Open Fundamentals of Chemistry

The Open Course Site Initiative

This site is part of the Open Course Project (OCP), which aims to support student success in undergraduate mathematics and science courses. Through support from the Center for Promoting Inclusion and Equity in the SciencesLinks to an external site., this project involves the development of open curriculum through public websites that Georgia Tech students can use as a refresher or as a supplement to their learning.

The OCP aims to benefit several student groups who need a refresher and/or additional practice, including undergraduate students enrolled in these courses, students in upper-level courses that use our courses as pre-requisites, and transfer students and other students who are re-entering college for an undergraduate or graduate program after an extended time away from college.

The OCP is developing Canvas sites for College Algebra, Precalculus, Multivariable Calculus, Introductory Statistical Methods, and Fundamentals of Chemistry. This particular site focuses on Fundamentals of Chemistry.

Fundamentals of Chemistry

Note: Lecture videos for this course are in development and will be posted on a rolling basis throughout Fall 2025.

The First-year Chemistry Program at Georgia Tech includes three courses (CHEM 1211K, 1212K, and 1310) taken by a wide variety of undergraduate majors for which chemistry is central (CHEM 1211K and 1212K) or tangential (CHEM 1310). These courses require familiarity and skill with the practice and theory of scientific measurements, algebraic problem solving, scientific concepts of energy, and the basic symbology of chemistry. This course is designed to help students develop and "automatize" these foundational concepts and skills. Topics covered include measurement theory, symbolic descriptions of atoms, molecules, and ions, representing amounts of substances, chemical and physical change, energy, and Lewis symbols and structures. The course concludes with a module on succeeding in collegiate chemistry courses that includes study tips, common misconceptions, and next steps.

Required Materials

This course will require only a four-function calculator, although a scientific or graphing calculator may make things easier. Having an up-to-date web browser and a high-speed internet connection will also be important.

Recommended Textbooks

This course will refer at times to the freely available OpenStax Chemistry 2e textbook as well as the Chemistry LibreTexts website.

Course Objectives

After completing this course, students will be able to...

Write, interpret, and work with scientific measurements, applying dimensional analysis and respecting significant digits and levels of precision
Set up and solve algebraic problems based on chemical systems or processes
Write and interpret symbols for atoms, molecules, and ions and connect the symbolic domain of chemistry to the submicroscopic domain
Represent chemical and physical changes using balanced equations
State and apply the first law of thermodynamics and scientific concepts of energy
Draw Lewis structures for simple molecules given a molecular formula

Instructors

This course was developed by Dr. Michael Evans.

Getting Started

Click Modules in the sidebar to begin the course, starting with the Welcome module.