Introduction to Chemistry
Full course description
The emphasis of this course will be on a number of essential topics in modern chemistry. The course will start with a close look at the structure of atoms and their place in the periodic table, followed by an examination of the properties of various types of chemical bonds, ending with a discussion of chemical reactivity. The topics covered in this course cover the characteristics of gases/liquids/solids, thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, acid-base chemistry, electrochemistry, and chemical bonding theory. The concepts that are learned are applied to biochemical examples. Basic knowledge of chemistry is important in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from (life) sciences and medicine to management, economics and governance studies.
Course objectives
- To teach the first principles of organic and inorganic chemistry for future students in medicine, biology and molecular life sciences, in such a way that they can apply these concepts to solve typical chemical and biomedical problems.
- To give you the ability to recognize chemical compounds and to understand their basic physical and chemical properties.
- To enable you to understand the basic physical chemistry of fundamental importance to most natural processes, such as thermodynamics, acid-base behavior, kinetics, and electrochemistry.
- To provide the basic knowledge for further advanced courses in chemistry, biochemistry and the life sciences.
Prerequisites
NB: This course is aimed at students who have never taken chemistry or have only taken basic level chemistry. It is strongly suggested that students who took chemistry in high school consider taking SCI2017 directly.
None.
Recommended reading
- To be announced.