Friday Cartoon and Friday Quote

(Looks better if you click on the cartoon)

"Christmas renews our youth by stirring our wonder.
The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty,
for in it are born our art, our science, our religion."

Ralph Sockman

CH 1013 --> CH1023

Class, the marks have been submitted. I will see you in the new year. If you would like to get a head start on the course for the next semester you should review Organic Chemistry from your high school notes and read the lab that has been posted on the course web page.

We will spend most of January on organic chemistry and since it is the only chemistry topic directly taught at a higher level here at ABU you should be motivated to do well on this part of the course.

I hope the semester has gone well for you all. Take care.

Science Students Unite!

As I understand the timetable, this is the weekly schedule for the upper level science courses and Christianity and the Natural Sciences.



Several students have spoken with me about the mix of terror and grim fatalism that grips them when they consider this semester. Especially the students interested in Honours. Well, what do we do?

The first suggestion is that it is highly unlikely that anyone HAS to take three lab Biology courses AND RS 3853. You need to check this very carefully. The fear is that these courses may not be offered again next year. Well, BI 3203 (BioChem) and RS 3853 (Christ and NatSci) will NOT be offered again until W09. So that leaves Genetics and Botany. IF all three of these lab courses will be needed to graduate in May 2008 then the students that need them also need to make a case to us that one of the courses should also be offered again next year. Just looking at the schedule I would think that Botany is the one to defer to next year as it opens up the schedule the most.

If there is going to be a case made by the students it has to be made before you leave. Is there a problem? Do the students that face this schedule see any other solution that would bleed some of the stress out of the semester? Speak up now.

The Story of the Egg

It was my third year of my undergraduate degree. I had to take Physics, Thermodynamics and Quantum Chemistry all at the same time. I had reached the limit of my ability to think mathematically and my heart and mind were choked with fear. I sat down to the final exam in Quantum and just blanked. It was all gone. I sat and looked at the exam for half an hour and prepared to leave. The professor had seen what I was going through and at this crucial point decided to talk to me. He did not say anything to me that addressed the content of the exam but he did make it clear to me that he thought if I could just calm down and think about something else for a minute or two and then come back to the exam with "fresh eyes" that it would make a difference.

It did, and here I am writing the exams.

I have found over the years that my proximity to a student does not necessarily lower their stress level. That said, I offer the kinderegg. Students are not allowed to bring food to the exam. But I can. As I always say ... if you find yourself in a dark corner during the exam ... eat the egg ... construct and play with the toy ... then return to the exam with fresh eyes. Any way that it works out I offer the egg to you as a gift and expression of my confidence that if you can marshall your thoughts you will find that there is a lot of good stuff bumping around in your head. The egg comes literally with my blessing, my prayers and my hopes that your life will go well.

Students have different reactions to the egg. Some eat the egg and play with the toy before they write anything. I had an entire class tell me one time after the exam that they had wanted to eat their egg but did not want to be the first to "crack" and so no one ate their egg. Several students have had such an angry rage in their hearts that they took it out on the egg (one that I am thinking off crushed hers in her hands and dropped it on my desk as she left saying "give this to someone else". Then again, I have had several students tell me after an exam that they really needed two eggs to get through that exam.

Take it or leave it. I offer it to you as a gift. I hope it helps.

Merry Christmas

Chem 2113 Things to Remember

I need to add something to our discussion on the final exam. There were three majour set-piece memorization items from the text that you sort of need to have in your heads. I have decided that the first question on the final exam will be worth 10% of the exam and will be one of the following. I figured that you would all likely have these in your heads already and this will give that effort some value.

I hope all is well.

Table 2.1 Structures of Some Common Functional Groups (p. 36 - 37)
Table 7.1 Common Nucleophiles (p. 207)
Figure 10.7 Road Map for Reactions of Functional Groups

To Eat an Egg

In 1908 Jack London (follow this link to biography) wrote a soul gripping short story of a man in the freezing Alaskan dark who had to build a fire to survive. The short story was called "To Build a Fire" (follow this link to the story). It captures the heart stopping fear that knowledge of the consequences of failure can bring. It captures the hope of success that causes us to continue to move forward. It is better than Hemingway.

It may be that something as simple as an egg may be the bridge between fear and hope and I offer this analysis of a kinderegg for your consideration.

Mass of kinderegg: 34.015 g
Mass of foil wrap: 0.555 g
Mass of chocolate: 20.786 g
Mass of plastic shell: 3.460 g
Mass of paper instructions: 1.163 g
Mass of toy 8.045 g

Ability to distract when desperate for a distraction .... priceless

Saturday Science Cartoon

OK, so this isn't about Science only but it sure is an important point to make.

Friday Science Cartoon

Friday Science Quote

Especially true for this time of year ...

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. This is the first lesson to be learned.

T. Huxley

My "Under-The-Door" Policy

Do not slide assignments, lab reports or anything you want me to mark under my office door. If you cannot find me then take it to the receptionist and she will make sure that I get it. This time of year anything that gets slid under my door usually has a big old foorprint on it by the time I realize that it is there.

By the way, I will be in a meeting today from 2:30 PM. After that time if you have something to hand it it will need to be passed to the receptionist. After 4:30 PM you will have to submit it through the Academic Committee.

CH 1013 Hey, Prof. H. What's on the Exam?

If I had limited time and could not study everything, what are the big concepts that I really should know for the final exam?

Chap. 1: nothing really, a little vocabulary a little classification

Chap. 2: Nomenclature (ionic and molecular, this subject will bite you in the butt all the time in other questions)

Chap. 3: Molecular vs Molar mass, Analysis for EF and MF

Chap. 4: Solution concentration, Solubility and precipitation prediction, Total vs Net Ionic equations, Acids and Bases, Oxidation / Reduction and the Activity Series

Chap. 5: Gas Laws applied to specific problems, Kinetic Molecular Theory

Chap. 6: Thermodynamics (E vs q vs w) Thermochemistry and the BCE, Hess's Law (direct and indirect)

Chap. 7: Story of the Bohr model, Story of the Quantum Mechanics model, Quantum numbers for orbitals and electrons in atoms and electronic configurations

Chap. 8: Effective nuclear charge and physical properties (rad., I and EA)

Chap. 9: Lewis structures, Bond Energies and Hess's Law

Chap: 10: VSEPR (Lewis Structure --> designation --> arrangement --> hybridization --> shape --> molecular polarity)

Oh, and by the way, the solution sets for the remaining chapters are up on the course webpage.

Chemistry 2113 Open Forum for Asking Questions

Same idea as for the first year course. I will keep an eye on the blog. Put your questions in the comments section and I will see what I can do for answers.

Chemistry 1013 Open Forum Questions and Answers

If you have questions between now and the exam you are welcome to post them here in the comments section and when I check in I will do what I can to answer them. You have to knwo that if you have a question that about half the class have the same question but are afraid to ask so this is your chance to be the leader. If any of the other students think that hey have an answer to a posted question just step in and take a shot.

Friday Science Cartoon

As we approach the end of semester ...











Link to cartoon strip

Friday Science Quote

"For the love of God,
I can't cry.
I'm a scientist."

Ornithologist Melanie Driscoll’s response to seeing an
ivory billed woodpecker (thought to be extinct)
as reported in National Geographic Magazine, December 2006

Link to National Geographic Article