The number of studies analyzing chemistry textbooks has steadily increased over the years and has notably surged in the past decade. In this literature review, we examine the research literature on chemistry textbooks. The review spans 40 years of research (from 1981 to 2021) and includes 79 studies published in over 20 different journals,…

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of organic chemistry textbooks in developing student representational competence skills with eight representations of molecular structure (Lewis structures, Kekulé structures, condensed structures, electrostatic potential maps, skeletal structures, dash-wedge diagrams, Newman projections,…

This study examines the representation of people of color in 10 US general chemistry textbooks published between 2016 and 2020. On average, people of color appear every 320 pages of text, while white figures are observed every 24 pages. The average percentage of people of color in the textbooks (12%) is well below the percentage in the US general…

This study examines gender representation in 10 current (2016-2020) US college-level general chemistry textbooks. On average, females were found to constitute 30% of images and 3% of the named science, technology, engineering, math, and medical (STEMM) professionals in the index. A male name appears on average every four pages of text, while a…

This paper examines the current state of the implementation of green chemistry into organic chemistry textbooks. Content analysis of the 15 most used organic chemistry textbooks revealed that only 10 of them had any mention of green chemistry. In textbooks that contained mentions of green chemistry, it was mentioned on less than 1% of pages. Green…

The acid-catalyzed dehydration of regioisomeric methylcyclohexanols is a classic organic chemistry experiment featured in a variety of laboratory textbooks and literature. The mechanistic details of this reaction have received an inconsistent and occasionally inaccurate treatment, wherein the reaction has been described as a mix of E1, E2-like,…

In organic chemistry textbooks (S)-(-)-limonene, (-)-limonene or l-limonene, is often given credit for the smell of lemons, while the R-analogue, (+)-limonene or d-limonene, is credited with that of oranges. Results from two odor tests revealed that few persons in the test associated (R)-(+)-limonene with oranges and (S)-(-)-limonene with lemons,…

With the growing desire to incorporate data science and informatics into STEM curricula, there is an opportunity to integrate research-based software and tools (e.g., Python) within existing pedagogical methods to craft new, accessible learning experiences. We show how the open-source Jupyter Book software can achieve this goal by creating a…

The use of open-source materials is growing in popularity throughout higher education. This Communication investigates the impact on student performance in a second-year undergraduate analytical chemistry course when an open-source textbook is assigned. For two separate semesters, approximately 80 students were enrolled in such a course across…

Complex problem solving is one of the skills desired in the 21st century workforce. Students can improve their problem-solving skills by working on homework problems, and creating new problems can be a stimulating and inventive exercise for student as well. Our previous studies explored the impacts of a novel homework pedagogy where students…

Frost diagrams provide convenient illustrations of the aqueous reduction potentials and thermodynamic tendencies of different oxidation states of an element. Undergraduate textbooks often describe the lowest point on a Frost diagram as the most stable oxidation state of the element, but this interpretation is misleading because the thermodynamic…

General chemistry is a gateway course for most STEM majors, so student success is a priority for chemistry faculty. Providing quality information resources for students, including textbooks, is one way that instructors can support student learning. However, these resources can be prohibitively expensive for some students, causing them to opt out…

When students effectively engage with textbooks or videos prior to class, more active and collaborative learning activities can be incorporated into subsequent face-to-face learning. Such pre-lecture assignments are particularly important in flipped classrooms, where a portion of the content is delivered primarily before face-to-face instruction.…

The change in enthalpy of a chemical reaction conducted at constant pressure is equal to the heat of the reaction plus the nonexpansion work of the reaction, ?H = qP + w[subscript additional]. After deriving that relationship, most general and physical chemistry textbooks set w[subscript additional] = 0 to arrive at the claim that ?H = qP, and…

Scientific computing and computer literacy are increasingly important skills for chemistry students to learn, but despite this need, there is an absence of chemistry-specific texts available for teaching the subject. This article introduces a freely available textbook released under a Creative Commons license for use in an undergraduate scientific…