CH302 Random Musings February 28, 2008 (a brief one with a big one next week) 1. Quiz 3 results are in and the average was a 63%. This is actually better than I expected since this is notoriously the hardest quiz each year. I also noticed a considerable improvement in student attendance at office hours. Keep it up. 2. Quiz 4 is next week on the Thursday before Spring Break. Here are the question types: • sulfuric acid calculation • common ion solubility • selective precipitation • identifying error in A/B approximations • exact solution calculation for strong acid or base • mass or charge balance • setting up complex equilibria • LeChatelier and solubility of basic salts3. Today is the last day of chemical equilibria calculations. I know you will be pleased. 4. Extra Credit 1. To earn 1% of your course grade that you can add to your point totals for the semester, complete the assignment below and follow the specific instructions given. This EC can be used to calculate exemptions. Depending on your method of grading, 1% will be worth 7 points for exemption, 10 points for overall course grade or 3 points if the final counts for everything. Procedure: • Complete the assignment below. • Write it up (probably 100 words or so, but write as much as you want to tell the story. • Submit it to my e-mail address: [email protected] • IMPORTANT. You must title the extra credit: Spring break extra credit • (If you do not use this EXACT subject you will not be filtered into the file from which I assign extra credit.) • Due Date: Friday, March 28 a noon. I am going to be strict about the deadline this semester. You will receive an e-mail reminder over the break and one in the musings afterward. 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 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 make them say it even if they don’t mean it.). You can choose what you teach but I would recommend that it be something of interest and utility that you have learned from your experiences with chemical and physical equilibria this semester. 4. Public Service Announcements: • Explore UT. This weekend is UT’s annual open house. Hundreds of free activities, performances and demonstrations will allow visitors to unravel scientific mysteries, unleash creative energies and uncover the wealth of educational opportunity at the University. If by some chance you wake up on Saturday before nightfall, and wander across campus, you will find yourself in the middle of a million people exploring UT (hence the name.) Natural Sciences is well represented on Speedway in front of Welch Hall where even I will be, presenting multiple chemistry circuses starting at noon. The loud explosions you will hear across campus during that time will be me exploding stoichiometrically-mixed hydrogen balloons. Maybe I will wake you up early.• The Joint Admissions Medical Program (JAMP) was created by the Texas Legislature to provide services to support and encourage highly-qualified, economically-disadvantaged students pursing a medical education. WHAT YOU GET*: 1. Scholarship money while you finish your undergrad studies 2. Two Summer Internship experiences at a Texas Med School 3. A guaranteed spot in a Texas Med School (as long as program criteria are met) 4. Scholarship money for med school *Read more about the specifics on the official JAMP website: www.texasjamp.org TO QUALIFY TO APPLY, YOU MUST: 1. Have met or exceeded the current mean (for Texas) on your SAT or ACT 2. Have enrolled in college by the first fall semester following your high school graduation 3. Be a Texas resident 4. Have been eligible to receive a Pell Grant during your first year of college 5. Be currently enrolled full-time 6. Have completed 27 credit hours with a 3.25 GPA or higher during the fall and spring semesters of the first year (Only 3 hrs AP credit can be counted toward this total) 7. Submit the online application on the JAMP website: www.texasjamp.org Application Cycle: March 1, 2008 through October 1, 2008 For more information about upcoming application workshops, check out the JAMP section of the UT Health Professions Office website: http://cns.utexas.edu/hpo/jamp.asp 5. Poetry corner. Spring is here—I saw red buds in the redbuds. Rebirth and all, I should be happy but even rebirth reminds me that I am one spring season closer to death. To help spring along I am offering up a couple of poems about spring. One is by a favorite poet of mine, Gerard Manley Hopkins, (though this one is way too positive to be a personal favorite) and for the cynics in the world, spring from a slightly skewed perspective by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Spring --Gerard Manley Hopkins Nothing is so beautiful as spring-- When weed in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush; Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring The ear, it strikes like lightening to hear him sing; The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush The descending blue: that blue is all in a rush With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling What is all this juice and all this joy? A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning In Eden garden--Have, get, before it cloy, Before it cloud, Christ, lord and sour with sinning. Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy, Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning. Spring -- Edna St. Vincent Millay To what purpose, April, do you return again? Beauty is not enough, You can no longer quiet me with the redness Of little leaves opening stickily, I know what I know, The sun is hot on my neck as I observe The spikes of the crocus, The smell of earth is good, It is apparent that there is no death. But what does that signify? Not only underground are the brains of men Eaten by maggots, Life in itself Is nothing, An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. It is not enough that yearly, Down the hill, April, Come like an idiot, babbling and strewing
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