CH302 Random Musings February 16, 2006—the post V-Day special 1. The exam 1 scores are back. The average was a 79% and I am pretty pleased with class performance. Combined with your performance on the first two quiz scores, you all are shaping up to be a stellar class of students. Listed below is the exam distribution and a ball park idea of what grade you would get in this class if you continued the performance shown on the exam. The basis for this is that people usually score higher on the quizzes than the exams which tends to bump a person’s final grade a bit, especially if I assign extra credit. One possible concern you should have is that this will certainly be the material that is conceptually the easiest and with the least significant amount of problem solving. The exams on chemical equilibria and on kinetics and electrochemistry will likely be more challenging if history is any indication. exam range ballpark grade count % <80 F 10 3 90 - 100 D 18 3 100 - 110 C 40 8 110 - 120 C 20 4 120 - 130 C 58 12 130 - 140 B 80 16 140 - 150 B 44 9 150 - 160 B-A 88 18 160 - 170 A 80 16 170 - 180 A 34 8 180 A 10 2 2. In response to the hundred or so e-mails I received, I investigated and decided to alter the grading for three questions. Two questions were tossed because they covered material that I agreed had not yet been covered. One was the use of the Van’t Hoff factor in a colligative property question and the other was a rule about activity in equilibrium expressions that I had not yet taught. In addition there was a question that had two right answers and so I had to give credit for both. The changes have been made and the score you see on the HW Service should be the corrected one. 3. Some of you were concerned that you got one of the questions I killed correct and were not getting the same bump in grade. The answer is simple. I evaluate a question based on its appropriateness for a test--if it is inappropriate, I can’t use it and out it goes. If you happen to either be smart enough to know how to get the correct answer, or dumb enough to have to guess and get it right, it doesn’t alter the fact that the question was not appropriate for the exam and should not have been included in the assessment. 4. I have had several students e-mail to express their outrage that students continued to answer questions on the exam after they were told to stop. Unfortunately the number of proctors available to me this semester is way down and I don’t have the troops available to reign in the cheaters. But I will do everything I can to put a stop to it on the next exam. It is my intention to post someone with the sole responsibility of finding cheaters who work after the end of the exam and taking their scantrons from them. Those scantrons will be thrown in the garbage and you will come to my office to discuss your rather dim options. So show some respect for the educational process and don’t XXXXX where you eat. 5. I notice that quiz 3 is scheduled for one week from now. That is a typo. It was supposed to be two weeks from now on March 2 and so I am letting you know now of the change to the 2nd. If that change is going to inconvenience anyone because of prior plans, please let me know and I will make accommodations. Sorry for that. I know you are devastated about being able to delay cramming for quiz 3 by a week. 6. My office hours will be in my office until further notice (probably I’ll go back to the classrooms the week of quiz 3.)7. Now for the obligatory pleas not to let your learning in the class slide. Continue to use the help sessions and academic communities so you can start to really learn equilibria. 8. Worksheet 5 on equilibria will be posted this weekend. 9. Extra credit will be coming. A hint of what could be. Most years, when I believe a class is making the effort to succeed, I offer extra credit opportunities to boost the overall grades. Usually this amounts to giving about 30 extra points you can use any way you would like, through three 10-point assignments. Example of an extra credit assignment. During spring break I want you to teach a science-hater something interesting about chemistry that you have learned in this class. To get the 10 points, the person you teach has to say to you, “gee, I had no idea chemistry was that interesting” when you have finished. You can choose what you teach but I would recommend that it be something of utility, like the complications of cooking at high altitude if you happen to be skiing at spring break, or the value of adding salt to water to boil your pasta or why fish explode if you happen to be at the beach, or why South Park was wrong or why people use vinegar to dye Easter eggs if you happen to spend spring break with your kid sister, or why water doesn’t always have a pH of 7 or why it balls up on windshields if you get a part time job washing dishes or working in a car wash. It is your choice. More info to follow. 10. Getting an A in this class. Each of you is certainly smart enough to know the material and I would desperately love to see everyone in the class learn the material well enough to earn an A. I also firmly believe that the only thing standing between each of you and an A in this class is your effort and correct study habits. I can’t fix the effort, but I can offer suggestions on how to fix the study habits. If you want to talk about concerns with this class, or non-academic issues that are impacting you success in college, please come see me. Contact my assistant Judy at 471-6176 to make an appointment for us to meet, get to know each other, and discuss whatever is of interest or concern to you. 11. Public Service Announcement. The African Students Association is raising money for an orphanage in Zambia and they are trying to send as many children as they can to school. They will be accepting donations till the 24th of February when ASA weekend starts. People can also help by attending the banquet on Saturday, the 25th. They will also be having a talent show on the 24th and Battle of the Sexes events going on during the day of 25th with other schools and their African organizations. For more information, e-mail Christiana at [email protected]. 12. Poetry Corner. First a poem from someone last year who found out he had performed poorly on a test
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