Descriptive lnorganic Chemistry at the Second Year Level Michael J. Webb' and Geoffrey W. Rayner Canham Memorial University of Newfoundland, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Corner Brook. Newfoundland, Canada A2H 6P9 The oast several vears have seen considerable debate concernini he amouncof descriptive chemistry which should be included in high school and undergraduate courses. Conferences such as those held at McMaster i'niversity in 1 9 Z ( 1 ) and at the University of Rritish Columbia in 1979 ( 2 ) have (3) addressed this quest&. A recent issue of THIS JOURNAL also contained a number of opinions. The view is growing that such programs as Chem Study have overemphasized theoretical concepts a t the expense of descriptive chemistry and that the balance must be restored. There appears to be little agreement, however, on the question of exactly what descriptive material should be included in high school or undergraduate courses. This stands in stark contrast to the aonarent uniformitv of introductorv eeneral chemistrv coursesL&th respect to such physical chemistry topics as stoichiometrv. the eas laws. acid-base calculations. etcetera. The fact thaiieachirs know what to cover when dealing with chemistrv. and have no such certaintv introductorv nhvsical . with introductory descriptive chemistry, is perhaps one of thk reasons why the quantity of descriptive chemistry being included is only slowly increasing. I t is our opinion, therefore, that curriculum development is now of great importance. We here present our experience with the descriptive inoraanic chemistry component of a second year course in intermediate chimistry taught a t Sir Wilfred Grenfell College. This bas involved the selection of topics to be covered and
