full understanding of the basic concepts and how they apply across the various types of matter.
There is an unusually high occurrence of broken or missing links to figures and other sections or chapters. There are missing figures and incorrectly placed figure labels. Additionally, the screen tips for the bold-face terms throughout the text show up at the top of the screen (beginning of chapter), instead of within the bounds of the paragraph where the term is located, and are usually out of screen view if you are anywhere beyond the first screen worth of text and graphics. These issues do not, however, take away from the presentation of the material as far as student understanding.
I did not notice any grammatical errors in the reviewed material.
There are no issues of cultural insensitivity or offensiveness with the textbook.
The textbook provides a good overview of general, organic and biological chemistry. It is not in-depth, but it provides enough information for an introduction to each of these areas of chemistry. I think the arrangement of the topics is beneficial and would be interested to know if students respond better to this presentation of material. The chapters could use a larger selection of problems in the End of Chapter Additional Exercises section and there are some interface issues; however, overall, I think this is a good book for general, organic and biochemistry courses.
Has more depth than necessary for my survey course when it comes to general chemistry and adequately covers organic and biochemistry topics. read more
Has more depth than necessary for my survey course when it comes to general chemistry and adequately covers organic and biochemistry topics.
No errors noticed.
While the understanding of the minute details of biochemistry are often changing, this book does a good job of keeping more of an overview on these topics to maintain relevance.
The overall tone is accessible, but it would be nice if there were more sections/examples that demonstrated the topics being applied to real world problems.
Formatting and tone remain consistent throughout the book.
Topics are broken into logical chapters, which in turn have numbered sections. Some of these chapter sections can run long, so having a method to break them up further could be useful.
Builds from gen chem topics to organic and finally to biochem.
Distortion on images for chemical equations and molecular structures. Its not book breaking, but some of these are quite fuzzy.
No grammatical errors noticed.
Overall applications/examples lacking, which carries over to inclusivity as well.
Overall the book presents the topics I need for my course, but the presentation is somewhat bare bones as there could be more of an emphasis on applications (and maybe some historical context for topics like atomic structure). Also, visually some improvements could be made as the figures are often blurry and there's a periodic table at the end that is oddly formatted across two pages.
This textbook is a great one-semester overview of general, organic, and biochemistry for students needing an introduction to chemistry, such as pre-nursing or exercise science students. There is enough information for students to get a good, basic... read more
This textbook is a great one-semester overview of general, organic, and biochemistry for students needing an introduction to chemistry, such as pre-nursing or exercise science students. There is enough information for students to get a good, basic foundation to chemistry in a short period of time without getting bogged down in too many details. There is no stand alone index or glossary but within the text there are definitions of bolded and underlined words if you hover over them with the mouse.
There are no errors other than occasional missed spaces throughout the pdf version. A minor annoyance is that the colors of the nucleus and electrons switch between chapter 2 and 4, which could be confusing to students that pay attention to details.
For the most part, this book is relevant and up-to-date. This chemistry content in this textbook is straightforward and presented in a very practical order that can be adapted (added to) easily when updates become necessary. However, some of the connections to health and chapter introductions will need updates over time to keep up with changes in the health professions. The organic naming section still uses the older nomenclature however, this is common among all equivalent print GOB textbooks. One out-of-date item is the food pyramid in the last section of chapter 4. This link should be changed to the new guidelines.
The text is very practical, clear, and concise, and definitely written with the specific audience in mind. Difficult concepts and topics are broken down in a way that makes sense without losing the relevant connections for understanding chemistry.
Terminology and is consistent throughout. Each chapter begins with an introduction to the content and ends with a summary of material to review. Each section begins with clear learning objectives and ends with examples, key takeaways, and practice questions with some answers.
Within this textbook the chapter content is divided nicely into sections that are the appropriate length and easy to read. Within each section, there are links to other content in the book. This allows for sections to stand alone, making reorganization into any order easy.
The organization of content is appropriate and fitting for a one-semester GOB textbook. The flow of content works well and there are no unnecessary figures interrupting the text. Nuclear chemistry felt a little out of place but it is a chapter that doesn't quite fit in anywhere logically although it fits a little better within the introduction to the structure of atoms. It would be nice to see more connections to VSEPR and lewis structures in the organic chemistry chapter. It is a good place to review content learned earlier. In addition, there should be a periodic table presented much earlier on and not just in the appendix. It would be really easy to link to any website that has an updated table that students can interact with and learn from.
The pdf version had a lot of spacing issues and distorted figures but this did not seem to be an issue in the online version. Additionally, the format for superscripts on ion symbols was odd in some places, which is a little distracting but should not be confusing.
