![]() ![]() It represents as good value as many of the similar, more traditional textbooks. They have assembled a teaching resource that is refreshing in its style and rigorous in its content. The objective of the authors, to break down the barriers used to manage the teaching of chemistry, is laudable, and they achieve their aim, particularly in the first section of the book. The coverage in the second section is high quality too and, though the topics are separated along more traditional lines, there is a greater sense of the integration of knowledge required to gain a full understanding of undergraduate chemistry. ![]() Occasionally the flow of ideas is compromised by introducing exceptions or anomalies when the knowledge required to understand them has yet to be covered. The content is carefully formulated with regard to the text and illustrations, both helping to explain some of the more challenging aspects of the topics covered in the first section of the book. The authors anticipate this will be better managed by students once they have completed the early maths modules that are now common components of chemistry degrees in the UK. The book finishes with a chapter on mathematics, providing a discussion of the more complex treatments removed from the first section. The chapter titles reveal a return to a more conventional categorisation of the chemistry covered, but in all cases the structure and reactivity of the organic and inorganic molecules, and their spectroscopic characteristics, are related back to the key learning outcomes of the integrated coverage in section one. The second section includes nine chapters that cover topics commonly taught in first-year courses (and often beyond). Some of the non-essential mathematics is removed in the treatment of these topics and illustrations (and web-based models) are provided to support those students whose learning develops through constructing a visual understanding of a complex theory. The first section covers atomic and molecular orbitals and how their energy and interaction dictate the properties of atoms, molecules and ultimately, materials. Their latest collaboration builds this integrated approach into a much bigger resource, a 925-page book supported by a web resource with different content for students and tutors, intended to support the early years of undergraduate learning. In the first book Keeler and Wothers wrote together, Why chemical reactions happen, they used, to great effect, an integrated approach to explain chemical reaction phenomena to early stage undergraduates. ![]()
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