Introductory Chemistry: Atoms First 5th Edition

Book Preface

Many instructors have told us that our text is the most readable introduc-tory chemistry textbook their students have ever used. They also told us that their students can use as much help as possible when learning how to solve problems. With each edition we have included more worked examples and more end-of-chapter problems, including one-step-beyond problems, visu-ally oriented and concept-based problems, and in-class group exercises, and stronger tools to help students learn the skills they need. To make the mate-rial more memorable, we have chapter-opening “teasers.” These are stories and anecdotes utilizing materials from history to the present day that pertain to the material in the chapter and are fun and interesting to read. Also, every edition of our text, starting from the first, has employed an “atoms first approach.” Why atoms first? The simple answer is that this is the way we have always taught this material since we began teaching decades ago. Both of us were influenced by the late Professor Michell J. Sienko of Cornell University, a textbook author himself and a fabulously talented lecturer who could hold the attention of 500 students at a time. His textbook and lectures always built up the material from the “bottom up,” from atoms to molecules to properties of molecules to stoichi-ometry and reactions and beyond. It instantly made sense for us to teach this way. Following an atoms first approach, we never had to say things like “I’m teaching you this now because it’s covered in lab this week,” or “This will make more sense when we cover polarity later.” When building a house, one doesn’t usually pour half of the foundation, start work on the second floor, and return later to complete the foundation. In the same way, the atoms first approach lays a proper foundation and then continually builds atop it; while it gives some choice as to the order of topics, the path it builds is consistently straightforward and does not have leaps of faith or distracting U-turns.

Our goal with this text has always been to help students make sense of chemistry. As chemists, we know that chemistry is intrinsically interesting, that its principles do form a reasonably coherent whole, and that its problem- solving skills can be mastered by anyone. But, too often, students see the subject as incomprehensible and the course as a frightening labyrinth. All too frequently, they fall back on rote learning—memorizing algorithms, plugging numbers into formulas, and forgetting much of what they learned starting as soon as the pen-cil is dropped at the end of the final exam. As chemistry instructors, we hate to see that. Therefore, we designed this book to promote comprehension and prob-lem solving as complementary skills. A student who understands the principles of chemistry does not have to rely strictly on memorization and is more likely to enjoy and retain the material. This understanding and sufficient practice at solv-ing problems will help students master the principles. We hope that our book will help students come out of the course with a body of knowledge and skills that will serve them and that they will want to retain.

New to This Edition

What can authors possibly add to a fifth edition of a textbook? The answer turns out to be “Plenty!”

1. Learning Outcomes: Each end-of-chapter review section now begins with a table of learning outcomes for each section of the chapter, correlated to the end-of-chapter problems. The learning outcomes consist of goals and skills the student should learn and practice before moving on to the next chapter.
2. One More Thing: We have always been proud of the conceptual depth that this book plumbs, but some instructors have told us that they skip sections that go to great conceptual depth. Still, we wanted to add even more of this depth for this fifth edition that other reviewers and users have asked for. How to satisfy both? Our solution was to create a final section for every chapter titled “One More Thing.” Being so titled, it gives the instructor an option to skip it and be guilt-free when time requirements are tight. We have made sure that it can be skipped without doing damage to the flow of the material that follows. In some cases, this section contains material that was previously incorporated in the main body of the chapter in the previous edition. In other cases it contains totally new material that we thought would be great to add for its conceptual and interest value. Now the instructor, and each individual student, has the option to jump into the deepest end of the conceptual pool if he or she wants.
3. WorkPatches Hints Available in MasteringChemistry: Judging from instructor and student feedback over the years, WorkPatches have always been a favorite feature of this book. They were always meant to be a way to break the reader out of the passive reading mode and make students more interactive by encouraging them to think about what was just read before going on. They accomplish this by posing a conceptual question, followed by a continuation of the main text that assumes the question was successfully answered without ever revealing the actual answer. Skipping a WorkPatch therefore is like joining in the middle of a conversation, something a reader would not want to do. We realize we are forcing the reader to do something here, and the answers are provided at the end of the chapter, but we don’t want readers looking up these answers without first trying to come up with an answer on their own. So, in this edition, for the first time, we offer some help and something in step with the times. Today many, if not most, students have a smartphone. Included
in the fifth edition is a QR code that will link the reader’s phone to a site where he or she can get a hint to any WorkPatch. Given the love affair that students have with this technology, our hope is that this will be an incentive for them to interact more with the text. For readers who do not have a smartphone or a tablet, the hints can still be accessed by visiting MasteringChemistry for the fifth edition.
4. Concept Questions: In this edition we wanted to give readers more than just lists of topics that we call “Have You Learned This?” and summaries that we call “Skills to Know,” which we have always included at the
end of each chapter. Now, for the first time, each chapter ends with ten multiple-choice questions called “Concept Questions.” These are meant to be done quickly and will give readers an opportunity to see if they have grasped the fundamental concepts presented in the chapter. Instructors know that if we throw a little technobabble at students, we can often shake students’ confidence in what they know. The concept questions often use this approach, but if students have a true understanding, then smoke won’t get in the way of their finding the correct response. The concept questions give them this opportunity.

5. New End-of-Chapter Problems: As always, we endeavor to refine and improve our end-of-chapter problems. We have gone through each chapter and, based on our own ideas and with input from users, replaced or improved more than 20% of the existing end-of-chapter questions. We receive many compliments on the number, variety, and quality of our end-of-chapter problems. Every instructor knows the value of time students spend working on such problems. As Professor Sienko would tell every one of his classes on the first day, “If you are not in some degree of pain during this course, you are not learning.” Our book provides an enjoyable read due to its conversational style, atoms first approach, conceptual depth, and clean layout. The pain comes from struggling with well-thought-out end-of-chapter problems. Of course, the payback is good performance on exams and a lifelong retention of the major concepts of chemistry.

The conversational tone and the atoms first approach have always been and remain the principle hallmarks of our text. We are big believers in their power to help students learn. With each new edition, and with generous help from our users, we have hunted down errors and hopefully corrected them all. If you find any, please email us at [email protected] (Mike Silver) and srusso@ ithaca.edu (Steve Russo). Please send along any other comments you might have as well, good or bad. We love hearing from our users, and we accept constructive criticism reasonably well (although we prefer high praise).

Promoting Active Learning

How can we, as textbook authors, promote active learning? First, quite sim-ply, we provide a book that makes sense to students. A student who under-stands the material is less likely to fall back on passive memorization. As one instructor told us, “This book allows me to spend class time doing hands-on learning versus spending time explaining the book.”

Second, we incorporate devices to encourage active reading. A flip through the book will show many sets of practice problems. These practice problems are located so that students can immediately apply the skill the text has just presented. They are presented in sets of three or four; the first problem is solved step-by-step in the text, and the answers to the others are given at the back of the book. Each chapter contains an average of 25 practice problems.

However, we are not naïve. We know that many students routinely skip over these in-chapter practice problems. Therefore, we have included concep-tual practice problems called WorkPatches. A WorkPatch is a “stealth” prob-lem. It follows smoothly from the preceding text and is not boxed off. What is more, a student who tries to read through a WorkPatch without solving it will find that the subsequent text refers to, and often depends on, the answer—but does not say what it is. (The solutions to all WorkPatches are given at the end of the chapter.) In some cases, a WorkPatch serves as the springboard into the next topic, and all WorkPatches are now connected to hints, which can be accessed by scanning the QR code in the next few pages or back of the textbook. Work-Patches are denoted by a yellow stop sign/red light icon.