It would be nice to be able to click on figures and zoom in to them separately from the text.
There were no grammatical errors noticed.
This book is not offensive or culturally insensitive.
This textbook is definitely designed with the audience in mind, which is much appreciated. Many of the notes and brief descriptions perfectly and clearly break down concepts in a way that is easy for beginning chemistry students to figure out and learn from. In addition, the summary sections at the end of each chapter is very useful and gives students a place to summarize chapter content but also somewhere to start reviewing for exams.
This book is very comprehensive and covers the basics of GOB Chemistry for one or two semesters GOB course. The material is feasible for students without and prerequisite knowledge of the subject but students who are already familiar with the... read more
This book is very comprehensive and covers the basics of GOB Chemistry for one or two semesters GOB course. The material is feasible for students without and prerequisite knowledge of the subject but students who are already familiar with the basic parts of GOB Chemistry can also benefit from this textbook. The authors added multiple high quality activities (such as audio-video resources, checklists, MCQs) that make the material more interesting and reinforce the learning, comprehension and understanding via critical thinking. The text also provides many examples with step-by-step solutions in order to answer 'HOW?' and 'WHY?' question and gain a solid understanding of the subject matter. The book is divided into inorganic, organic and biochemistry parts with some aspects of analytical and physical chemistry as well.
The text is accurate. However, some of the hotlinks to additional material do not work and need to be updated.
The material is written in a long-lasting way, i.e. the main scientific information will not change very fast. Some links need to be updated but it should be relatively easy with the online textbook format. Relevance of the material with biomedical research and human health is a nice addition to the text.
The textbook is well written, the material is clear and well explained. Applications of multiple graphs and diagrams add to clarify the concepts. The great advantage of this material is the writing style using the basic vocabulary and informal style. Also 'End-of-Chapter Material' is written in a 'Study Guide' style.
The textbook is very consistent in uniform writing style, presentation of the material and interface as well. Each chapter is presented in the same order (i.e. Opening Essay, Learning Objectives, Examples, skill-building Exercises with the solution, concept review Exercises, Key Takeaway). Also, all important vocabulary is presented in bolded style.
The textbook layout is modular with each chapter divided into smaller but complete sub-chapters, clearly separated by topics and activities. All subtitles are uniform through the text and clearly labeled. The length and depth of each subsection is consistent, creating a relative easy online reading, however the navigation to each section might be more difficult for some students to move around in the text.
The textbook is organized in a typical format with initial more general topics, followed by organic and then biochemistry relevant topics. The final chapter provides the connections between previous parts as the book overview.
The layout and a PDF text format is accessible via multiple browsers and operating systems. But based on the font size some of the references posted on the bottom of the page are located differently since some parts are divided by page-beaks.
There are virtually no grammatical errors in the text. I found only a few typos that could be easily corrected.
The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive at all. However, it is focused on US students using typical US culture that might be foreign to students outside US.
This book is an excellent addition to existing Open Education Resources (OER) with a high-quality supplements for instructors, such as Instructor Manual, PPT Lecture Notes, Solution Manual, and TestBank Import for any LMS. I highly recommend it.
This textbook includes all of the essential content needed for a one-semester General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry course. Each of the twenty chapters is divided into concept sections containing learning objectives, examples, skill-building... read more
This textbook includes all of the essential content needed for a one-semester General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry course. Each of the twenty chapters is divided into concept sections containing learning objectives, examples, skill-building exercises, concept review exercises, and answers. In addition, each chapter includes appealing features such as the Opening Essay, To Your Health, and Looking Closer that help students make connections with the chemical concepts presented. Although the subject matter is well presented, items such as a table of contents, glossary, and index are absent in this textbook.
The material in the text is accurate, however, some typos exist. Periodically, throughout the text, a reference is made to a figure, but a non-working hyperlink is provided instead.
The chemistry content within the textbook should remain appropriate for a long period of time. The information in the chapter Opening Essays help the students see the relevance of the chemical concepts. Just a few items may need updating. For example, the Opening Essay for chapter 16 contains diabetes statistics that are outdated and the MyPyramid food guidance system in chapter 4 has been replaced by the MyPlate food guidance system.
The chemical concepts are clearly written and are at an appropriate level for GOB students.
The framework of the sections within each chapter remains consistent throughout the textbook. Each section contains learning objective(s), skill building exercises, concept reviews, end of section exercises, and answers. In addition, each chapter consistently contains features such as the Opening Essay, To Your Health, and Looking Closer, which makes the chapter more appealing for students.
