Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Chemistry for Dummies has been a tried and true chemistry book for my students who may be learning their first chemistry or reviewing chemical principles after a long time away from school. We have greatly enjoyed the coverage of the 2003 book for its simple format and simple explanations. As students (ages 19 - 60's) learning hazardous materials, the simple approach and brief overview of other topics, i.e. organic chemistry, petroleum, synthetics, and household hazardous products is very helpful in their choice of profession. In the 2011 2nd edition it is good to see the 2003 appendices go away and have become a separate chapter (2). My students do complain that the 2011 edition has been made more complicated and several good parts from the earlier edition have been left out, i.e. the organic intro, petroleum, etc. I totally agree with them. With a very short time to teach an overview of chemistry (32 hours), students need to learn the basics atomic principles of atoms, ions, atomic sub particle placement, and the roles of protons and electrons. What isn't needed at this level is Quantum mechanics (QM). Students need to know about orbitals (energy levels), how many total electrons fill them and the Octet rule to successfully understand the basics of ionic and covalent bonding and basic chemical reactions. . The QM breakdown into sub orbitals (s, p, d, f) is more than they need The 2011 increased emphasis on QM diminishes the value of the text at a basic level. Explanation of the periodic table geography simplifies its organization, trends and use and speeds up student understanding and retention. QM is above this basic level of a need to know and complicates a grasp of the basic fundamentals. Now I carry 2 Chemistry for Dummies books - both the 2003 and 2011 editions. Students should not have to do this. Both books are well written, but the 2011 changes for my student audience confuse rather than clarify their grasp of very basic chemistry principles. Reluctantly, I am searching for another student text that will meet the original intent of the 2003 Chemistry for Dummies.