August 1, 2012 (Vol. 32, No. 14)
URL:
http://www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/virtualtextbook.html
Rating:
Strong Points: Links for teachers and students
Weak Points: A search feature or index would be nice
Summary:
What does a retired chemistry professor do with his free time? Work on his online chemistry textbook, of course! That is precisely what Dr. Stephen Lower, formerly of Canada’s Simon Fraser University, provides with his Chem1 Virtual Textbook. A project that began in the late 1980s, the online textbook includes 20 chapters that canvas the content of a year-long general chemistry course. The content pages include text and illustrations/diagrams, as well as a number of in-text links to other online resources. In addition to the text, the site includes a page of links for students, a page of links for teachers, and links to two other online chemistry texts. The entirety of the virtual textbook can be downloaded, and a section of the website highlights recent changes to the text.