The modularity of the textbook is excellent. The chapters can be easily rearranged to enable a different presentation order of the material if necessary. Every chapter is divided into concept sections with every section containing learning objective(s), exercises, and answers. Having the answers attached to each section is more convenient than consistently referring to the end of the chapter or the end of the textbook.
The overall organization of the chapters and the sections within the textbook is very good. There is a logical flow from the foundational material through to the more complex material.
Due to the PDF format, the biggest interface issue is the poor maneuverability around the textbook. The need to scroll and the lack of table contents makes it difficult to navigate within the textbook. A linked access to the table of contents would be helpful. I found the inclusion of non-working hyperlinks as references to be a bit disruptive to the flow of material within a sentence. In addition, a few images are too small and many images are blurry (although readable).
I found no grammatical errors within the text.
I did not find the text to be culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. However, the text lacked photos which could serve as a means to include a variety of races, ethnicities, backgrounds, and different genders.
In general, I found the textbook to be an enjoyable read and I feel that it is written at a very appropriate level for GOB students. I liked that the learning objectives are boldly presented at the beginning of each section. Each section is well written and interesting (due to the inclusion of health and consumer information). My suggestions for improvement are: to use more diagrams and figures; to include photos to make the text more visually appealing; and to use more bold subheadings to highlight and draw attention to concepts.
The text is appropriate comprehensive, covering all the important concepts for the students enrolled in a GOB course. In addition, the text includes topics of biomedical relevance in an attempt to keep the students interested in the topics... read more
The text is appropriate comprehensive, covering all the important concepts for the students enrolled in a GOB course. In addition, the text includes topics of biomedical relevance in an attempt to keep the students interested in the topics covered in a GOB course.
Accuracy is fine. No glaring errors were detected - not uncommon for a GOB textbook since GOB courses cover basic topics in general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry that have been around for long time.
Relevance and longevity for a GOB textbook are hard to gauge since much of the textbook covers very basic concepts that are not likely to change or "modernize". In this text, chapters 1-10 and 12-15 are going to be largely the same in 20 years and were largely the same 20 years ago. Now, chapters 11 and chapters 16-20 could be updated (upon occasion) resulting from new discoveries in biomedical science. This reviewer would guess that the chapters covering carbohydrates (chapter 16), nucleic acids (chapter 19), and energy metabolism (chapter 20) might (emphasize might) see important changes in the next 20 years. Having said that, the basic concepts in these chapters will not change much over a 5-ish year period and any changes would be significant. Longevity for a GOB textbook is more related to issues like the long term survival of GOB courses (some universities are phasing out a GOB courses) and expectations of the students and faculty from textbooks. In particular, students seem to expect textbooks to be increasing "user friendly" as defined by the students and this expectation will change more rapidly than the materials covered in the chapters. This text could become "unpopular" for stylistic reasons far more quickly than anything related to the scientific concepts covered in the individual chapters.
Well written and quite clear. The authors have tried very hard to keep in mind the student audience for a GOB course.
Consistency is quite good. Again, the authors have kept the student audience in mind and kept terminology consistent. As anyone who has taught a GOB course knows, it is very easy to confuse this cohort of students with terminology. The authors of this text have done an excellent job, as well as possible, to eliminate this source of confusion with consistent terminology.
Outstanding for this text. The authors have done a very nice job of dividing the chapters into smaller modules to ease the students through this material. One challenge for a GOB course is the breadth of material covered and one way to handle this problem is modules. The authors have done a good job dividing the chapters into appropriate modules.
Organization is fine, except for the chapter on nuclear chemistry (chapter 11). To be honest, this is a difficult chapter to place "right" in a GOB course and making chapter 11 the nuclear chemistry chapter is fine. If I were an author, I probably would have placed the chapter right before the carbohydrate chapter, after the students have finished their "path" through organic chemistry. I would try to use the nuclear chemistry chapter to remind the students of some key concepts out of the earlier general chemistry chapters and used the nuclear chemistry chapter to try and get the students excited about the biochemical chapters - the use of 14C (and maybe 3H and 32P) in metabolic studies and the use of various isotopes for biomedical imaging. Also, biochemists use deuterium and 13c a lot in modern biomedical research. Many GOB students assume that all isotopes are radioactive and an instructor can remind the students that all isotopes are not radioactive by discussing 2H, 13C, or 18O in some biochemical context. Table 11.5 is an attempt to link isotopes to biomedical uses - why I would have placed the nuclear chemistry chapter right before the initiation of the biochemical section of the text.
I deteced no significant interface problems in going through the chapters.
I detected no grammatical errors in the text, but, to be honest, I did not read every single page with sufficient care to guarantee that the book is completely free of grammatical errors.
