CHEM: Day 5 - Homework

A lot going on today.

This week you will have homework due on your lab day. I want you to have as much practice with the material today before your test on Friday. This means that you will have two assignments due on lab day - the homework assignments and the Pre-Lab questions. I'll try not to have this happen often, but this time around I think it's necessary.

So,
Homework tonight for everybody:
1) M p 9: 1 (sig figs only - don't tell me about uncertainty); M p 14: 2
2) Sig Figs Practice Sheet I
Do both assignments in your duplicate book. You should do them on the same sheet.

For next class:
1) Read pp 70 - 75
2) Read M pp 7 - 9

For lab:
1) Read Exp 1 - be prepared!
2) Answer Exp 1 Pre-Lab Questions in duplicate book and turn in at start of lab (with other homework)
3) Don't forget your Lab Contract! You can't do lab without it!

First Exam Friday.

Get to it!

No comments. Grr.

Apparently you can't turn on comments for one post. I have to turn them on for all posts and then turn them off for every OTHER post, or not turn them on at all. SO no comments for the bookmarks post. You'll just have to tell me tomorrow whatever your other ideas are.

Annoying, but that's what we got.

Textbooks and bookmarks online

If you want to access your textbook online, you'll have to keep a bookmark somewhere you can always access it. You'll also need to keep the passcode somewhere so that you can access the book.

If you're just going to be using the online textbook at school, you can make a bookmark and save it either in your network storage file or as a shortcut in FirstClass. Once you navigate your way to the textbook site, you can save the bookmark to the desktop and copy it over. The Files folder in FirstClass is persistent and you can keep a file there for pretty much ever. However, the bookmark will not store any cookie information the site uses to allow you access to the online textbook. I recommend changing the name of the bookmark to something like "Chem Book KFJHLKEWGWG" where the crazy characters at the end are the textbook access code. Then you can type it in anytime you need to.

Another good and more robust solution is to use an online bookmark manager. There are lots of sites that will keep a list of bookmarks for you in an account, so that you can access them at will. I've used a few. The best one I have found does a little more than that. It's called Xmarks.

Xmarks is a bookmark synchronizer with online access. You can use Xmarks with Internet <strike>Exploder</strike> Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. You set up a free account the first time you load the extension/add-on, with your e-mail address. You can pick a username if you'd like. Xmarks will copy all of your bookmarks to your account on their site. From there, you have lots of options.

If you have more than one computer like I do, you can install Xmarks on every one, for whatever browser(s) you use (and I use all three, depending on what I'm doing). Xmarks will keep your bookmarks synchronized across all of your computers, for all of your browsers, automatically. You do have to open the browsers to engage the synch, but that's easy. (Be advised that when Xmarks is running, unless you have a speed beast of a computer, your browser may lag or freeze up while Xmarks is doing its thing. It's more of a problem when you have lots of bookmarks like I do.) This won't work with your school account, since any bookmark information is stored on the machine you're using and not in your account info on the server (as far as I know).

You can also sign in to the Xmarks site and access your bookmark list from anywhere. Again if you rename the bookmark for the textbook site with the access code in the title, you're all set.

So those are my ideas for you. I'll give you the textbook access code Tuesday or Wednesday. (Tomorrow is a very busy day classwise.) If you have another idea, post it in the comments here. I'll go turn them on in a minute.

See you tomorrow.

Weekend Pic

Now that takes some skill.

CHEM: Online textbook success!

It looks like I have the access code for the online text version of your book. I'm not going to post it here, but I'll give it to you Monday or Tuesday.

Now if you leave your book at home you'll be able to read and work on your questions at school, at any terminal. I have an idea on how to make that possible without having the code in your pocket to type in every time. Give me a day or two to work on that.

There will have to be some guidelines if we want to keep this service open. You will not be able to trade the code around or pass it along to your friends. If the publisher thinks that we are accessing this too often or from too many computers, they will more than likely pull the code and get torqued at me and at the school through me. I don't want that.

Still - I have the code!



I AM INVEENCIBLE!

See you Monday (unless I come up with something else).

CHEM: Link of the day

A Venn diagram of mythical creatures. Brilliant.

I like the dog intersections on the right. Took me a second to figure that out.

CHEM: Day 4 - Homework

I am so not a morning person.

Homework for Monday - same assignment for all of you:

1) Read pp 47-53
2) Read Appendix C in your lab manual
3) Dimensional Analysis Worksheet
4) ?s - p 62: 64, 67, 76, 82
Write up 3 and 4 as one assignment. This assignment must be done in your duplicate book.
5) Buy your materials!
6) I need your Safety Contract by lab day next week, at the latest.
7) Bring me a shoebox by September 15 (3/46)

CHEM: Link of the day

This is pretty cool. Scientists at the IBM Research facility in Zurich, Switzerland have made the first image of a molecule at the atomic scale.

