Chemistry: the great ideas

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Abstract
What are the central ideas of chemistry that we should ensure that our students carry with them as they travel through an educational system and out into the world? Indeed, what are the great ideas that give a chemist's vision of the world such a distinctive character, and which we would wish the general public to comprehend? Chemistry is such a central science for both our students and our communities that we should ensure that we do not dissuade our students and our public from discovering the insights it provides. In this talk I shall endeavour to identify first the difficulties of teaching our subject, then the dozen or so great ideas that, in my view, should be the spine of our courses. I will examine the general principles that make chemistry such a central part of any scientific education and in particular a component of the physical sciences. Then I shall identify the individual topics that I regard as the foundations of chemistry. The latter I shall do at three levels: at freshman level, for those who need to be aware of chemistry but not in great depth, to those in physical chemistry, who do need a deep understanding of our remarkable subject, and to the general public, who should be aware of a subset, at least, of our ideas. What are the principal concepts of chemistry that we should teach to our students? I shall concentrate on introductory chemistry in this talk, and try to identify the concepts that we chemists should hope our students will carry away from our courses into their careers, whatever these careers may be. At the same time I will be directing my remarks at instructors who are devising courses to introduce chemistry to students. I shall also have in mind one of the most important of our tasks: the communication of our remarkable subject to that most suspicious and unwelcoming audience, the general public.

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