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Led by Dr. Lewis Rothberg, faculty in the University of Rochester Department of Chemistry originally adopted the online Open Stax free chemistry textbook in 2019, in large part with the goal of reducing student expenses. Open Stax is a non-profit based at Rice University committed to broadening access to educational materials and has engaged dozens of faculty members nationwide to produce an excellent text covering the subject matter taught in general chemistry.

Recently, a committee of our chemistry faculty teaching the introductory chemistry 131 and 132 courses decided to migrate to a syllabus where atomic theory is taught first. As part of that decision, they set about creating a University of Rochester customized textbook based on the Open Stax material in Chemistry: Atoms First 2e.

The order of chapters in the University of Rochester version was reached by consensus of a consortium of department faculty, including Ben Hafensteiner, Katie Knowles, Ellen Matson, Dave McCamant, J.-C. Olsen, Lewis Rothberg, Courtney Stanford and Megan Tichy. Dr. Rothberg was assigned the task of assembling the text and adding a preface including a rationale for the order of presentation, a discussion about the nature of science and its role in society, and a section on how to get the most out of the course. The latter section includes a review of learning theories including metacognition and mindset research as well as Rochester specific resources to support students and Rochester specific policies on plagiarism and academic honesty.

Dr. Rothberg was able to obtain a River Campus Libraries (RCL) Open Education Grant and guidance from Wendy Way and Eileen Daly-Boas in the RCL’s open educational resources working group. With that funding, he hired one of our undergraduates, Carolyn Xu, to assist with assembling the textbook. The textbook will be launched in chemistry 131 and 132 for the 2025-2026 academic year.

Participating faculty were named “Zero-Cost Heroes” by the RCL.