Chapter 9 Mastering Chemistry

[Krysta Cirilo]

Chemistrycourses are notorious for a lot of reading and re-reading to fully grasp a subject. If you have a textbook, identify the chapters you have to cover and the time available until your next quiz or lecture. For example, if you have to study three chapters in the next two days and each chapter is two hours, finish the first two chapters today and save yourself the last chapter for tomorrow. Whatever the length of reading or studying, make notes so you can track your progress. Stay organized with a calendar or planner so you can better plan out your course.

Support your studying with healthy habits. Try your best to get good night sleeps during the week. Most research recommends at least seven to eight hours for young adults. You need to sleep to process new information and maintain concentration in class for lectures and tests. Try to eat nutritious food and go for a walk or exercise during breaks. The important thing is to change gears from time to time and get your mind off of chemistry.

In less than two weeks, another new school year will be upon us. I was reminded recently, maybe shocked, to be honest, that I need to write an update because new students read my blog! How awesome is that?!?!

So the for the coming year, all classes will have three midterm exams. There is a nice breakdown in midterm 1 covering chapters 1-3, midterm 2 covering chapters 4-6, and midterm 3 covering chapters 7-9. The final exam will be the only cumulative exam and it will cover chapters 1-12.

My recitations are also changing to feature quizzes as the primary mode of instruction, through a short quiz first followed by a group quiz afterwards. These quizzes hopefully give students one more way to get some feedback on their learning and another opportunity for peer instruction. There is also a grade for just participating so hopefully even students who may come in struggling can learn from their mistakes and still receive a fair grade.

Goal 1: Make sure you understand the sample exercise problems from the sections covered in the past week. So this would be all of the chapter 1 sample exercises. If you are stuck on these, use those examples to help guide some reading of the chapter so you can understand those problems. Keep your focus on understanding, not necessarily memorizing.

Goal 2: Be able to solve the practice exercise problems. Most sample exercises in the 13th edition text are followed up with two questions, one is multiple choice and the other is short answer. The short answer questions are all answered in the back of the book. I will work on posting answers on Carmen to the multiple choice problems next week and I will get those up sooner for all other covered chapters so you can check those answers if you wish.

Goal 3: Be able to solve most of the problems from the end-of-chapter problems. I would focus most of your attention on the items highlighted in lecture, so for chapter 1 that would be sig figs, unit conversions, and dimensional analysis. If you get stuck on a problem, use that to either go re-read something if the issue seems to be understanding the content or try a simpler problem if you are stuck on applying what you know.

Since most of you have had some high school chemistry, I think doing a light skimming and then trying goal 3 is a great way to see how much work you truly need to do in a particular chapter. Just remember, all of the covered content from a chapter and just about any kind of question that can be answered using that info will be fair game for exams in the course.

One last reminder is to spend a few moments skimming and looking at topics in chapter 2. Chapter 2 starts off with some historical aspects of how modern atomic theory was developed. I think we all know that modern atomic theory is that atoms are arranged where each atom contains a positively charged nucleus containing protons and neutrons with very light, negatively-charged electrons spinning around the nucleus in what is described as electron clouds. We then move on to isotopes, atomic weights, the periodic table, and molecules/compounds. We finish the chapter with an introduction to several different types of compounds and systematic ways name them through nomenclature rules. We will begin chapter 2 following a couple sig fig examples Monday morning.

A reminder for the upcoming week: The first homework assignment required for credit will open Monday at about 9:00 am and it you must complete the assignment by 11:55 pm this Thursday evening. Keep in mind you only get 2 hours to complete the assignment and the timer begins the moment you start the assignment (and the timer continues even if you log out of Sapling). Make sure your browser works (especially for Safari and IE users) before hand. Recitations this week will discuss topics from chapter 1, so you might benefit from seeing recitation this week prior to do the assignment. The first assignment covers chapter 1 and you can see the HW schedule in the study guide post or on Carmen under pages. You also have your first pre-lab due this week before you go to your lab this week. Make sure you are all set on the lab policies. Email your lab TA and/or visit the Learning Resource Center in CE170 for help if needed. Finally, make sure you complete the Carmen quizzes on academic misconduct and lab safety by their deadlines.

So we are close to our first lecture! You can look up the lecture schedule in the blog post on study habits or under Pages in Carmen. The reading sections listed for tomorrow are sections 1.1-1.5. I recommend skimming the covered section prior to each lecture. Look at the vocabulary words, check out some of the figures, and try the sample exercises in the section. After class or whenever you are ready, you can more thoroughly read the sections and try the practice exercise. As needed, work more end-of-chapter problems with the goal of being able to solve about 90% of those types of problems the first time you try them without any outside resources other than a periodic table and the small amount of information you get for exams (this info is posted on the study habit blog).

Elements, atoms, compounds, molecules, dimensional analysis, significant figures, nuclear atom, proton, neutron, electron, atomic weight, molecular weight, the mole, atomic mass unit scale, chemical reactions, balancing reactions, stoichiometry, limiting vs. excess reactants, percent yield, aqueous reactions, acids and bases, acid-base reactions, oxidation vs. reduction, redox reactions, heat capacity, enthalpy changes of reaction, electron configurations, periodic trends, ionization energy, electron affinity, atomic and ionic radii, Lewis structures, electronegativity, bond polarity, covalent vs. ionic bonding, molecular shape, molecular polarity, ideal gas law, intermolecular forces, dispersion forces, dipole-dipole forces, hydrogen bonding.

The more of these words you recognize, obviously the better! All of these terms though are defined within our textbook and we will discuss and use these terms often in class. You can often go more deep into a topic and understand it better the second or third time you see it, so hopefully seeing this list and thinking about these words is a good chance to maybe give a second chance of thinking about these terms and our lectures will be yet another opportunity.

My recommendation to those who have heard very few of these terms or have very little memory of these topics is to make sure to read ahead of topics to be discussed in lecture (see the lecture schedule posted on Carmen), make sure to come to every lecture, and frequently re-read the sections covered and work as many problems as it takes to understand them.

Carmen will open later today at around 1:30 pm. Once you are in Carmen, you might want to start clicking every single link, but be cautious! Do not start any lab assignment like pre or post lab assignments. These are timed, one-chance only assignments!

It is imperative to employ strong study habits to succeed in this course. Anyone wishing to earn a grade of A or A- must strive to score 90% or better on average on all assignments and exams in the course. Homework strategies are obviously incredibly important towards achieving this goal.

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