We previously had only one semester of inorganic chemistry, and now we are adding a "foundational" course to conform to ACS guidelines. Because some of the descriptive chemistry of the elements is covered in general chemistry (and frankly can often be quite boring for students) we decided to replace that material with bioinorganic applications in our foundational course, in the hope that both chemistry majors and bio majors/chem minors will enjoy it.
We're planning to cover Part I of Rodgers' "Descriptive Inorganic, Coordination, and Solid-state Chemistry" (all of the coordination chemistry) along with some other odds and ends. Then we'll study how those concepts apply to the field of bioinorganic chemistry. The bioniorganic section would run for about four weeks.
There is one section of Ch. 6 in Rodgers' book about bioinorganic applications, but I want to cover a lot more than that. Because some students will be sophomores, I feel a little obligated to provide them with a text about the material beyond lecture notes/handouts. I was thinking of using the Oxford Chemistry Primer "Biocoordination Chemistry" by David Fenton. The pluses are that it is small, meant to be abbreviated, and costs ~$15 or so used (and has information about most of the topics we'd look at). The minus is that it was published in 1996 and could be considered slightly outdated, though that is less important in a course of this nature where we're covering the basics.
Any thoughts on a good bioninorganic supplement for this kind of a course? What have you used? Any thoughts on whether sophomores will be able to handle it if they must rely on lecture notes and handouts, no "official text"?
You might check out the book "Metals and Life" which I reviewed earlier this year. I have not used it to teach out of, but it seems like it might be what you are looking for.
It talks about a lot of the bioinorganic chemistry in the context of things they would have already learned in general chemistry and the coordination chemistry portion of your course.
I agree with Amanda that it would be worth looking at Metals and Life. I generally use Bertini et al.'s "Biological Inorganic Chemistry: Structure & Reactivity" for my bioinorganic elective, but I think it might be a bit too advanced for what you're describing. My class is at the junior/senior level.
It may be hard to find a good, low cost supplement for what you're describing. I think, in part, it will depend on what material you plan to cover. Another solution might be to put a few books on reserve in the library if students need more than the notes and handouts from class.
I struggled with the same problem in the past and eventually decided to go with select review articles in the place of a textbook. The big difficulty is finding a text that covers all of the topics that you want to cover at the appropriate depth for the class.
With respect to review articles, the 1996 Holm/Solomon Chem. Rev. issue is a decent starting point and introduces concepts that still guide the field. There was an update in 2004, I believe.
Christian R. Goldsmith
Auburn University
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
I'm in the same boat right now. My department has allowed me to create an introductory inorganic course in order to elevate the level of the senior inorganic course (and get us ACS certification).
I was thinking that bioinorganic chemistry would be a good unit to cover because it can be covered in a largely descriptive sense, and the students would have a solid background in it for when I go over applications of specroscopy in the advanced class. I'm also considering the Oxford Primer, but I've never used it before, so I can't vouch for it. The price is tempting, though.
The other one I'm considering is Lippard and Berg's Principles of Bioinorganic Chemistry, which gives a pretty simple overview of the subject. I used it in my grad school bioinorganic class, and pretty much everyone thought it was too simplisitc for that level of class. It should be good for an undergrad course, though.
I feel really bad about the main book that I'll be using for my intro inorganic course. I haven't chosen one yet, but whatever it ends up being, they're still going to have to buy M&T for the advanced course.
Has Anyone used Redhder's "Bioinorganic Chemistry"? I am looking at it and other texts to use in special topics class (first time I will be teaching it) just as some background to support the content before I jump into primary literatue. I like that it is compact but covers a wide range of topics.
-Kyle