Cultural relevance is about as good as can be expected for a GOB text. The earlier chapters covering the basics of general and organic chemistry are the same throughout the world and, thus, are hard to place in "cultural" context.
If I taught a GOB course, I would give this text serious consideration for use - especially given the fact that my students would be able to use this text without cost (or a minimal cost, if they chose to have a printed copy).
With the growing popularity of a one-semester GOB courses in a lot of academic institutions, this introductory book meets all the necessary requirements intended for that course. The information is presented and organized very well. However, this... read more
With the growing popularity of a one-semester GOB courses in a lot of academic institutions, this introductory book meets all the necessary requirements intended for that course. The information is presented and organized very well. However, this book has some room for improved navigation within the text.
I find the contents of this book accurate and unbiased.
This book should stay relevant for a good number of years; the core content is presented in a very straightforward manner and I don’t see it becoming obsolete any time soon. The chapters and the way it was organized and presented should be very accessible to future updates if necessary.
The book is written with significant consideration for its potential readers. As an introductory book the topics are clearly presented at a level that is easy to follow throughout the chapter. The learning outcomes are presented early on with a good end of chapter follow-ups.
The text and terminologies are consistent throughout the book. Each chapter follows the same format that should help the reader learn the content as the authors intended.
This book has 20 chapters designed as a one-semester GOB; that is a lot of topics to discuss with good depth. However, this book has a very good flow (chapters) that you can easily select and tailor topics you wish to highlight or skip. The well-organized sub-chapters with their specific learning outcomes make reorganization even easier.
The topics are presented well and the content is comparable to most GOB books currently available. They are logical and continuously build from the previous chapter. However, the readability can be improved by fixing the spacing of figures and tables (e.g. a number of figure titles are separated from the actual figure by a page).
The pdf copy I evaluated only offers “scrolling” as a means of navigating the book. I would be helpful for most readers if some links were included to a referred text, figure, appendix, or even a table of contents, which this book lacks. A table of contents with active links and link-back would also improve navigation in general.
There are no obvious grammatical errors.
I did not find anything in the book the might be considered culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.
This book warrants consideration if you are looking for a free textbook for a one semester GOB course.
GOB (General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry) is traditionally taught as either a one-semester or a two-semester format. Based on the preface, this particular book was specifically written for a one-semester course. This book does a good job... read more
GOB (General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry) is traditionally taught as either a one-semester or a two-semester format. Based on the preface, this particular book was specifically written for a one-semester course. This book does a good job covering the subject of GOB; however, the subjects presented are covered at a sufficient depth for either a one-semester or two-semester course. There was no table of contents, index, or glossary (clickable or otherwise) in the PDF that I downloaded from the Open Textbook Library and reviewed. This created a lot of work when navigating within the textbook. There is a section at the end of each chapter devoted to summarizing the chapter including the keywords.
Overall, the content is fairly accurate. There are a few errors in figure designations in the text. For example, there is a reference to Figure 1.2 that details the steps of the scientific method in section 1.2 under “Elements and Compounds”. Either this was an intentional placeholder for the addition of a different figure that describes “Elements or Compounds” rather than the scientific method or this is an error in the placement of this reference. In addition, in the PDF that I downloaded and reviewed, there is a reference in section 1.5 to a hyperlink rather than text stating “Figure 1.7 Measuring an Object to the Correct Number of Digits”. In addition to section 1.5, this type of reference to a hyperlink rather than a title is also found in sections 1.6, 4.6, 9.1, 10.1, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 13.2, 13.5, 18.1, 18.2, 18.3, 18.4, 18.5, 18.6, 18.7, and 18.8. Finally, in Figure 8.4 there is a filled-wedge connecting H and F in hydrogen fluoride. This may be confusing for students especially since the figure is used to describe polar covalent bonds rather than geometry. The wedges are used in the subsequent figure (8.5) to represent geometry.
The core chemistry content in GOB at this particular level should be relevant for a substantial period of time. There are a few instances where there is some obsolescence. For example, in section 4.6 in the “To Your Health” section there is a reference to the Food Pyramid or MyPyramid. This was replaced by MyPlate in 2011, so this content is about 6 years old at the time of this review. However, it would be relatively easy to update this particular section and/or figure.
The text was accessible and provided adequate context to help with understanding the chemical terminology.
