About Us

We are committed to fostering science literacy by communicating the wonders of chemistry to ordinary people. We will accomplish this by providing interesting, informative articles and study aids that do not require our readers to have any particular background.

Target Audience

This site is aimed at adults who are new to the study of chemistry and want to know more. There are many web sites that provide help for college chemistry students. Most assume that students have a year or two of high school chemistry and remember it well. We hope to provide a service for those of you who never took (or didn’t like, or don’t remember) high school chemistry.

About This Site

As you explore this site you will see some icons that will help you stay organized.

�Before You Begin: This indicates the topics and skills you will need to make the most of the next section. If the items aren't familiar, use the links to other pages to find more information.

4Concept Check: This signals that you will have an opportunity to work a practice problem or answer a question about the material immediately before. The answers are given, but try to stop and think about how you would answer before you read on.

!Warning! Items marked with this symbol alert you to common mistakes and misconceptions that many beginning chemistry students make.

The course outlines are intended to stand alone or to compliment standard text books. Students taking high school or college chemistry classes will find that the course outlines are arranged differently from their book. Freshman chemistry students are advised to start with the entire prep chem section for the quick review of high school chemistry (typically covered in the first week or so of class). They should then move to the solutions and mixtures sections of unit two followed by the stoichiometry portions of unit three.

Unless otherwise stated, all of the text is original work by Kelley Whitley and is copyright protected. Some of the artwork used on this site is from the Microsoft clip art collection with a few personal photographs. The rest was created specifically for this site using Microsoft Visio and is also copyright protected.

The Chem Professor Family

Kelley and Stephen Whitley

The Chem Professor is Kelley Whitley, a former college teacher turned homemaker, lifelong learner, and web author. Kelley has over fifteen years of teaching experience at the high school, college, and university levels. Her husband, Stephen Whitley, provides technical, financial, and emotional support for the project. Kelley’s son Joseph test drives the site and collects elements for the Features section. He is fifteen years old and has Asperger’s Syndrome. Joseph has his own website about his favorite hobby, Pokémon. Although they are Americans, by an interesting twist of fate Kelley, Stephen, and Joseph are currently living in Beaconsfield, England in a typically Victorian townhouse by the tea shop on the high street. You can contact us at family@chemprofessor.com

Dedication

For a variety of reasons, much of what is taught in higher education is just reminding people of things they have already learned. On the other hand, everybody has to start somewhere. It is possible for bright and talented people to make it through childhood and adolescence into adulthood without knowing atomic theory. It happens all the time. But suppose these bright and talented people decide to take their lives in a new direction? Or they want change careers? Or they get tired of not being able to help their kids with their homework? What are the people who never learned some of this stuff supposed to do?

I used to teach a chemistry survey course for beginning nursing students. One obvious problem with the course was its ambition level: we covered everything from the parts of the atom to cellular respiration in about thirty hours of class time (no lab). But there was a hidden problem. We seriously underestimated how much chemistry is common knowledge (or, more importantly, how much is not).

It was the first class period one particular semester. I had gone over the syllabus then leapt into the material, starting with the definition of matter, the basics of atomic theory, and got all the way to calculating charges of monatomic ions. At the end of the class, as the students were leaving, one woman stopped to ask a question. She started by stating that she had written down everything I put on the board. “It mostly made sense,” she said with a doubtful look on her face. “I just have one question. What’s an atom?” She pronounced it “at’ome” as in “I have a dog, but I left him at’ome.” She was deadly earnest. “Uh, how much time have you got?” I replied. In the few minutes before her next class, I tried to explain the concept. Then I asked her to come see me during office hours and gave her the contact information for the best tutor on campus. I never saw her again.

This site is dedicated to that woman and the other people like her who feel that chemistry is a barrier between them and their dreams. You are not stupid; you are chemistry impaired. And you have just as much right as anyone else to be a nurse or a nuclear physicist or anything else you want to be. And we want to help.

Some Pictures

Avebury

Stonehenge

Transit of Venus

03/24/07

Welcome to Chem Professor!

Purpose

Target Audience

About This Site

The Chem Professor Family

Dedication

Some Pictures