Chemistry 221

Chemistry 221, “Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry” is a course exploring landmark technologies on the road to modern industrial civilization. We will begin by learning to make fire and stone tools and progress up through plastics and pharmaceuticals. Your grade in the course will be determined by the number of technologies which you master. Although this is not a lab course, it is very much a course about doing things. You will not only read about these landmark technologies, you will be expected to make things like paper and metals and batteries from scratch. While the major topics are the same as those in Chemistry 104, more depth is possible in Chemistry 221 because students will already have had Chemistry 110. You may think of it as “Caveman Chemistry for Science Majors.

The textbooks for the course are Principles of Modern Chemistry (Oxtoby, Gillis, Nachtrieb) and Caveman Chemistry (Dunn). Both are available from the Hampden-Sydney Bookstore. Caveman Chemistry is also available from the author and through the Caveman Chemistry Bookstore.