This textbook had a consistent set of terminology and framework with just a few exceptions that I could find. In chapter 12, there is a reference preceding Figure 12.2 that requests the reader to recall that the VSEPR theory correctly predicts a tetrahedral shape for the methane molecule from section 4.5. Section 4.5 doesn’t talk about or show the structure or geometry of methane. If the reference were changed from methane to carbon tetrachloride or if methane were added into section 4.5, this would provide internal consistency. The naming of chapter 14 (organic compounds of oxygen) and chapter 15 (organic acids and bases and derivatives) is somewhat problematic in attempting to group related compounds. Carboxylic acids would seem to fit into either chapter, but are contained in the organics acids and bases categories for obvious reasons (i.e. oxygen containing compounds that are acids). Thiols aren’t compounds of oxygen though they are somewhat related as noted in the text and aren’t traditionally placed within the category of organic acids and bases at the level of a one-semester GOB textbook. Esters would seem to fit best in the title for chapter 14, but are traditionally placed in the chapter that contains carboxylic acids since they are related by chemical reactivity (i.e. esterification). It would seem that there could be a more consistent division of content either by using different chapter names for thee existing chapters or by adding an additional organic chemistry chapter.
The text is very modular which is a huge benefit of this text. There is ample division of chapters into sections that can be individually used, abbreviated, or discarded based on the course. While this text is meant for a one-semester course, it would be difficult to cover all of the included content in 15-weeks and achieve student proficiency in each of the sections. Of course, care must be taken not to remove keywords and topics that are referenced in a future chapter if sections are discarded.
The topics are ordered in nearly the same way as printed GOB textbooks. Some instructors prefer the introduction to organic chemistry found at the end of chapter 4 (section 4.6) in this textbook to be shifted to the beginning of chapter 12. The authors did address this placement in their preface and it does show some integration of organic into general chemistry even though that was not their focus. It would seem that this section would need to be reviewed when the students reach chapter 12 which is not a bad thing, but there is a lot of content in the book to cover in the traditional 15-week semester. The other sections that could fit within either a general or organic/biological chemistry chapter are sections 5.6 (redox in organic and biochemistry) and 7.5 (energy of biochemical reactions). If section 4.6 were moved to chapter 12, then 5.6 and 7.5 would likely need to be moved into an organic or biological chemistry chapter as well. In either case, sections 4.6, 5.6, and 7.5 in their present locations don’t present a logical disruption to the flow of the book. One additional note, the use of wedges is first used within a figure in section 4.5 and then again in section 8.4 and 8.5, but the topic of wedges isn’t explained or described until section 12.2.
The vast majority of the figures and tables were free of distortion and were high quality. I only noticed a few instances where the layout of figures or tables spans two pages. The most notable and perhaps distracting instance occurs when a table is not only split between two pages, but one of the rows of content within the table is split between two pages. In all of the instances that I noticed, the table headings are present on both pages of a split table, which certainly helps mitigate some of the distraction. I don’t think these pagination issues would be an issue in an ePUB, but the only format currently available from the Open Textbook Library is a PDF. The lack of other ebook formats is perhaps one of the biggest problems with this particular text. This type of splitting of content within a row across pages in the PDF is seen in Tables 3.4, 18.4, 18.5, and 18.6. This doesn’t seem to be about maintaining a large enough font size because the text in Figures 3.7 and 19.13 is very small. In Table 12.4, the “Condensed Structural Formula” heading is so cramped within its column that the heading is wrapped into eleven rows with a maximum of three letters from the heading in any one row. In addition, the condensed structural formulas are also wrapped within their respective rows potentially causing confusion for students. This same type of wrapping of text of single word can be seen in Table 18.2. In Table 20.1, both the text and structures are all low-resolution bitmapped images. This particular table would definitely benefit from an update. Many of the metabolism specific flow charts (Figure 20.4, 20.12, 20.14, and 20.16) would also benefit from a vector graphic based treatment since the text is hard to read when bitmapped.
There were a few typos found in the text and figures. For example, pyruvate is spelled incorrectly in Figure 20.4.
I did not notice any culturally insensitive or offensive text.
The text lives up to its stated purpose. It covers basic parts of general, organic, and biological chemistry but without much depth. It avoids frilly language and is written in a style with its audience in mind. The authors' choice of health... read more
The text lives up to its stated purpose. It covers basic parts of general, organic, and biological chemistry but without much depth. It avoids frilly language and is written in a style with its audience in mind. The authors' choice of health applications were well thought out and appropriate.
Other than a few minor typos, I couldn't find any glaring errors. Many scanned figures are blurry but still readable and correct.
The authors will likely need to update a few of the very rapidly developing "health applications" to keep it relevant. Overall, however, much of the fundamental theory is well developed and should stand the test of time.
The text's prose is very accessible to the beginning chemistry student. All terms are well-defined and are easily searchable with the control-F function.
Each chapter follows a consistent pattern and each chapter builds well on the previous section.
I'm primarily using this text in the third term of a three term intro to chemistry sequence. Our third term concentrates on organic and biochemical applications. It is very easy to assign readings that skip around the text. The mode of presenting material makes this quite easy.
