Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry-A Possible Response Fred H. Walters University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, LA 70504 General chemistry is in a state of transition. Many instructors are very familiar with the present physical chemistry oriented general chemistry format, which can be seen, for example, in Whitten and Gailey.' There is pressure for integration of descriptive inorganic chemistrv into the curriculum by both the ACS and inorganic chemists to provide the student with some exposure t o "real" chemistry in addition to theory. This integrated approach can be seen in some of the newer textbooks such as Gillespie, Humphreys, Baird, and R o h i n s ~ n There .~ will naturally he some resistance to this approach in those programs where general chemistry is taught by noninorganic chemists, hut I believe this change in orientation will in the long run prevail. However, I do not wish tominimize the chanees3.4 that must occur in the eenera1 chemistry program before this happens. In resnonse to the ACS reauirement for more descrintive inorgan& chemistry in the general chemistry course, we created a new one-semester course. I t is onen to chemistw majors who have completed our two-semester general cheiistry course. This course, offered for the first time last semester, utilized portions of Whitten and Gailey as a text. Whitten and Gailey was chosen because of the diversity of level of students (sophomore through senior) and the lack of a text a t a suitable level. The course involved examinations
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Whinen, K. W.: Galley. K. D. General Chemistry, 2nd d.: Saunders: New York, 1984. 2Gillespie, R. J.: Humphreys. D. A,: Baird N. C.: Robinson. E. A. Chemistry; Allyn and Bacon: Newton, MA, 1986. Walters F. H. J. Chem. Educ. 1978, 55, 104. Walters F. H. J. Chem. Educ. 1986, 63.141.
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(both closed and open book) with multiple choice and essay questions, as well as a n 8-10-page paper on a descriptive inoreanic chemistrv . tooic . chosen in coniunction with the instructor.'l'hese papers can cover topics nor studied in class and nrovide the student with a feeline of achievement because they have studied an area in depth. Rarely in chemistry courses is a student required to write a paper. This requirement also forces the student to pay attention to organization of ideas, spellinp, and grammar, as well as subject marerial and course c o n ~ & ~ the . three major areas of emphnsis in the course were: (1) the periodic table and periodic trends. (2) the properries of and studies ofselected groups of elements, and (3)qualitative inorganic analysis. The chaptrrs covered in Whitren and Gailev were 4.. 5.. 7.. 20-22. and 24-27. These chapters cover topics such as periodic trends; nomenclature:. representative metals: nonmetals including . Croups 5 , 7 ,and the noble gases: rans sit ion rnetals;and coordination chemintrv. (If tim~.had nermitted C h a ~ t e 28. r Xuclear Chemistry, ;odd have been covered.) ~ d d i t i o n atopl ics taken from other sources were lectures in inorganic polymers a n d (SN)x Chemistry, Transition Metals, Organometallic Chemistry, Boron Chemistry, Carbon and Silicon Chemistry compared (first-row versus second-row chemistry), and qualitative analysis of anions and cations. Other interesting~areaslike inorganic kinetics and catalysis and bininorganic chemistry can he covered as the instructor wishes. An exchange of ideas on resources, texts, content, and approach for this course is encouraged. Descriptive inorganic chemistry can he made interesting and valuable for both the student and instructor.
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