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OChemOnline (3 unread)

March 11, 2010
19:43
Sliding Down the Slippery Soap
» ‎ OChemOnline

Our fourth experiment of the year in introduction to organic chemistry was making soap. This is a fun and practical experiment that involves some good chemical principles. The students could vary the composition of their soap by mixing lard or vegetable shortening with olive, corn, or coconut oil. For each combination the appropriate amount of [...]
March 08, 2010
6:51
Know Your Unknowns
» ‎ OChemOnline

The third laboratory of the semester in introduction to organic chemistry lab, we did a simple liquid-liquid extraction that was basically a scaled down version of the lab that I have been doing in majors organic chemistry. The procedure separated a nonpolar compound (biphenyl or camphor) from an organic acid (benzoic or cinnamic acid). I [...]
February 27, 2010
19:24
Show Your True Colors
» ‎ OChemOnline

The second lab of the semester in Introduction to Organic Chemistry was an introduction to three types chromatography applied to the separation of plant pigments. Plant pigments are a great chromatography study because a variety of different plant sources can be used and compared. There are typically at least four or five pigments in all [...]
February 07, 2010
16:53
Getting Physical
» ‎ OChemOnline

Our first lab of the semester in “Introduction to Organic Chemistry” was a “physical properties” exploration activity. I incorporated some of the features that I like to include in experiments into this lab. The students were assigned either vanillin or camphor as their solid and limonene or ethyl lactate as their liquid. The four possible [...]
February 02, 2010
5:55
Model Students
» ‎ OChemOnline

This year I extended the molecular modeling activity that I do during the laboratory period the first week of class by adding two group “challenge” activities. The students worked together in groups of four to work out these questions once they had finished with the 15-question handout that focused on the constitutional isomers of glycine [...]
January 16, 2010
16:06
Structurally Sound
» ‎ OChemOnline

I am teaching “Introduction to Organic Chemistry” this semester. I have always struggled with how to present molecular structures to the class as the semester progresses. Molecular structures are so fundamental to organic chemistry, but we make things difficult for ourselves by using a wide variety of different molecular representational styles that follow different rules. [...]
January 02, 2010
15:52
Class Managment II
» ‎ OChemOnline

Once the ground rules have been laid out in the syllabus, it is up to the instructor to enforce them. Being “the enforcer” is often a struggle for me. I have had enough experience in class management to know that running a “tight ship” pays off well for almost everybody (students and faculty) in the [...]
December 28, 2009
20:31
Class Management I
» ‎ OChemOnline

Class management is the “teaching” side of science teaching that I often struggle with. I enjoy the science and I enjoy contact with students. If I didn’t like those, I wouldn’t have much of an excuse to do what I do. On the other hand, class management is something that I do reluctantly and without [...]
December 14, 2009
6:13
For the Love of Grades
» ‎ OChemOnline

I have developed an analogy that describes some of my feeling about assigning grades. When I was of dating age, I used to hear a lot about the different expectations of men and women in a dating relationship. Men desire physical intimacy, usually described as “sex.” Women desire emotional intimacy, usually described as “love.” The [...]
December 01, 2009
20:36
Lecture + Lab versus Lecture or Lab
» ‎ OChemOnline

We currently have a system where first semester organic chemistry lecture and laboratory is counted as one 5 credit course. The lab is considered to account for one of those five credits. As a result, the lab grade is worth 20% of the course grade. In many schools, organic chemistry lecture is a separate course [...]
November 21, 2009
11:58
Consumer Chemistry
» ‎ OChemOnline

“The customer is always right.” This must be a quote from a multi-billionaire retailer like Marshall Field. Not exactly words to live by for a college laboratory instructor, but something to contemplate. In college courses students ultimately play the role of consumer/customer. I am always amazed that college students, experienced education consumers for over a [...]
November 02, 2009
19:57
Anomalies or Inexactitudes?
» ‎ OChemOnline

The main reason we do concurrent laboratory sessions with our science courses is to reinforce the (largely theoretical) material presented in the lecture with hands-on observation-based laboratory experience. Truly, it is a delight to talk with authority about a reaction that I, myself have actually performed in lab. It is even more wonderful to talk [...]
October 18, 2009
19:30
MACTLAC 2009
» ‎ OChemOnline

