Vol. 2 Iss. 6  The Chemical Educator  © 1997 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

ISSN 1430-4171 http://journals.springer-ny.com/chedr S 1430-4171(97)06157-9

Chemistry, A First Course (3rd end.), by Jacqueline Kroschwitz, Melvin Winokur and A. Bryan Lee. 1995, 640 pp. WCB/McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-697-23660-9 $73.00. ***

Much of a textbook's value depends on the context in which it is used. At Central Florida Community College, this textbook is used in a one-semester course designed to prepare students for the usual two-semester general chemistry sequence. Many of our recent high school graduates are ill-prepared to take general chemistry. Most of the other students have been out of school for some time, or have never taken a chemistry course. Some students take the course to meet science requirements. Enrollments have ranged from 15 to 73 students. The depth of the textbook is slightly more than is needed in some areas, but generally fits into this kind of course reasonably well. We do not cover the last chapter (nuclear chemistry).

This textbook makes a good effort at addressing some remedial problems inherent in this type of course, but some of this might be considered inappropriate or poorly organized. For example, Chapters 2 and 3 contain a good bit of material on remedial arithmetic and algebra that would be better as an appendix. We have a college algebra prerequisite for the course. When the concept of pH is introduced (Chapter 15), there is very little explanation of logarithms (which are not covered in college algebra). The book does give a detailed description (with good pictures) of the mechanics of working pH problems with a TI-30X calculator. Although this is a fresh idea, one has to wonder how useful it actually is. Although the textbook does a good job of teaching dimensional analysis, I worry about the students becoming too reliant on this technique.

At the other end of the scale, there are relatively advanced topics distributed at various odd places throughout the book. Chapter 5 contains a condensed explanation of quantum numbers. Chapter 6 contains a diagram and paragraph describing the Born–Haber cycle. This is used as an explanation of why ionic compounds form. In practice, this works much better than expected. Brighter students like these topics, while the poorer students seem to ignore them.

The method used to teach reaction prediction could be called "the model of irreversible change." Students learn how to predict reactions that produce a new chemical substance in an irreversible way. The organization of the book causes some difficulty with this approach. Metathesis reactions (termed only as "double replacement" reactions in the textbook) are covered with good examples and color photographs in Chapter 9. Unfortunately, the solubility rules needed to use these ideas are not covered until Chapter 13. Reduction reactions (also called "single replacement" by the book) are covered to the extent of using an activity series. Even the chapter on redox reactions does not cover cell potentials in an otherwise interesting discussion of voltaic cells. Although I do not like the way that balancing redox reactions is taught, it is easy enough to follow.

This book is profusely illustrated. Most of the illustrations are in color and are helpful in illuminating the concepts described. The reading level of this textbook is about right. Many fully solved problems are contained in the text. The odd-numbered problems have answers in the back of the book. The examples are well chosen and the problems are well thought out. Most of the problems can be worked with a basic understanding of the text material. The student study guide is mainly self-tests with well worked out answers. One interesting feature of the book is a series of short laboratory exercises incorporated into each chapter. Many of these laboratory exercises can be done at home.

The test bank is available as hard copy and as computerized test preparation software. It is a little easier to use than most other test preparation software I have seen. The questions give an adequate coverage of the material in the text. Most can be answered with a good understanding of the text material and are well constructed. Most of the multiple-choice questions have six choices. (Many automated grading scanners only have five response areas.) A nice set of transparencies of the text illustrations is also provided.