General Chemistry I: Atoms, Molecules, and Bonding

Chemistry is the study of the properties, structure, behavior, and reactivity of matter. As the central science, chemistry has connections across a wide range of disciplines from physics and biology to environmental science and nano-science. A fundamental understanding of chemistry is the basis on which cutting-edge research in many fields rests.

This online course from the MIT Department of Chemistry is designed to build core chemistry skills, including how to draw chemical structures and predict molecular properties and reactivities, and the necessary fundamental knowledge for advanced topics in organic chemistry, physical chemistry, biochemistry, and materials science.

The first in a series of two courses that together teach first-year, university-level chemistry, this course focuses on the principles of chemical bonding in the way it historically occurred, starting from the first experiments that revealed the fundamental dual wave-particle nature of energy and matter. Using the machinery of quantum chemistry, you will learn to:

• build models to describe the electronic structure of atoms,
• examine how atoms can be combined into molecules through different chemical bonding models,
• predict the structure and geometry of molecules,
• analyze how molecular geometry determines molecular properties,
• explore how molecules interact with each other and analyze how these interactions impact properties in a variety of phases

This online course is based on material from MIT’s Principles of Chemical Science on-campus class, which fulfills the General Institute Requirement in Chemistry for all MIT undergraduates.

Students preparing for undergraduate-level chemistry courses, and undergraduate students who are reviewing General Chemistry for upper division courses or looking to supplement their coursework with additional practice would most benefit from this course. It would also benefit working adults pursuing post-baccalaureate pre-health programs, nursing school, or engineering and technology degrees to advance their careers.