How to be successful in CEM 141 (according to you)

September 1st, 2010

1. go over your notes
2. pay attention
3. talk to your prof
4. tweener room use
5. use slidehsare
6. be on time
7. participate
8. use website
9. study a little every day
10. eat healthy
11. study group
12. ask questions
13. read carefully
14. no texting in class
15. use the textbook
16. review before class
17. be organized
18. sleep
19. don’t get behind
20. exercise
21. outside resources
22. tie knowledge to prviously known material
23. tutor

Slideshare for Phase I

August 30th, 2010

Lab for 9/7, 9/8

August 27th, 2010

Fat in Potato Chips
NEW DATA SHEET posted. There was a mistake in the previous one (last # in column 1 should be 23.488, not 25.488

Stuff to do, day 1

August 22nd, 2010

In no particular order:
- Quick look over every entry in this blog
- Sign up for an appointment time with Dr. Ott (sign up sheet on his office door, JM 234B)
- Read the syllabus and complete your first homework assignment

-Printout a copy of the problem set for phase I

- Start looking at the screencasts, especially the first one, since that one will NOT be covered in class.

Some questions answered

August 20th, 2010

As they crop up on people doing the homework (question #5 from your homework)

Q: It says labs are taken late up to 72 hours after they are due. Do points starts being taken off immediately?
A: 2 min late is late and points will be taken off, Depending on the size of the assignment. So for example, a 20 point lab turned in 24 hours late might lose 5 points. Turned in 48 hours late, 10 points.

Q:Is it true that we do not have a cumulative final exam?
A: No final exam per se, but there will be a couple of ‘larger than usual’ Monday quizzes, like 40ish points.

Q:Each week do you want us to have the lab printed off and with us each time we attend lab?
A: Yes.

Q:I was wondering how often online coursework will be used. I have dial-up at my house.
A: I strongly encourage you to use computers on campus. WA hall has whole classrooms, the lobby of McD, the 2 chem tweener rooms. In theory, there is enough advance warning that you can pull stuff from on campus on the days you are here.

Q:Do you ever grade on a curve? Historically, how many people finish your class each semester with a 4.0? How many people finish with 3.5 or a 3.0?
A: I shoot for 10-15% 4.0’s, but have given as high as 25% in one class and once had a class with NO 4.0’s. The current grading scale almost never gets curved. Long years of experience :)

Q:How quickly do we go through each chapter? (Approximately how many days will it take us?)
A: It depends on the chapter, but roughly 1.5 weeks per full chapter as we will get through ~10 chapters.

Q: How long do we have to complete homework?
A: Generally 23 hours (assigned at end of class, due the next day)

Q: Do you prefer handed in items to be done in pen or pencil?
A: I don’t care either way.

Q:Are the grades posted in Jetnet or www.docott.com/141?
A:I will never post anything on jetnet. Ever. :) I’ll explain why later. Maybe.

Q: One question I did have about this course is I was reading the syllabus and it mentioned something about take home quizzes, will there be a lot of take home quizzes or very few in this course?
A: Sometimes you get homework problems, something above and beyond M and W quizzes. Usually for long drawn out problems.

Q:When we email you assignments, do you prefer us attaching the documents or copying and pasting the entire document into the message?
A: You will almost never email labs or homework assignments. Too many issues with that process.

Q: Do you think that we are going to get through all of the content on the syllabus as planned and on time?
A: I am 97% confident we will plow through it, without even ‘hurrying’ in the end. I have been teaching this course for over a decade and have never gotten more than 2 lecture days behind. Ever.

Q: In case you miss a lab class, lets say on Tuesday can you make it up on Wednesday?
A: Generally yes, but let me know in advance if it is a date that you KNOW you will miss. There are no ‘make up labs’ at the end of the term, though.

Q: What is your view on lab reports? How many lab reports will we have?
A: You will do several (5?, 7?) short form memos, which run 1-2 pages. Other lab write ups are easier. No full blown bohemoths. Did you know if you type in ’short form memo’ into google, the above link is the second one that comes up? cool.

Q: Is there any extra credit in this class?
A: No. Not a lick. Ever. Don’t ask.

Q:When you put the grades up do they have are names up as well? or is it private?
A: You will be given a 4 digit random number that only you know. That is how they will be posted.

More questions/answers posted here as they arrive!