The text is well organized and consistent.
The only really disappointing part of the text is its interface. The lack of a "clickable" table of contents (or any table of contents as in my pdf version) made it laborious to skip from section to section and seems like it would be a pretty simple fix. It would be nice to add more outside hyperlinks, especially for links to better figures than those included.
Minor typos, but not frequent.
This, like many texts, could benefit from highlighting the contributions of the scientists themselves. I've found that including the humanity of the researchers often makes complex material more approachable to students. As opposed to being distracting and a "diversion", it often helps the students engage better with the material.
Overall, I'm thrilled to have found this OER. It's relatively difficult to find a text this basic and to the point with respect to organic and biochemistry. Most intro gen chem texts don't delve deeply enough into the biological side and organic/biochemical books are too in depth for the course I instruct. I'll definitely be adopting this text. Thank you, authors.
Assuming this book is for an entry level class of students preparing to take a human anatomy and physiology course, it is very thorough in the area of chemistry and acceptably thorough in cell biology. There is a complete glossary at the end of... read more
Assuming this book is for an entry level class of students preparing to take a human anatomy and physiology course, it is very thorough in the area of chemistry and acceptably thorough in cell biology. There is a complete glossary at the end of each relevant chapter and a complete index at the end of the book.
The accuracy is excellent and up to date. I found no errors or bias.
This book would be very useful for an instructor who wishes to introduce students to the basics of chemistry and cell biology in preparation for enrolling in a more advanced human physiology course. The topics are general enough that they are not likely to become out of date. The inclusion of historical information and descriptions of professional fields related to the topics adds to the relevance.
The logical sequence of information in this book keeps it clear for the reader. The availability of the glossary at the end of each chapter also keeps the terminology accessible and understandable.
The consistency for the most part is very good. There is a break in how chapter questions are organized between the sections on chemistry in contrast to those about biology.
Two large chapters with many subheadings are chapter 3 (general and organic chemistry combined) and chapter 7 (combining nutrition, digestion, energy, reaction rates, photosynthesis and enzymes). Within the subtopics some instructors will probably want to eliminate some details (i.e. calculating pOH, discussion of s,p,d,f orbitals or free energy).
This is a very well organized book and the topics are well connected.
This book is free of any poorly constructed images. The color and detail is excellent. The copy I examined did have a structural problem at the end of chapter 7 where the summary and review questions were repeated.
No errors found
Contributions by more women and minorities could add to the historical notes in this text.
It is always tempting to want to add more to texts we use in our classes. In this case I would have liked to see more details about cellular structure (ER and Golgi Apparatus). I would also add a section to Unit 3 on patterns of human genetics/inheritance.
As the title suggests this book covers the basics of GOB chemistry. It includes all the appropriate material for a one semester GOB course. The book brings in organic chemistry topics earlier than many books allowing students to see the links... read more
As the title suggests this book covers the basics of GOB chemistry. It includes all the appropriate material for a one semester GOB course. The book brings in organic chemistry topics earlier than many books allowing students to see the links between the various branches of chemistry. Roughly half the book is devoted to general chemistry and there is a large focus on metabolism at the end. A table of contents and easy method to move around in the PDF would be preferable.
In general the information in the book is accurate. There are a few typos and minor font issues as with any text.
The scientific information in the book is not dramatically changing. The contents should hold up for many years. The book does a good job of helping students understand the relevance of chemistry in their lives. Each chapter has sections that tell students about various careers in science and how the information relates to human health.
The book is well written and gets right to the important information without being wordy. It is written with beginning students in mind. It could benefit from more particle level diagrams in the general chemistry chapters to help students with the visualization of various concepts. However, I wish some of the diagrams and flow charts made for this text were in more texts.
The book is very consistent in its presentation of topics. It uses the same language throughout to help students link various topics in chemistry. Each chapter points out important terminology with bolded words. Learning objectives, examples, skill-building exercises, concept review exercises, key takeaways and exercises are all clearly labeled and presented in the same order in each chapter.
Each chapter is broken down into small bite-sized chunks of material with many practice exercises. I think students would benefit from this approach. Learning objectives, examples, skill-building exercises, concept review exercises, key takeaways and exercises are all clearly labeled and presented in the same order in each chapter. The lack of an easy way to navigate to each of the chapter sections makes it difficult to move around in the book.
The book is organized in a typical fashion for GOB chemistry books. General chemistry topics are first followed by organic chemistry topics and finally biochemistry topics. The topics in each section are covered in a logical progression.
