There will be a study session in my office from 9 to 11 on Monday morning to help prepare for the Tuesday exam. Please let me know if you plan to attend.

Sulfur mining:

http://www.usmra.com/repository/category/mining/wallpaper/sulfur-source-aprw33-xl.jpg

more links about sulfur:

http://tinyurl.com/5rejntz
http://elitistreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/27/opus-number-1111-three-cheers-for-sulfur-in-wine/sulfurvent.jpg
http://jackandjilltravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/DSCN3657-1.jpg

http://www.h2so4today.com/resources/pdf/FallWinter2010.pdf

So after looking at all these links, what color is sulfur?

ans: yellow

One of my Chem 201 students sent me this link -

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/business/energy-environment/simbol-materials-plans-to-extract-lithium-from-geothermal-plants.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper

and I am very excited for two reasons:

First, the student who sent the link was very pleased to be able to understand a bit about this article and that made me very happy.

Second, this is such an interesting topic – follow the lithium and look for some amazing changes in our society…

Please read it if you have a minute.

This practice exam is representative of the number and types of questions that will be on the first exam. It is not an exact replica. There may be types of questions on the exam that are not shown here. The exam will be 25 multiple choice questions. The exam covers Chapter 16, 17, 18 and Chapter 19 sections 19.1 and 19.2 only. There will be approximately 6 questions from each chapter.

Here is a direct link: http://justonly.com/chemistry/chem203/students/exams/practice_exam_one.pdf

While I am one of the first people to say how much I dislike cell phones in the classroom – ringing, singing and beeping at the wrong moment, calling my students like a siren out into the hallways and disrupting class – here is one student who has found an excellent use for her cell phone camera – she is documenting events in the laboratory.

I’ve had to make some adjustments in the syllabus because we’ve spent a lot of class time working out problems. This is actually good – as I think it is helping all of you but because we’ve fallen behind my original schedule I’ve rearranged some topics and moved the second exam back by a week. Here is the link to the new syllabus:

http://justonly.com/chemistry/chem203/syllabus.php

A student just shared this resource with me. It is called NBC Learn and consists of videos and other artifacts all about chemistry. Check it out!

http://www.nbclearn.com/chemistrynow

This session will focus on solving kinetics and equilibrium problems from my PCAT and MCAT test preparation books. All are welcome.

The session will be held from 12:40 to 1:50 on Tuesday September 20th in my office. Bring a lunch with you if you need to eat. I will have to end the session promptly because I have to attend a Department Chair’s meeting at 2:00 pm.

My office can accomodate about seven students. Let me know if you will attend. If the number becomes larger than seven I will need to find a bigger space.

I’ve updated the laboratory: Le Châtelier’s Principle. Please download a new copy. It is the same laboratory and the same procedure but some small errors have been corrected. The changes will not affect any preparation you may have already done in your laboratory notebook. There is no prelab for this laboratory.

I once had a link to this film and then it was removed. Thanks to a recommendation from one of my students here it is again:

http://www.powersof10.com/film

If you haven’t seen it before I recommend it!

The new “Gilbert” Chemistry textbook we are using in Chemistry 201 has a feature they call Chem Tours – short animated lessons that are freely available on the web. Here is a direct link to the Chem Tours on Kinetics:

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/chemistry/chemistry3/ch/15/chemtours.aspx

You may find these useful.

Per the IUPAC definition we will assume in this class that if you are asked the reaction rate of a reaction you will express that rate using the inverse of the coefficients in the balanced reaction. Here is the reference:

http://goldbook.iupac.org/R05156.html

Therefore the practice question today that used equation 16.1 in your textbook will not appear on any of my quizzes or tests.

Here is a link to a very straightforward explanation of how integrated rate laws are derived. It uses calculus and may not make much sense if you’ve never learned this kind of mathematics but for those of you who have it provides some nice insight into how we arrive at these integrated rate laws. For those of you who haven’t had calculus this lecture is still a nice summary of the two forms of the three main rate laws: zero, first and second order.

http://www.chem.tamu.edu/rgroup/hughbanks/courses/102H/lecturenotes/class12-2.pdf

Everyone must be able to recognize the linear equation y=mx + b so that you will be able to make a connection between the rate law and the kind of graph it produces.

This week the course has been introduces and we’ve started to learn about kinetics. Here are a few links to browse:

The article that was mentioned today about a new Nickel catalyst is available for you to read.

This is a wonderful video demonstrating a very dramatic clock reaction.

Have a lovely weekend and study hard!

Women Chemists in the National Inventors Hall of Fame

Dear Students:

The Council on Undergraduate Research hosts a Registry of Undergraduate Researchers.  The purpose of this registry is to facilitate matchmaking between undergraduates who have research experience and a desire to pursue an advanced degree, with graduate schools seeking high quality students who are well prepared for research.  The Registry is open to students and graduate schools in the fields of Anthropology/Archaeology, Arts/Humanities, Biology/Biochemistry, Business, Chemistry/Biochemistry, Economics, Education, Engineering, English and Linguistics, Environmental Studies, Geosciences, Health Professions, History, Journalism and Communications, Mathematics/Computer Science, Physics/ Astronomy, Political Science, Psychology, Social Work and Sociology.

Any undergraduate may go to www.cur.org/ugreg/ to fill out a simple curriculum vitae form.  There is no charge to the student and records will be made available to bona fide Graduate Schools that contract with CUR for this service.  Organizations or companies seeking the students’ information for other marketing purposes will not be granted access.  Graduate School representatives may contact students to invite applications or visits to the campus and laboratory, or to share information about their research programs and financial support opportunities.

Graduate schools may provide a link to their websites, and may provide a short description of opportunities, such as research fields and fellowships. It will also be possible for institutions to place an ad on the database website if the content is related to the mission of CUR and the Undergraduate Registry.

For graduate schools that wish to review the student information, there is an access fee of $1,500 for the entire database, or $300 for one specific discipline.  Again, there is no cost to you as a student to create a profile.

We hope that students who are currently in their junior year will register now, but anyone with undergraduate research experience may register at any time.  You will be able to update your listing as appropriate, to include any summer research experience or information about Senior Theses and test scores.  We also welcome submissions by students who are engaged in Masters’ Degree programs now but who plan on going on to a PhD program. Just fill out the information on the form including the date you intend to enter a PhD program and your date of completion of your undergraduate degree.  Upload a link to your CV that contains complete information about your MS/MA degree activity (school, subject, thesis topic (if applicable), and advisor).

CUR believes that this service will be a great benefit for both students and graduate schools by narrowing the search for the right match.  So if you are interested in graduate school, please take a moment to register now.  Be sure to include a statement of your research interests, as this will be important for making the match.

Please feel free to contact me, should you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Robin Howard
Senior Director, Membership Services
Council on Undergraduate Research
734 15th St NW
Suite 550
(202) 783-4810×203
(202) 783-4811 fax
robin@cur.org