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The Going Deeper highlights often expand upon an area, or point out what we feel is a particularly interesting sidelight on the topic at hand.
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These are integral parts of the textbook that the students should not skip when reading the chapters (it is probably important to tell the students this). One of the ways we bring modern topics to the forefront in this book is through providing two kinds of “highlights”: Going Deeper and Connections. Finally, several opportunities for special topics courses or parts of courses are available: computational chemistry, Chapters 2 and 14 supramolecular chemistry, Chapters 3, 4, and parts of 6 materials chemistry, Chapters 13, 17, and perhaps parts of 4 theoretical organic chemistry, Chapters 1, 14–17 and so on. A course that emphasizes structure and theory more than reactivity could involve Chapters 1–6, 13, 14, and 17 (presumably not in that order). In any sequence, mixing in Chapters 3, 4, 12, 13, and 17 whenever possible, based upon the interest and expertise of the instructor, should enhance the course considerably. We have designed Chapters 9, 10, 11, 12, and 15 for an exhaustive, one-semester course on thermal chemical reaction mechanisms. Either alternative gives a fairly classical approach to the field, but instills the excitement of modern research areas through our use of “highlights” (see below). Alternatively, if organic reaction mechanisms are covered in another class, dropping Chapters 10 and 11 from this order makes a very manageable one-semester course. In our experience, covering Chapters 1–2, 5–8, selected portions of 9–11, and then 14–16, creates a course that is doable in one extremely fast– moving semester. There are many possible variations, and each instructor will likely have a different preferred sequence, but we make a few suggestions here. In these cases, the instructor will need to pick and choose among the chapters and even sections within chapters. In addition, we recognize that at many institutions only one semester, or one to two quarters, is devoted to this topic.
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The order of chapters reflects what we feel is a sensible order of material for a one-year course, although other sequences would also be quite viable. Our intent has been to produce a textbook that could be covered in a one-year course in physical organic chemistry.