Chemical Education Today
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Book & Media Reviews
As a chemistry instructor, you may not consider the
conflict between science and religion when you are preparing
for class, but you might be surprised at your students views
on the matter. For some insight, consider reading Secularism
and Science in the 21st Century, edited by Ariela Keysar and
Barry A. Kosmin. This month the eighth edition of a popu-
lar general chemistry textbook, Chemistry, by Stephen S.
Zumdahl and Susan A. Zumdahl, is reviewed. Do you teach
a chemistry course for allied health majors? Reviews of new
editions of two generalorganicbio books are included:
The ninth edition of Introduction to General, Organic, and
Biochemistry by Frederick A. Bettelheim, William H. Brown,
Mary K. Campbell, and Shawn O. Farrell, and the fifth edi-
tion of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry by H.
Stephen Stoker.
CBF
Introduction to General, Organic,
and Biochemistry, 9th Edition
by Frederick A. Bettelheim, William H. Brown, Mary K.
Campbell, and Shawn O. Farrell
Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning: Belmont, CA, 2010. 839 pp.
ISBN 13: 978-0495391128. $195.95
reviewed by David P. Pursell
General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry,
5th Edition
by H. Stephen Stoker
Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning: Belmont, CA, 2008. 901 pp.
ISBN 978-0547152813. $195.95
reviewed by David P. Pursell
Allied health students are one of the largest groups pursu-
ing science in two-year and four-year colleges. Their focus is sig-
nificantly different from students majoring in a science discipline
or planning to attend medical, dental, or veterinary school. The
latter typically take a year of general chemistry, a year of organic
chemistry, and one or two semesters of biochemistry as science
requirements before turning to in-depth study of their chosen
discipline. Allied health students, on the other hand, typically
take only a year of combined chemistry topics in a single course
sequence before moving to more clinically oriented studies and
practicals. This combined one-year study of general, organic,
and biochemistry, typically referred to as GOB, is the subject
of this textbook review.
Many publishers have offerings in the GOB category, and
there are some long-running editions. Brooks/Cole Cengage has
two such offerings, Introduction to General, Organic, and Bio-
chemistry, 9th edition, by Bettelheim and co-authors and Gen-
eral, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, 5th edition, by Stoker;
1274 Journal of Chemical Education Vol. 86 No. 11 November 2009 www.JCE.DivCHED.org Division of Chemical Education
Cheryl Baldwin Frech
University of Central Oklahoma
Edmond, OK 73034
both presume students have little or no chemistry experience.
Both books are organized into three parts, each corresponding
to an area of chemistry. Depending on student needs, the parts
may be taken individually as discrete courses in general, organic,
or biochemistry or as a year-long sequence encompassing all
three. Both texts are about the same length, with approximately
one-third of their material dedicated to each area of chemistry.
They are exceptionally student-friendly in their organization,
readability, graphics, and schematics. Each text follows a similar
format for chapters, beginning with an outline of sections.
Bettelheim uses some approaches that are particularly use-
ful for the target audience. Every chapter begins with a section
titled What Do We Need To Know before We Begin? that serves
to focus student attention and inquiry on the coming topics in
context with what has preceded the chapter. Each subsequent
chapter section title is posed as a question; for example, Section
3.8 is titled, How Do We Name Binary Covalent Compounds?
Nonscience majors benefit from this questioning technique
because it focuses their inquiry on what they need to understand
and apply in each section. Bettelheims photographs, graphics,
captions, and language are crisp and to the point. Worked ex-
ample problems within each chapter are followed immediately
by similar additional problems for student practice. Each chapter
has Chemical Connections that apply concepts from the text to
topical medical, industrial, and research issues. The Chemical
Connections provide students with context and perspective to
the chemistry so that it does not just become material they must
get through, but rather material directly applicable to their fu-
ture academic and professional careers in the allied health fields.
Each chapter concludes with a thorough summary followed by
additional problems of varying levels of challenge.
Stokers text is particularly strong in its visual, schematic
approach to organizing concepts for allied health students. The
chapters are intentionally concise and use Chemistry at a Glance
sections to graphically portray the interrelationships of concepts,
topics, and techniques covered in the written text. Several of
these Chemistry at a Glance sections appear in each chapter,
providing students with a convenient visual summary of one
or several text sections, facilitating students consolidation and
understanding before new sections are introduced. Stoker also
uses Chemical Connections sections throughout each chapter
to apply concepts from the text to applications of chemistry
relevant to students personal and professional lives. The worked
example problems within each chapter are followed immediately
by student practice problems that use a problem-solving method
similar to the worked example. Each chapter ends with a writ-
ten summary of key concepts, followed by additional problems.
Unique to the Stoker text is a multiple-choice practice test at
the end of each chapter. These tests are particularly useful for
allied health students who often must pass a number of multiple-
choice examinations administered by various certifying agencies.
The multiple-choice tests should enhance student success on
these certifying exams and are a great addition.
Both texts follow a similar sequence in the general chem-
istry part, covering measurement, atoms, bonding, reactions
and rates, gases, liquids, solids, acids and bases, and ending with
 Chemical Education Today