The lack of a table of contents and an easy way to navigate to each of the chapter sections makes it difficult to move around in the book. Some sections are divided by page breaks. All chapters and sections within them are clearly labeled and color coded.
In general there are no grammatical errors. There are a few typos as with any text.
The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive.
Currently our college has a year long course for our GOB series 3 quarters). If we had a two quarter GOB I would very seriously consider adopting this book.
This open course textbook introduces the fundamental of general chemistry (measurements, atomic structure, compounds, energy, reactions, etc), introduces structure and reactions of organic chemistry, and ends with rather substantial chapters on... read more
This open course textbook introduces the fundamental of general chemistry (measurements, atomic structure, compounds, energy, reactions, etc), introduces structure and reactions of organic chemistry, and ends with rather substantial chapters on biochemistry. My interest is with the general chemistry for a prep class. This book contains all the necessary pieces, good figures, and exercises for the purpose of a fundamental chemistry class. I wish the book had a table of contents with pages to navigate the pdf more effectively
The general chemistry information appears accurate and fundamental.
Introductory chemistry has been fundamentally unchanged. This book present conventional material in a way that can ensure it application. The types of problems are expected for the level of the writing for this book.
The figures in the early chapters (1-5) make the material more straight forward for understanding. The book had bolded words for clarity, and use adequate tone and description for this level.
The text uses the appropriate terms and tone to describe fundamental structure, bonding, and steps for quantitative relationships. I also found the step description easy to follow.
Again the use of a table of contents with page numbers would be helpful here. It is difficult to know how far to "scroll" while working blind on chapter lengths and pages. However, the authors break up the existing text well with figures, captions, and problems to solve. There are heading fr sections, color coding for problems, and obvious organization to the reader.
The flow and organization of the book is logical. The authors begin with basic general chemistry, increasing complexity through compounds, reactions, energy, and acid base solutions, before reaching organic, and biochemistry.
I found a few images to be blurry, but well used. The colored boxes for problems were helpful, but often much larger than the text of the questions. I found this to be somewhat distracting.
I did not find grammatical, spelling, or significant formatting errors.
I did not detect cultural exclusion or offense.
I appreciate the fundamental and straight-to-the-point angle of this book for any GOB class. I would greatly prefer a table of contents for easier navigation.
This text is intended for a one semester general, organic, biochemistry course and as such would not be appropriate for a standalone general chemistry course, organic chemistry course or biochemistry course. There is no index or glossary. read more
This text is intended for a one semester general, organic, biochemistry course and as such would not be appropriate for a standalone general chemistry course, organic chemistry course or biochemistry course. There is no index or glossary.
The text is generally accurate. However, some typos do exist.
The content is generally up to date and updates should be easy to incorporate.
The text is very accessible and technical terms are defined appropriately.
Ionic species representation needs to be consistent.
The text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections, however, having an interactive table of contents would be helpful.
The material flows in a logical sequence. However, it is difficult to jump directly to a specific chapter or figure.
Being able to jump to a specific chapter or figure would be beneficial to students.
Some typos exist.
The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive.
The biological examples are useful. Figures should be numbered so they can be referenced in class.
Overall, this textbook covers all the appropriate topics to the depth necessary for a one semester course on general, organic and biological chemistry. This textbook includes units of measurement, calculations and the mathematics background... read more
Overall, this textbook covers all the appropriate topics to the depth necessary for a one semester course on general, organic and biological chemistry. This textbook includes units of measurement, calculations and the mathematics background necessary top promote quantitative thinking without burying the student in problem sets. The only omission is Gibbs free energy. No index, bookmarks or glossary are provided.
No factual or conceptual errors in this test were noted and the topics and concepts were all presented in an unbiased manner. There are a few spaces missing between some the words.
Basic general, organic and biological chemistry are not topics that are rapidly being modified or updates with new findings each year so this textbook will remain relevant for many years. Each chapter and section begins with learning objectives and ends with example problems and exercises and the key takeaway point. Each chapter begins with descriptions of how the chapter topic relates to health and societal issues, most of which are not likely to become irrelevant in the future. The topics are well subdivided so updating any revised sections should be easily done.
The text descriptions of chemical concepts clearly written and set at the appropriate level for the intended audience. All key scientific terms are defined in place and all the writing is direct and clear with a minimum of extraneous verbiage.
This text is written and organized logically and consistently.
As mentioned previously, the textbook topics are divided between the chapters and subdivided with each chapter. It will quite easy for instructors to pick an choose topics and subtopics the wish to assign for their course. Changing the order of topic assignment should present no problems.
The textbook topics and chapters begin with a definition of science, chemistry in the context of all scientific disciplines and core chemical concepts and skills. The text then progresses through the essential general chemistry, organic chemistry and biochemical topics with a logical distribution between chapters and in an order that build progressively on previous topics.
