Welcome to
General Chemistry:

General chemistry is an introductory course that explores the fundamental principles of chemistry, the science of matter and its interactions. It covers the structure and properties of atoms and molecules, types of chemical bonds, and the periodic table. We will learn essential concepts like stoichiometry, thermodynamics, and chemical equilibrium.

General chemistry also includes studying acids and bases, oxidation-reduction reactions, and the behavior of gases, liquids, and solids. Lab work accompanies the theories, providing hands-on experience with reactions, measurements, and techniques, though this course will not focus on lab techniques.

This course serves as a foundation for more specialized fields like organic chemistry, biochemistry, and material science.

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Syllabus

Unit 1

Syllabus

Prerequisite: High school mathematics and general high school knowledge.

Course
Philosophy

This course is designed to be completely self-paced. All modules in this course, including chapters, lectures, quizzes, and assessments, are available.

This course is designed to be completed within 1 year. However, accelerated learning and excluding Unit 4 may bring that down to 1 semester.

Recommended schedules and grading policies will be available for reference, but there will be no enforcement of those schedules and policies.

The course will be divided into 4 units:

Unit 1: Molecular Structure and Properties
Unit 2: Thermodynamics and Electrochemistry
Unit 3: Kinetics and Equilibria
Unit 4: Chemistry with The Elements and the Nucleus (optional)

Each unit will be further subdivided into multiple chapters. Each chapter will contain lectures, worksheets, discussions, quizzes, reviews (maybe), and a chapter quiz.

Structure

Lectures introduce chapter materials, with an emphasis on visual representation and logical coherence.

Discussions serve as extensions of lectures, covering topics that do not fit into lectures or applications in real life.

Worksheets provide practice for lectures and discussions. Practice makes perfect.

Reviews offer a reminder of previously learned materials that are relevant in this chapter.

Practice

There are 4 types of assessments in this course.

Lecture Worksheet: At the end of each lecture, there will be a lecture worksheet. It is designed to finished on the same day of lecture. It contains immediate review of lecture content and serves to strengthen retention of course material. It is a lot of work, but it will be worth it in the end.
Chapter Quiz: At the end of each chapter, there will be a chapter quiz that focuses on materials within the chapter. In terms of difficulty, the chapter quiz is on the easier side.
Unit Test: At the end of each unit, there will be a unit test. The unit test serves as a good review of course material. The unit test will be on the more difficult side, focusing more on free response and trickier questions.
Final Exam: At the end of this course, there will be a cumulative final exam. The final is highly recommended. It will be a combination of course material and problems that require critical thinking and application of course material. There will be questions on topics not presented in lecture but solvable using knowledge learned in this course.

Unit 1

Molecular Structure and Properties

The first unit will focus on introducing us to the world of chemistry and familiarizing ourselves with the language of chemistry. We will look at particles – how they are formed, what their structures are, how they interact with other particles, etc. This will be a fairly long unit, but it will lay down a very strong foundation for future units and even courses.