CEM 141 Blog

Model Lab
Previous labs:
P in plant food
Chemical formula determination
Color in Soda
Emmision Spectra
Sugar in sodaPenny Measurements

Molecules Slideshare
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1. takes notes
2. study every day in small bites
3. screencasts before, after class
4. problem set (do all problems)
5. come to class
6. use your peers
7. blog check every day
8. tweener room
9. ask questions, in person or email
10. lug lecture notes everywhere
11. be on time
12. do pre-lab
13. use the expensive text
14. Use the CSS
15. get enough sleep
16. [...]

Problem set
Atoms.Slideshare
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In no particular order:
- Quick look over every entry in this blog
- Sign up for an appointment time with Dr. Ott (sign up sheet outside of lab room, JM 235)
- Read the syllabus (and print it out?) and complete your first homework assignment
- Start looking at the screencasts, especially the first one, since that [...]

Here is your first homework set, due by 10 pm 1/14/10. 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. [...]

As they crop up on people doing the homework (question #6)
Q:Is it true that we do not have a cumulative 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 [...]

From this moment forward, if you do not include units in the intermediate portions of 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 [...]

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/

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

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 [...]

For the many of you who are having issues with unit coverversion stuff, I HIGHLY recommend you print out this 2 page worksheet and plow through it. It was written partly by me and should help, but you actually have to do it. Let me know if it helps or if it can be improved.
Unit [...]

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 [...]

A nice little website with some good info

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

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 [...]

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 [...]