Comments for OChemOnline

Comment on Anomalies or Inexactitudes? by faith786

faith786 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:40:21 +0000

I remember you said this to me! I didn’t mess up last week’s H2O2 decomposition lab–the procedure did not take into account heat lost in an open system and that the ‘literature value’ didn’t state what temperature and pressure that was calculated in. (So would that fall under the ‘experimental methods’ or the ‘theories being over simplified’ category?)

But the fiasco with the percent recovery in the copper lab, yes that was all me. =)

Comment on Why do we repeat experiments? by Franky

Franky — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:00:07 +0000

Boiling point of liquid changes…

Comment on The Prelab: A Mechanism for Student Feedback by faith786

faith786 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:13:42 +0000

I totally agree–labs should be about interpreting data more than actually trying to figure out what the data is–the latter we do in class. But I think there is a deeper issue than students just not being able to ‘follow and repeat’ the experiment example in the pre-lab. Chemistry is different than math in that there are different approaches to understanding logic. Most of the people I met/still meet who struggle in chemistry don’t struggle in doing the math–they find it hard to connect the logic used in chemistry to what exactly they need to add/subtract/multiply etc.

For example, I know someone who knows how to write molecular formulas of compounds and balance equations. But she/he doesn’t understand how certain compounds behave with each other–like, carbon and hydrogen compounds always turn into H20 and CO2 when burned. So maybe people know how to calculate moles and grams, but maybe they can’t make the link between Zinc and EDTA. I don’t know–you graded the lab reports and you know better.=) But the people I met totally didn’t get the relationship of EDTA to Zn or how if you have too much Zn, you’ll get too little Cl and that tripped them up when trying to calculate the empirical formula. So it wasn’t an issue of ‘math logic’ but an issue of ‘chemistry logic.’ (Again, I could be COMPLETELY wrong–I just happened to get questions from at least six people for that lab and that is what I noticed….)

Comment on What I Learned This Semester by faith786

faith786 — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:15:15 +0000

Modifying labs each year is a GREAT idea! Not only does it help a teacher figure out what certain lab techniques students need more/less help with, but also to figure out what concepts students struggle with in the lab experiment. This post was really beneficial to me. Thanks!

What I learned from yesterday’s titration lab:
–Not having precise answers can help me learn that there are many different ways I can (and probably did) screw up in the experiment. =)

Comment on If you are not making mistakes, you are not learning by faith786

faith786 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:51:08 +0000

How about having a mini session with students that need help before lab? (Like, 20 minutes on a day before lab for students that need help learning how to use different instruments.)

This may help minimize accidents in lab and maybe students can yield better results with the practice they had ahead of time.

Comment on A 3 Hour Experiment or 3 Hours of Scheduled Lab? by faith786

faith786 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:19:24 +0000

I am not a careful student, but please don’t kick me out! I’ll do the dishes… AGAIN.

How about letting students finish at another time (i.e. maybe towards the evening or a Saturday morning?) If it is a bad timing for you, maybe you can get another professor or a TA to come look after the students. Or at least, students like me. =)

Comment on Experiential Experiments by Summer Undergraduate Research Experience « OChemOnline

Summer Undergraduate Research Experience « OChemOnline — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:13:56 +0000

[...] For my part, we did an analysis of energy drinks. This experiment was adapted from the “caffeine extraction” sophomore organic chemistry laboratory sequence. First, we did a colorimetric array for each of [...]

Comment on Summer Undergraduate Research Experience by Don Shelly

Don Shelly — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:09:17 +0000

Could you please send me a copy of your work. I am very interested in your SPE results, especially compounds seen in SPE extract and not in liquid-liquid extract.

Thanks.

Comment on I Corrected It Myself by Jean-Claude Bradley

Jean-Claude Bradley — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:50:23 +0000

My increasing organic chemistry class size several years ago is what got me motivated to get into WebCT and automated grading. Now my classes are ofter over 200 students and I am glad I made the shift. But a lab would be challenging to grade automatically.

Comment on Problematizing Reactions to Create Guided Inquiry Labs by asghari hassan

asghari hassan — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:40:41 +0000

hi
i am a student of organic chemistry in iran.