Ch-Ch-Changes

I have used Raymond Chang's Text "General Chemistry" since the fall of 2000 for Intro Chem 1013 and 1023. The publisher had managed to keep the cost down and I could live with the content and pace. I had issues with how boring the text was and the constant tension that students had when I taught something a bit differently from the text.

So that is why I spent Monday and Tuesday of this week visiting Dalhousie University. The chemistry department at Dal has developed an in-house chemistry textbook written by almost the entire faculty. The intention was to strip everything from the text that wasn't actually taught in the lectures, to support the lectures with tutorial help and to test concepts and content as taught in the lectures. The text was designed to function as a lecture notebook in addition to the text itself so that a third of each page is available for notes and the binding allows the book to be opened so that each page will lie flat. Finally instead of chapters the content is divided into much shorter sections designed to be less intimidating to cover.

All in all I was very impressed. They are teaching about 1000 students in classes of about 120. We sat in on one regular lecture given by my post-doctoral supervisor. It was clear that the students had bought into the whole concept of the text and most were recording their notes directly into their textbooks.


So, I have pretty much decided to use the Dalhouse text here at ABU this coming academic year. The text should cost less to the student and we will cover everything in the text and test that content only. It is an experiment and the only difference will be the amount of tutorial support that I will have to offer in support of the lectures. I am looking forward to the change.