Book & Media Reviews

nuclear chemistry. Both texts require quantitative calculations
without an over-reliance on mathematics. The detailed descrip-
tions of equations, units, and dimensional analysis techniques
do a fine job of guiding allied health students who are typically
weaker in quantitative skills. Both texts are successful with incor-
porating descriptions and practice with the art of drawing Lewis
structures, an essential skill for students when they encounter the
organic chapters. However, Bettelheim provides a more detailed
and systematic approach to drawing Lewis structures and even
includes the concept and practice of resonance and the curved
arrow notation for pushing electrons, a topic Stoker covers more
minimally. Both texts end the general chemistry portion with a
very useful section on nuclear chemistry, with many examples
of applications to the health professions.
Surprisingly, the organic part of each text is the shortest in
terms of number of pages. Both begin their treatment of organic
chemistry with hydrocarbons and then proceed to functional
groups. Each covers alcohols, thiols, ethers, aldehydes, ketones,
carboxylic acids and their derivatives, amines, and amides. Both
emphasize nomenclature and basic reactions. A shortcoming
for both texts, however, is that the reactions are treated as
equations to be memorized, with virtually no effort to explore
why the reactions occur as they do from a mechanistic point of
view. As a result, students experience the infamous, dreaded the general chemistry part,
orgo, a marathon of memorization (1). Bettelheim presents a nicely incorporating examples
separate chapter on chirality in order to introduce the concept
in advance of its critical role in biological systems. The chapter-
long treatment is quite thorough and includes many example
problems and exercises to reinforce the concepts. Stoker saves his
discussion of chirality until the beginning of the biochemistry
portion, and his presentation is brief, perhaps short-changing
this important topic. Of course, the authors of both texts must
make choices about the concepts and topics to cover in such a
short treatment of organic chemistry, and their choices work
well to provide coherent coverage of general, organic, and
biochemistry.
The biochemistry part of both texts is the most robust.
Both have chapters on carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, enzymes,
nucleic acids, and energy. They then diverge on the remainder
of the biochemistry treatment. Stoker provides three in-depth
chapters on metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins.
Each chapter provides details of various pathways and also excel-
lent schematic summaries in Chemistry at a Glance sections that
visually portray appropriate components and their interrelation-
ships. Bettelheim combines carbohydrate, lipid, and protein
metabolism into one chapter in a more abbreviated treatment
of these biochemical pathways. By consolidating the treatment
of pathways, Bettelheim has room for separate chapters on neu-
rotransmitters and hormones, nutrition, immunochemistry, and
an online chapter about body fluids. These additional chapters
provide many examples of interest to allied health students.
Both texts provide selected answers in the appendices, a
nice feature for students to use in checking their work without
having to purchase a separate solutions manual. Bettelheim
presents short appendix sections on exponential notation and
significant figures, which are useful for most allied health stu-
dents. Bettelheim has a sepa-
rate glossary with key terms
referenced to the appropri-
ate text section(s); providing
page numbers would save time
when thumbing through the
text to find the appropriate
section. A separate index is
very thorough and is keyed
to essential terms in the text
as well as many supplemental
terms, concepts, and topics.
Stoker consolidates the glos-
sary and index into a combined
section that works quite nicely,
giving students one place to
look for key terms, definitions,
and page numbers, as well as
a thorough compendium of
supplemental terms, concepts,
and topics. Stoker covers expo-
nential notation and significant
figures in the initial chapters of
and worked problems that
emphasize the required math-
ematics skills.
With new editions of textbooks, one must ask what is, in
fact, new. Both new editions are only a few pages longer than
their predecessors. Bettelheim has enhanced the problem-
solving approach in worked examples in the text by adding a
short Strategy statement in each worked example. For instance,
in the previous (8th edition), Example 9.2 deals with an acid
base reaction. The problem is stated and the worked solution is
immediately shown. In the new 9th edition, the same problem is
Example 8.2, and after the problem statement the new problem-
solving Strategy is provided as follows: Strategy. Use Table
8.2 to identify the stronger acid from the weaker acid and the
stronger base from the weaker base. Once you have done that,
determine in which direction the equilibrium lies. It always lies
in the direction of the stronger components moving towards
the weaker components. This written strategy is a nice addition
because it helps students think about how they might approach
the problem. In his 9th edition, Bettelheim has enhanced the
photographs, schematics, and graphics, provided new Chemi-
cal Connections, and has improved the chapter summaries and
end-of-chapter problems.
Stokers new 5th edition has added content throughout
the text in response to user and reviewer requests. In addition,
advances in biological chemistry have been incorporated into
the biochemistry portion. An example of new content is an
entirely new Section 10.15, Equivalents and Milliequivalents
of Electrolytes. As milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L) of ion
concentration in blood are commonly used in the allied health
professions, this section has been specifically added to meet the

Division of Chemical Education www.JCE.DivCHED.org Vol. 86 No. 11 November 2009 Journal of Chemical Education 1275
 Chemical Education Today

Book & Media Reviews

needs of the target audience. The new section includes several
worked examples, all dealing with mEq/L of ions in blood, fol-
lowed by practice exercises. To provide further enhancement, the
Chemical Connections on Electrolytes and Body Fluids in the
previous edition has been updated to include the mEq/L units
and further provides mEq/L data for ions commonly used in
intravenous replacement solutions. Stoker has enhanced many
of the already-excellent schematics and graphics to make the text
even more appealing to visual learners.
For faculty seeking a general, organic, and biochemistry
text that is tuned to students, these two texts are worthy of seri-
ous examination.
Literature Cited
1. Zurer, P. S. Chem. Eng. News 2001, 79 (16), 4243.
Supporting JCE Online Material
http://www.jce.divched.org/Journal/Issues/2009/Nov/abs1274.html
Full text (HTML and PDF)
David P. Pursell is in the School of Science and Technology,
Georgia Gwinnett College, 1000 University Center Lane, Law-
renceville, GA 30043; dpursell@ggc.usg.edu.

1276 Journal of Chemical Education Vol. 86 No. 11 November 2009 www.JCE.DivCHED.org Division of Chemical Education