The 2009 meeting of the Midwest Association for Chemistry Teachers at Liberal Arts Colleges (MACTLAC) was held at Hope College. The theme this year was “Integration of Research into Teaching: Improving Learning Through Research.” Plenary sessions were led by Lorna Jarvis (Hope), Nancy Kerner (U of MI), and Don Wink (UIC). Of most interest to [...]
October 07, 2009
6:19
The Prelab: A Mechanism for Student Feedback
» ‎ OChemOnline

Grading lab reports this week I was disconcerted that so many of the students had problems with the calculations required of the lab (EDTA Titration of Zinc Chloride). The lab manual gave a detailed example of the calculations and the prelab was almost entirely composed of step-by-step calculations that were completely analogous to those required [...]
September 21, 2009
20:07
A 3 Hour Experiment or 3 Hours of Scheduled Lab?
» ‎ OChemOnline

One questions most asked by students about Organic Chemistry lab is, “Will this take long?” Truthfully, I am always tempted to reply, “What does your schedule say?” I suspect that students ask this because they know that a science lab might be significantly shorter than the scheduled time. I take it as a personal challenge [...]
September 06, 2009
17:59
The Organic Chem Lab Survival Manual
» ‎ OChemOnline

“The Organic Chem Lab Survival Manual, A Student’s Guide to Techniques” by James W. Zubrick is now in its 7th edition (2007). Zubrick authors a 368 page paper back that covers most all of the basic laboratory techniques students learn in Sophomore Organic Chemistry. I have used it as a supplemental text in Organic Chemistry [...]
August 22, 2009
17:15
The Dynamic (Organic) Chemistry Laboratory Part II
» ‎ OChemOnline

4) Ongoing investigations replace repeated experiments. It has been customary to repeat the same student experiments year after year without any acknowledgment of past or future experience with the experiment. However, in the dynamic chemistry laboratory, experiments can be performed focusing on the same technique(s) but instead of simply repeating last year’s work the previous [...]
August 11, 2009
20:33
The Dynamic (Organic) Chemistry Laboratory Part I
» ‎ OChemOnline

1) Instead of one single experiment repeated by all the students, three or four different variations of the same experiment can be performed by different students during in the same lab. For example, the oxidation of cyclohexanol to cyclohexanone is expected to yield identical results for every student every year. However, the oxidation of 2, [...]
July 25, 2009
11:24
Student Comments Spring 2009
» ‎ OChemOnline

This week I read through the student comments for the Spring 2009 semester. I have just finished posting them on the OChemOnline wiki. It was fun to read how the personality of the students came out in their comments. Some are self-depreciating – “don’t do the same stupid thing I did.” Others are analytical – [...]
July 11, 2009
12:17
You Break It You Buy It
» ‎ OChemOnline

One of my summertime tasks is to purchase the consumables, equipment, and chemicals necessary for the next school year. We have not collected lab or breakage fees since I began working at Dominican. My impression is that it is common for schools to collect lab fees or at least require students to purchase glassware that [...]
June 27, 2009
17:53
Gallate Diesters
» ‎ OChemOnline

The products from the acid catalyzed Fischer esterification of gallic acid with isopropanol (see “Fantastic Fischer” April 25, 2009) was chromatographed to purify isopropyl gallate. In addition to isopropyl gallate, another chromatographic peak was observed. This peak was collected and the NMR performed. Interestingly, this spectrum displayed three aromatic hydrogen signals at 7.207 (d), 7.153 [...]
June 15, 2009
12:55
Sludge Test
» ‎ OChemOnline

I have continued to investigate the dehydration of methylcyclohexanols this summer. Just for fun, I have neutralized the “still pot” solution with sodium bicarbonate after the distillation has taken place. In theory, the still pot solution contains phosphoric acid, unreacted alcohol, and undistilled alkenes. After the acid catalyzed dehydration of a methylcyclohexanoel, the methy t-butylether [...]
May 30, 2009
19:24
Summer Undergraduate Research Experience
» ‎ OChemOnline

Last week Dominican University hosted a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience for community college sophomores who wanted a week-long assortment laboratory experiences. 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 6 [...]

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