Read about it here if you're curious. There's a picture too.

(h/t Iron Hayden)

CHEM: Day 3 - Homework

Happy happy joy joy!

1) Read pp 17-21, pp 32-46 (most of this is review, except for the last section)
2) ?s - pp 26-27: 40, 41, 44, 46
p 62: 66, 67

Show your work on the last two problems.

This assignment will be the same for everybody, since you all have class tomorrow.

CHEM: Printing tip

In some cases you will want to print part of a webpage and not the whole thing. Sometimes a page will print frame-by-frame, and each part - header, text/body, ads, sidebar, etc - will all print on separate pages. Or a particular blog post is three lines, but the sidebar is two pages long and you have to print all of it. This is both wasteful of paper and annoying.

If you want to print only a section of a page, like a paragraph or two, there are a few ways to do it.

1) You can highlight the text on the page you want to print, choose File --> Print from the menu, and check the box or button marked "Selection." Only what you have highlighted will be printed. This works in both Firefox and Internet Exploder Explorer.

2) For most blogs there is a separate link for each post, so that you can bring up a post by itself (or link back to the post and not the whole page). For this blog the permalink is clickable at the title of the post and at the timestamp at the bottom of each post. You can click that and print only one post, but the sidebar will print as well.

3) The copy-and-paste method. Durr.

Be frugal with your paper, eh?

CHEM: Day 2 Homework

One down, a bunch to go.

Ongoing assignments:
1) Buy your gear! Look at your Day 1 Sheet for the list.
2) After your safety orientation, have your parents read your Survival Guide, especially the parts on safety and grading, and you and one parent need to sign both copies of your Safety Contract. Also sign the no-cheating pledge. This contract must be turned in no later than your first lab (next week), or you will not be able to do the lab with everybody else.
3) Bring in a shoebox by September 15th.

Period 3:
You have lab tomorrow.
1) Read Appendix A in the lab book. Bring your lab book to class. You'll be taking some notes too, so bring something to write with and on.
2) Bring your gear if you have it.

For periods 1, 4, and 8: Same as the assignment on the board from yesterday/below.
1) Read pp 3-16 in text
2) ?s - p 26: 28, 30, 32, 34, 38, 39
3) Read Appendix C in your lab manual

That should do it.

CHEM: Online Resources

I told all of you that you could leave your textbooks at home. It did not occur to me  at the time that some of you might like to read and work on your homework at school, considering how many of you have class in the morning and maybe some free time in the afternoon.

I am in the process of registering with the publisher's Web site. There are some online resources there you might find of use. Right now you can get to the pages with some extra reading and online quizzes for review, but it looks like the real prize, after they verify I'm teaching out of the book, is an online version of the whole textbook. I hope that's what it is, because that would be sweet. For you and me both.

I'll have instructions in the next couple of days for you, including links.

CHEM: Day 1 - HW

Woo woo! Stuff to do!

HW:
If you have class tomorrow -
1) Read pp 3-16 in text
2) ?s - p 26: 28, 30, 32, 34, 38, 39
3) Read Appendix C in your lab manual

If you have lab tomorrow -
1) Read Appendix A in your lab manual
2) Buy your goggles and glove bag from the Student Store,
     and bring them to lab with you
3) Do the above homework for your next class

For everybody -
1) Buy your stuff! You need to have your class materials no later than Friday afternoon.
     Your first homework assignment due in the duplicate book will be for Monday.
2) Buy your lab gear as well. If you don't have it this week, that's acceptable, but you
     must have your goggles and gloves by lab day next week.
3) You must also have your Contracts signed and turned in by lab day next week.
     Otherwise you will not be allowed to do the lab, and you will have to come in
     after school and make it up on your own time.
4) Everyone must bring in a shoebox by September 15th - the fewer holes in it, the better.

Lots to do in the first week. Things will calm down soon.

First exam - next Friday, September 4.

CHEM: Day 1 - And So It Begins

Well, here we go.

I played around with a blog last year, and had some success, but I started in the middle of the year. This time I'll start out with this and see where it goes.

This space will serve as an archive of assignments, links to class stuff (and the occasional interesting link), some papers, and whatever I can find to help you with your studies. The school website will always have the major assignments, but the daily/weekly work will be here. The Blogger interface is less constricting and, as this foray into the Internet expands, let me do more.

Watch this space. Make suggestions. Let's see what happens.

CS