The textbook provides no other means than scrolling through the pdf to navigate through the chapters. Clear, consistent color coding and heading are provided throughout.
The text is free of grammatical error. There are a few spaces that are missing, perhaps being lost in the generation of the pdf.
No culturally insensitive content was included. However, the textbook could be improved through more inclusive examples, applications and cultural relevance. For example, health disparities between U.S. ethnic groups and between countries.
This textbook is intended for a one semester survey course, perhaps for pre-nursing students, etc. In addition, I believe portions of this textbook could be assigned for background and review of core general and organic chemistry topics for students in more advanced biochemistry courses.
Table of Contents
- Chapter 1: Chemistry, Matter, and Measurement
- Chapter 2: Elements, Atoms, and the Periodic Table
- Chapter 3: Ionic Bonding and Simple Ionic Compounds
- Chapter 4: Covalent Bonding and Simple Molecular Compounds
- Chapter 5: Introduction to Chemical Reactions
- Chapter 6: Quantities in Chemical Reactions
- Chapter 7: Energy and Chemical Processes
- Chapter 8: Solids, Liquids, and Gases
- Chapter 9: Solutions
- Chapter 10: Acids and Bases
- Chapter 11: Nuclear Chemistry
- Chapter 12: Organic Chemistry: Alkanes and Halogenated Hydrocarbons
- Chapter 13: Unsaturated and Aromatic Hydrocarbons
- Chapter 14: Organic Compounds of Oxygen
- Chapter 15: Organic Acids and Bases and Some of Their Derivatives
- Chapter 16: Carbohydrates
- Chapter 17: Lipids
- Chapter 18: Amino Acids, Proteins, and Enzymes
- Chapter 19: Nucleic Acids
- Chapter 20: Energy Metabolism
Ancillary Material
Submit ancillary resourceAbout the Book
The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry by David W. Ball, John W. Hill, and Rhonda J. Scott is for the one-semester General, Organic and Biological Chemistry course. The authors designed this textbook from the ground up to meet the needs of a one-semester course. It is 20 chapters in length and approximately 350-400 pages; just the right breadth and depth for instructors to teach and students to grasp.
In addition, The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry is written not by one chemist, but THREE chemistry professors with specific, complimentary research and teaching areas. David W. Ball's specialty is physical chemistry, John W. Hill's is organic chemistry, and finally, Rhonda J. Scott's background is in enzyme and peptide chemistry. These three authors have the expertise to identify and present only the most important material for students to learn in the GOB Chemistry course.
These experienced authors have ensured their text has ample in-text examples, and ”Test Yourself“ questions following the examples so students can immediately check their comprehension. The end-of-chapter exercises will be paired, with one answered in the back of the text so homework can easily be assigned and self-checked.
The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry by David W. Ball, John W. Hill, and Rhonda J. Scott is the right text for you and your students if you are looking for a GOB textbook with just the right amount of coverage without overdoing the concepts and overwhelming your students.
About the Contributors
Authors
Dr. David W. Ball is a professor of chemistry at Cleveland State University in Ohio. He earned his PhD from Rice University in Houston, Texas. His specialty is physical chemistry, which he teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels. About 50% of his teaching is in general chemistry: chemistry for nonscience majors, GOB, and general chemistry for science and engineering majors. In addition to this text, he is the author of a math review book for general chemistry students, a physical chemistry textbook with accompanying student and instructor solutions manuals, and two books on spectroscopy (published by SPIE Press). He is coauthor of a general chemistry textbook (with Dan Reger and Scott Goode), whose third edition was published in January 2009. His publication list has over 180 items, roughly evenly distributed between research papers and articles of educational interest.
Dr. John W. Hill is professor emeritus from the University of Wisconsin–River Falls. He earned his PhD from the University of Arkansas. As an organic chemist, he has more than 50 publications in refereed journals, most of which have an educational bent. He has authored or coauthored several introductory level chemistry textbooks, all of which have gone into multiple editions. He has also presented over 60 papers at national conferences, many relating to science education. He has received several awards for outstanding teaching and has long been active in the American Chemical Society—both locally and nationally.
Dr. Rhonda J. Scott is a professor of chemistry at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee. She earned her PhD from the University of California at Riverside and has a background in enzyme and peptide chemistry. Previous to Southern Adventist, she taught at Loma Linda University and the University of Wisconsin–River Falls. In the past 10 years, she has made several presentations at national American Chemical Society meetings and other workshops and conferences. She has also been very active in the development of teaching materials, having reviewed or contributed to other textbooks and test banks.