Homework for 9/3

August 19th, 2010

Here is your first homework set, due by 10 pm 9/3/10. It is worth 10 points and covers the syllabus and course blog. I would read the entire syllabus first before you even look at these questions. This is NOT to be done as a group work exercise. You must do these on your own. Do no simply cut and paste from the document, either.
This homework set is to be emailed to your instructor (141@docott.com) and the subject line should contain ONLY your full name, nothing else. Would you believe getting the subject line correct is worth 1 point?
The answers should be in the body of them email do NOT make it in a word processor program and add as an attachment. Doing so will cause you to lose points. Following directions is important.
1. Why do you use ‘recycled’ paper for pre-labs and homework exercises?
2. What can (and probably will) happen to you if you are caught cheating?
3. Which of Dr. Ott’s office hours do NOT conflict with your class schedule?
4. Why should you check posted grades as soon as they go up?
5. What questions do you have about the course/syllabus at this point?

Textbook for this course

August 10th, 2010

YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO PURCHASE YOUR TEXT AT THE JCC BOOKSTORE.
However, you must purchase _a_ textbook for this course, but you are given a lot of options.In fact, I will give you 9 choices, some of which (with a little bit of research) are dirt cheap.
Chemistry, by John McMurry 5th edition (2008)
OR the 4th or 3rd editions (if you can find them)
General Chemistry, by Hill and Petrucci 4th Edition OR 3rd or 2nd (if you can find them)
Chemistry, the Central Science By Brown, Lemay,etc 11th edition or 10th or 9th (if you can find them)

You must be very very careful that you are purchasing the actual textbook, not the study guide, or solutions manual or something else. If you are not sure, BEFORE you buy it, ask your instructor. Copy/paste the direct link (in eBay for example), send it to me at 141@docott.com and with 12 hours I will check and tell you if that is the right one.

Units units units

November 17th, 2009

You will learn soon enough my opinion on putting units on things. From this moment forward, if you do not include units in the intermediate portions of submitted calculations, you will lose points. I don’t care if you get the right answer and the final units are given correctly. You don’t have the units ‘during’ the calc, points will be lost.

This stands for all calculations from this day forward.

First draft screencasts

November 1st, 2009

Here is the link to all the first draft screencasts for the course, broken down by chapter. You will have to ‘hunt’ for phase 3 content.
http://www.docott.com/files.141/screencasts/

Unit conversion worksheet

August 29th, 2009

For those of you still struggling with unit conversion (also known as dimensional analysis) I have prepared this worksheet that might help you.

Dimensional Analysis Worksheet

Email Etiquette

January 2nd, 2009

If you would like me to respond to e-mail, you need to have a little bit of etiquette. The most obvious is to indicate who you are. I do not memorize your email address, so I cannot recognize thedudeman99@whatever.com as you. Pretend this like a semi formal letter. All you have to do in mention your name.

Some professionalism is appropriate. I am not your buddy who you send email jokes too. I am your college chemistry professor. No need to send me some cool chemistry joke you got from a friend. Trust me, I saw it long before you did.

What conversion factors and constants you need to ‘memorize’

January 21st, 2008

This goes for the quiz on Monday and the rest of the course….
-You NEVER have to memorize constants (mass of proton, gas constant, planks constant) I will always give you the ones you need for quizzes.
- Some equations you will need to memorize, but few and I will always make it clear which you need to memorize.
-The only conversion factors you need to memorize are those from simple metric prefixs. So for example, you need to know that the prefix ‘m’ means milli which means 0.001, so you need to know that 0.001L = 1mL (or 1L = 1000 mL) but also that 1000 mm = 1m. You are responsible for the following prefixes ONLY:
c (0.01)
m (0.001)
k (1000)
M (1,000,000)

E-mail me if you have a question about what I mean.

Help with dimensional analysis and sci. notation

January 9th, 2008

A nice little website with some good info

How to make lecture notes more effective

September 11th, 2006

SOme great suggestions here.
5 ways to make lectures note more readable

The Course Blog

July 27th, 2006

This blog is an effort to make things move a little faster, be a little more current, etc. It is meant to be a collection of all the pertinant information for teh class.
Some postive side effects:
1. This page can be updated quickly. When a student asks me a question about a lab, lecture, whatever, I will post it here for everyone to read.
2. You can comment. I have the ability to post the main message (or comment) and anyone on the planet, including you, can also comment on the page. Don’t worry, I have the ability to make any comment go away if I deem it inappropriate. It is set up such that I have to ‘approve’ the comment before it is posted, but I will RARELY do that.
3. You can (if you choose) set up your News Aggregator to watch this blog so you will know whenever something new gets posted. That might be significant, because decisions get made fast, and knowing sooner rather than later is a good thing.
4. You can search old posts from a long time ago (early in the semester) In other words, everything I have put in the blog all semester remains there until the end.

This is a new technology for many of you, and I am here to help you. Just ask.

Find a good place to study

January 10th, 2006

I found this short article on a website I monitor. It talkes about how your location of studying makes a big difference. When I was working on my Ph.D. thesis I spend long hours at a particular restaurant eating fries and drinking coffee. SInce that was all I ever did there, it was easy to stay focused. No distractions.