Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

How to be successful in CEM 141 according to you.

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

1. read what you are supposed to read
2. don’t be afraid to ask questions
3. form study group
4. complete assignments
5. have study material at all times
6. active participation
7. study enough
8. be on time
9. good notes
10. small chunks
11. watch screencasts
12. no procrastination
13. use other resources available
14. understand your own notes
15. proofread
16. eat well
17. sleep enough
18. keep to [...]

Homework Assignment #1

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Due wed 1/11 by 9 pm ET
You must send an email to your instructor 141@docott.com. The subject line should contain ONLY 2 words, your first and last name, that’s it. In the body of the email (not as some attachment) should be the answers (only) to the following questions.
1. Why do you use [...]

Stuff to do, day 1

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

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)
- Fill out student information form student information form
- Read the syllabus (found here) and complete your first homework assignment
- Start looking at the screencasts, [...]

Limiting Reagent Problem

Friday, October 28th, 2011

I made nice film doing yet another (difficult) limiting reagent problem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGy_sOGQwvE

Pre-professional sci certificate

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

If you want it, you have to technically ‘apply’ for it. Here is the link:
http://www.jccmi.edu/StudentServices/Registration/docs/GraduationApplication.pdf

Some questions answered

Friday, 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 [...]

Textbook for this course

Tuesday, 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 (or higher) edition (2008)
OR [...]

Units units units

Tuesday, 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’ [...]

First draft screencasts

Sunday, 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

Saturday, 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

Friday, 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 [...]

What conversion factors and constants you need to ‘memorize’

Monday, 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 [...]

Help with dimensional analysis and sci. notation

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

A nice little website with some good info

How to make lecture notes more effective

Monday, September 11th, 2006

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

The Course Blog

Thursday, 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 [...]

Find a good place to study

Tuesday, 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 [...]