I just have two classes this semester, my usual General Chemistry 1 and Physical Chemistry 1. Once again, I am teaching the Honors preceptorial, but with the smaller incoming class at my university (probably impacted by FAFSA woes), I only have fifteen new academic advisees instead of the usual twenty in my G-Chem 1 class. This morning, I recited all of their names correctly in class. Hooray! Like last year, I’m having each of them visit me during my drop-in (office) hours so I can learn a little more about each of them as individuals. I’m always delighted to get to know new students and they seem like a good bunch!
The one major change I’ve made to my G-Chem class is ditching the textbook. While I have chosen a decent online textbook as a reading reference that also has relevant practice exercises, I am supplementing the reading by providing Class Notes for every lecture. These do not recap the lecture in detail, but rather note the key concepts. Students still have to come to class to see the examples and engage with the explanations of the conceptual material. I will also continue to employ Study Guides. I’ve made some minor rearrangements in content. Nuclear chemistry has been moved back to early in the semester. I chopped up the standard chapter on liquids and will sprinkle it throughout the semester, and intermolecular forces has moved up earlier. I’m also making some minor moves in the chemical bonding section and stuff related to wave-particle duality. So there’s some amount of work on my part, but it’s not a major overhaul. The big question is whether the students are sufficiently prepared for the exam without the usual online auto-graded homework. First exam is at the end of the third week, so we’ll see.
I am not making many changes to P-Chem, just minor tweaks to most of the material with some minor rearrangements to the last two weeks where I go into different chemical bonding theories. Last year, I did expand Valence Bond Theory and I did culminate the class by examining why triplet molecular oxygen is such a strange molecule. But it didn’t feel as streamlined so I need to figure out how to do this better. I only have eight students, and I had five of them in G-Chem 1, G-Chem 2 or both. Most of them know each other, and that’s a good thing because I tell them that P-Chem is a team-sport. I’m encouraging them to work with each other on problem sets, visit me often to ask questions, and study together for exams.
On the first day of P-Chem, I couldn’t get through the material I had prepared. On the first day of G-Chem, I barely got through but rushed a little at the end. It could be that both classes were a little more interactive – perhaps students are more willing to speak up in smaller classes? But the other thing I’ve noticed over the years is that I tend to spend a little more time pontificating early-on about the nature of chemistry, science, and model-building to understand the natural world. I think this approach pays dividends later, or at least I hope so.
It was a busy week because in addition to a bunch of first-week administrative meetings, I also trained two new research students. Because of differing class schedules, I wasn’t able to train them together, but that’s okay. I did spend time last week putting together tutorials for the new research software we’ll be using. I think I did a relatively good job because there weren’t many typos and the two students (when asked) said they thought the guides were clear. I have two returning students (from summer research), one of whom has learned the new software and the other one will do so this afternoon. The semester will be less productive than the summer research-wise, but I’m looking forward to writing up the good work that my students did this past summer. I also have a potential new collaboration but I’ll need to delve in a little more to see if it will be a good fit.
Whew! It’s been a great first week. Tiring, but it’s so nice to feel the energy of being back on campus with students who are excited to embark on their first semester of college or coming back from the summer and reconnecting with their friends.
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