Comic Chemistry: Why I Hated Chemistry in High School

It has been a while since a webcomic addressed chemistry in any direct way. there have been some XKCD and SMBC comics that used molecules and some people in lab coats in other comics but for the most part chemistry has been under the comic radar for while. That said, The Born Loser (of all things) had a chemistry related comic.

At one level it references the amount of memorization in Chemistry. I think we can all agree that in the university context, all the sciences are in fact opportunities to have a educated conversation. The issue however is that to have the educated conversation a person must have the language skills which means that in may ways introductory courses in science are often like introductory course in any language. You must have a working dictionary of nouns and an understanding of syntax.

The problem of course is that there is insufficient time to give sufficient background knowledge in chemistry and then get the students out to the edge of knowledge where all the interesting things happen. Our current pedagogy's all seem to want to enthuse the students with an illusion of understanding complex but interesting topics long before they have the appropriate understanding.

Which leads us back to Mr. Goodguy the high school chemistry teacher that has been given the idea that the best preparation for university chemistry is to memorize the periodic table. Now, to be fair, a couple of lifetimes ago I taught chemistry to engineers. I loved teaching engineers, they were so academically whipped by then engineering faculty that they considered chemistry to be a bit of a holiday. They had no curiosity or enthusiasm, for that had been ground out of them by their major, but man they loved to memorize useful information and they loved their mnemonics. They swallowed the periodic table whole and would share their mnemonics with me.

This blog is supposed to be family friendly so I cannot share the most memorable ones but for example: He Now Admits Kissing X-Ratedly gives the sequence and first letter of the chemical symbols for the noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe and Rn). The thing with the mnemonics is that once you hear them you cannot unhear them.

Memorization is the necessary first step to an educated conversation. Welcome to being two years old again.

Then there is this ...