Our department is considering re-formatting general chemistry to use an atoms first approach.  We have seen how students struggle with stoichiometry / dimensional analysis, and we are wondering if starting off the first semester with atomic structure and bonding concepts would help students settle in more before they hit the more math-y topics. 

Does anyone have any experience to share?  Favorite textbooks?  Advice?  We are not likely to make the leap unless we're better informed.  (I have found one recent J. Chem. Ed. article on the topic.)

Hello,

I would be grateful to hear from college programs that teach less than one full year of General Chemistry.  At present, we teach 3 quarters of General Chemistry (Zumdahl and Zumdahl), a one quarter Fundamental Inorganic Chemistry (Rayner-Canham and Overton) and a one quarter Advanced Inorganic Chemistry (Shriver and Atkins).

We are exploring the possibility of shortening our general chemistry sequence to 2 quarters and then combining the topics usually covered in the third quarter into Fundamental Inorganic Chemistry course and other courses.

Our department is responsible for teaching a mandatory 2-semester general chemistry course to nearly the entire freshman class (~1000 students each semester). Since our section sizes are small and we have ~30 faculty teaching all the sections at once, we use 3 multiple-choice "common exams" during the semester to "anchor" the course content and pacing. These exams are mostly written in-house and administered to all students in course at the same time during a designated exam period.

Every year about this time in the semester when I teach General Chemistry I, I realize that one of the  significant obstacles in chemistry for my students is their ability to read and interpret problems - they get hung up on the translation of words.  I'd really like to find more examples of word problems that don't require specific chemical knowledge but do require this translation (and involve things like unit conversion and percentages). We develop a problem solving method in class, but I feel like working with this sort of problem would be really beneficial.

I was wondering how many folks include basic coordination chemistry in their General Chemistry course?  Perhaps I will put together a poll on this topic.  I used to teach coordination chemistry in Gen Chem, but it has since been removed in favor of more organic chemistry (eek!) that is more relevant for our contextual themes for the fall semester.  Since I teach a 200-level (2nd year) inorganic course, I do not miss it too much in Gen Chem.  I know that I will still have a chance to sink early inorganic hooks into our students.  But it does mean that some of our students, most notably