Access Alliance for Education

releases a new ebook:

Basics of Chemistry:

Concepts in Context

Targeting faculty and students in need of an Introductory/Preparatory Chemistry textbook for their entry level courses.

February 21, 2020 – In partnership with author Norbert J. Pienta, Access Alliance for Education, a coursework accelerator, is proud to release the ebook that can be used in Introductory Chemistry courses.

"Basics of Chemistry: Concepts in Context" is an introductory textbook that includes topics that one would expect for students in a college-level, one semester course (Preparatory or Introductory Chemistry) seeking a broad background. The book makes use of integrated contexts in which the chemistry is introduced and explained: health, an introduction to chemical aspects of medicine, and chemistry in everyday life. Some of the contextual components might be considered complex for an introductory college course. Indeed, virtually all chemistry in such a course can be learned and understood at a much higher level. Thus, the book ascribes to the principle of “need to know”, in which sufficient background is presented to explain the ideas and information to the reader.

The book was developed over several years and in two circumstances—as a traditional print text and then later again as the reading and reference material assembled in an electronic form. As such, the book was vetted and reviewed in three drafts initially, subject to copyediting and then again through another redundant process prior to its publication here.

The goal is to make the topics understandable and lucid to the learner and to aid the instructor in their tasks but to do so succinctly, accurately and in an interesting manner. Both reviewers from the ranks of college-level instructors and students in those courses have described the voice and language as being conversational and understandable. Besides the descriptive writing, such a project obviously includes tables of information and graphic elements—photos, figures and illustrations. The latter are intended to supplement the visual learning aspects of multimodal cognitive learning.

The textbook portion contains solved or worked problems that follow an algorithmic approach. The goal is not to teach the algorithm but to assure that students can use the steps to build their problem solving. Indeed, three question types appear both within the body of the writing but also at the end of sections and the end of the entire chapter. Practice problems resemble solved questions or other simple ones, extending the data or other question components to other circumstances.

Concept problems extend the application of the ideas beyond the simpler examples, asking the user to apply the knowledge more broadly. Extension problems typically require an application for which additional information and data must be accessed via the Internet (or other source).

The goal is to acquire the data and answer the questions (and not simply use search tools for the answers). Chapters 1-9 concern themselves with atom and molecular considerations, states of matter, solutions, physical and chemical changes, energy, rate and equilibrium topics, and acid-base chemistry, and an introduction to organic molecular structure.

The author Norb Pienta states, “The role of the modern textbook is to provide the framework for the basic ideas and applications of those chemical concepts to an explanation of the molecular basis of materials and phenomena that the reader is exposed to. To this end, the reader is provided with context from health and everyday life, giving them a better appreciation of why they are studying the subject to begin with.”

“Dr. Pienta’s approach to chemistry makes the topics understandable and lucid to the learner and to aid the instructor by succinctly and accurately presenting their tasks in an interesting manner.” adds Dan Linville, Partner and Executive Vice President of Access Alliance for Education.

“Our partnership with Norb Pienta continues our focus as a coursework accelerator”, adds John Hillsman, Partner and CEO, Access Alliance for Education. “ We look forward to bringing quality materials to market by independent authors who are looking for a platform.”

The value focused suggested retail pricing for the eBook only is $27.95 per student.

For more information or to request access to a sample of the eBook or course visit:

Basics of Chemistry: Concepts in Context (Preparatory/Introductory Chemistry)

https://www.accessalliance.education/curriculum/courses/chemistry/preparatoryintroductory-chemistry

About Access Alliance for Education:

Access Alliance for Education (AA4E) is an independent, value-focused coursework accelerator. AA4E works with instructors, departments, and institutions to bring independently authored, value-focused course related texts, materials, videos, resources and solutions to improve the learning process for students and institutions globally.

All of our independent authors and content, coursework, assessments, and solutions providers (instructors, departments and institutions) retain all their own copyrights/ownership to their content and solutions.

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About Norbert Pienta:

Norb Pienta recently retired after a 40+ year career in academia, having served on the faculty of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; the University of Iowa; and the University of Georgia. For the first 15 years, his research activity focused on physical organic chemistry, after which he turned his research and scholarship to chemistry education. His interests involved… means to promote student success, student problem solving, the use of technology in teaching and learning and other topics related to his career-long interest in teaching and learning. His work has appeared in publications (i.e., journal articles, book chapters, monographs, books, and software) and as part of presentations. He has served as the editor of a journal on the topic.

To learn more about Norbert J. Pienta visit:

https://www.accessalliance.education/authoring/authors/norbert-pienta

Contact Information:

John Hillsman

Access Alliance for Education

https://www.accessalliance.education/

+1 (630) 549-0941