Coursera: Preparation for General Chemistry (July 7)

[Michelle_NC]

https://www.coursera.org/course/chemprep

 

Preparation for General Chemistry

The course develops critical thinking and analytic problem solving skills within a chemistry context in order to prepare students for success in college-level General Chemistry—a key gateway class required for many undergraduate majors.

Course Syllabus

Week 1 - Introduction and Warm Up: Preliminary Assessment given to appraise current knowledge and help set goals; introductory material, including matter and energy, classification and properties of matter, scientific measurement and units, significant figures, dimensional analysis, and problem-solving strategies.

Week 2 - Boot-Camp I:  Understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, which includes properties of waves, wave-particle duality, the interaction of radiation and matter, the photoelectric effect and the Bohr atom model.

Week 3 - Boot-Camp II: Introducing the concept of mole and understanding how compounds form, by differentiating ionic and covalent bonding, learning how to write molecular and empirical formulas and how to determine percent composition of compounds. Introducing solutions and how to measure their concentration.

Week 4 - Boot-Camp III: Move on to chemical reactions, by understanding how to write balanced chemical equations, use them to perform various stoichiometric calculations and determine the yield of reactions; learning the different types of reactions, including combustion, precipitation, and acid-base reactions.

Week 5 - Boot-Camp IV: Introduction to the thermodynamics of reactions, by discussing energy and energy changes, heat, work, enthalpy, calorimetry, and Hess's Law.

Week 6 - Final Exam Preparation: Reviewing of concepts from Weeks 1-5, in preparation for the final examination. 

Recommended Background

Students are expected to have had an introductory chemistry course, for example in high school, as well as mathematics up to the level of precalculus (e.g., algebraic expressions, algebraic equations, inequalities, functions, and graphing).