Congratulations!  You’ve all made it to the end of the first week.  This is the first of a series of postings that will show up here on the Chemistry Information Site at the end of each week.  Here we’ll summarize what we did over the course of the week and I’ll give you some suggestions as to what you should be doing to prepare for the next week.

CHM 101

Like all the CHM classes, we spent a good portion of our first class period going over the various administrative things we needed to talk about to get the course started.  Then, we discussed the basic definition on chemistry and how to use the scientific method.  Since chemistry is a measurement-based science, we discussed units (mostly metric) and how to change back and forth between different units.  We also performed a classroom experiment on precision, and we’ll discuss the results of that experiment first thing on Monday.

Over the weekend, work on your first assignment (it’s due Monday morning) on unit conversions.  By this point, you should have read through chapters 1 and 2 in the textbook and started on the suggested problems from the study guides for these chapters.  If you’ve not done so yet, print out the first two study guides and this week’s notes and put them all in a binder for you to study with.

CHM 110 (01 and 02 – Monday/Wednesday sections)

Like all the CHM classes, we spent a good portion of our first class period going over the various administrative things we needed to talk about to get the course started.  Then, we discussed measurements and reviewed the metric system, along with several derived metric units that are useful for chemistry.  We discussed dimensional analysis – a method of problem-solving that’s particularly good for unit conversions.

Over the weekend, you should work on some of the practice sets and suggested problems from chapter 1.  By this point, you should have read through chapter 1 and be starting on chapter 2 in the textbook.  If you don’t have your book yet, use the supplemental notes (the first two headings cover the first two chapters in the book) to stay caught up with the material.  If you’ve not done so yet, print out the first two study guides and this week’s notes and put them all in a binder for you to study with.

CHM 110 (03 – Tuesday/Thursday sections)

Like all the CHM classes, we spent a good portion of our first class period going over the various administrative things we needed to talk about to get the course started.  Then, we discussed measurements and reviewed the metric system, along with several derived metric units that are useful for chemistry.  We discussed dimensional analysis – a method of problem-solving that’s particularly good for unit conversions.

Over the weekend, you should work on some of the practice sets and suggested problems from chapter 1.  By this point, you should have read through chapter 1 and be starting on chapter 2 in the textbook.  If you don’t have your book yet, use the supplemental notes (the first two headings cover the first two chapters in the book) to stay caught up with the material.  If you’ve not done so yet, print out the first two study guides and this week’s notes and put them all in a binder for you to study with.  And yes, for this week all the CHM 110 sections are at the same place.

If you have any comments or questions, please leave them as comments on this post.

I have posted final grades for CHM 110 (Summer 10 week) and CHM 111 (Summer 5 week).  You may get your grades from these places:

1. [Desire2Learn].  You can see individual test grades and your numeric average on Desire2Learn (D2L), as well as your latter grade.  Grades are available on D2L now. If you would like a copy of all of your lecture grades from the course as well as your numeric average, print from D2L now.  You will only have access to this semester’s grades on D2L for one more week – whether or not you are attending classes next term.
   
2. [WebAdvisor].  Webadvisor is your link to official FDTC data.  The grade on Webadvisor is your official grade, and will be the one recorded on your transcript.  WebAdvisor will only show your final letter grade, not your individual assignment grades or numeric average.  Grades will be available on WebAdvisor on Monday afternoon.

If you have any questions about your grade or if you wish to view your final (you don’t get to keep a copy of the final, sorry!), you may come by the office next week.  Please don’t call to ask about your grades, because I’m not allowed to discuss grades over the telephone!  You may e-mail me in Desire2Learn to ask about your grades, since Desire2Learn’s e-mail is a private messaging system which requires a password to log in.

A NOTE ON “EXTRA CREDIT”

Most of your regular tests this semester had more than 100 points on them.  These points were “extra credit”, as was the fact that your final exam could replace your lowest test score.  In lab, your lowest report grade was also dropped.  In other words, your reported grade in D2L already includes all the “extra credit” you will receive in this course.  Any requests for additional “extra credit” will be ignored.

A NOTE TO CHM 110 STUDENTS PLANNING TO TAKE CHM 111

If you’re a CHM 110 student who is planning on taking CHM 111 the next time it’s offered, don’t sell your textbook or lab manual!  We will be using the same materials for CHM 111 as we did for CHM 110.  The only additional thing you need to buy new for CHM 111 is a new lab notebook (same type as you bought for CHM 110).

FALL COLLEGE CHEMISTRY OPTIONS AT TECH

CHM 110: In the fall, we offer several sections of CHM 110 during our daytime 15 week session.

CHM 111:  We’re not currently offering CHM 111 in the fall semester.  It will be offered in the spring term during the regular daytime 15 week session.  It will also be offered in a five week session over the summer, as it was this year.

Now, it’s time to …

…enjoy the last few weeks of summer!

CHM 111 students: Your lab average, and your current (pre-final-exam) course average have been posted on D2L.