High School and College Textbooks in the Sciences

I was just reading  a book review on a new e-book for biology students and it reminded me of some of the challenges I've had referring my students to a helpful textbook for introductory chemistry.

The problem is very nicely explained by this writer (a professor) who basically likes the electronic videos and other gimmicks of the e-book and agrees that these tools add dimensionality to the learning environment. However, the particular ones included in this book don't strike him as resonating with sixteen-year-olds.

So, basically there are a bunch of videos that show cool stuff to people who already know what it is. 

This same problem applies to old fashioned textbooks.  Either the textbook is very clear and straightforward (appealing to a typical introductory student), but lacks depth and completeness or is very thorough and complete (appealing to the professor)  but lacks clarity and a sense of logic. How do you effectively teach a class with this problem?

Often many students in an introductory class just want the bare information needed to get whatever grade they need on the test. Chemistry is usually required for whatever career path they have chosen and they know they need the coveted A to get to their next step. For this reason,although introducing extra videos and illustrations from multi-media often seems appealing to the instructor for better understanding from the students, often the students' themselves are frustrated by it. It broadens the number of materials they are required to study for their exam and they usually can't see how it fits into the material presented by the textbook. So while it is possible these extra tools help their long-term understanding of the material, they don't help them perform on the exam.  Many students find this very, very frustrating.

A real-life example of this would be use of the Tro texts for introductory chemistry versus use of the Zumdahl texts. I've used both. The Tro text is wonderful for a step-by-step, logical explanation of each topic in chemistry. Of the three textbooks I've taught introductory chemistry from, it is the only one that explains the topic of Lewis dot structures, VSEPR shapes and bond angles from start to finish and concludes with a very helpful discussion of polarity based on shape. I had never seen such an amazingly clear discussion of the topic before in my education. For this reason, I take diagrams and other tools from this chapter when I'm explaining this to other classes at other junior colleges. Yes, the approved textbook is one by a different author but the chapter on this topic is so good I tack it onto their required reading.  (If someone knows the proper publishing procedure I need to take then please leave a comment after this post. I've tried to contact the publisher without success on this issue.)

As useful as the Tro text is for preparing my students to perform on tests, it does not provide some of the excellent examples of complex items from nature that my Bauer text provides. For example, the post that I wrote about carbon monoxide poisoning was adapted from a diagram/excerpt from my Bauer textbook about the importance of understanding shape/function of molecules. This kind of discussion cannot be found in Tro. It's a bit of a tangent really- only peripherally related to the main topic of the chapter. While I found it fascinating, I doubt most of my students know enough about science to appreciate its relevance to what they are learning.

I keep a very detailed blackboard site of all of the resources I provide for my students. I'm always hesitant to add extra items to it for fear the students will get bogged down in a swamp of information. I'm just fearful that the meandering explanations of Zumdahl and the unclear examples in the text actually confuse them more than educate them. However, their required homework is from Zumdahl (a very educated and accomplished chemist- just not all that clear for beginners.) Therefore, I must teach from Zumdahl and any additional materials I feel explain thoroughly and clearly the material on which I want to test.

It's really hard. Sometimes I think the students don't really know what they are supposed to study because I present so many different ideas from different resources.

My current wish-list of ambition

I always have a stack of books next to my bed that fit into this category: "I should really read this book to become a more educated scientist and a better teacher." The problem with the books in this category is that by the time I come home from work after a tough day the last thing I want to do is pleasure reading about chemistry. I'd rather pick up Narnia or Cold Mountain or even Schindler's List (as depressing as it seems) for crying out loud.

But, just today I received something that really piqued my interest in terms of thrilling science. It is called the Disappearing Spoon. Yes, thrills chills, it is a book of anecdotal information about the periodic table and the elements on it. It tells tales of poison, politics and even a bit of science mixed in. I haven't read it yet but the introduction talked about mercury and its haunting tendencies to poison and hurt people.
When I first read the summary I thought to myself, "this sounds like another rendition of Primo Levi and the Periodic Table." Primo Levi is the Jewish freelance chemist who wrote about his experiences in chemistry during world war II by focusing each chapter of his book on one particular experience. The experience was somehow tied into one of the elements on the periodic table- either peripherially or focally.  I can already see that this book is vastly different from Levi's. For one thing the author is not a bench scientist. And for another he is not telling personal experiences- he is recounting facts he learned about elements mixed in with some of his own impressions and conversations with professors during his science education experience. So far it is not evident that he has been employed in science beyond his basic education level.

So- as soon as I gather lots of riveting poisoner stories and other scandalous tidbits to shock my students with perhaps I will gain ambition to read the other two books on my ambition checklist. They are these two books:

One is based on history of science classes taught at Johns Hopkins and the other is a book written by a man exploring the nature of ocean waves with his daughter. Two very different books but both potentially helpful in getting nonscientists interested in science.

I just can't muster up the ambition to actually read these books.

The Statue of Liberty, Stoichiometry and introductory chemistry.....

(Photo taken from the Introduction to Chemistry text by Bauer, 2010)



What does the statue of liberty in New York have to do with introductory chemistry? Actually, a lot. On the most basic level, the reason it was renovated in the 80s is very related to introductory chemistry. If we want to present the reactions of the statue of liberty accurately then we must consider stoichiometry and balanced equations.

The statue had copper panels on the outside and iron used in the inner framework. Over time, the copper oxidized in air to form copper (II) hydroxide, copper (II) carbonate, and copper (II) oxide while the iron formed iron (III) oxide. This created a displacement reaction situation. Copper metal was in contact with iron (III) ions and iron in contact with copper (II) ions.  Here is where the problem got really messy:

Fe (s)  +   CuO(s)   gives  Cu(s)  +   FeO(s)  (oh how I wish I could figure out subscripts and arrows in blogger.com)

According to the metal activity chart is Fe more active than copper? Yes, therefore it will displace copper's position within the copper (II) oxide compound and create an iron oxide.

This displacement further exacerbated the oxidation problem. In fact it accelerated the problem by a factor of 1000 and the statue needed to be rebuilt.

See page 179 of your text for more information.