CHEM 233 Midterm Exam

Reminder: The CHEM 233 midterm exam (for all sections) is on Thursday, October 14 at 6:00 p.m. in room 250 SES.  Please arrive 10 minutes early to find your seat; a seating chart will be distributed that night.  Sample exams have been posted on the course website; however, I strongly encourage you to review the prelab lecture slides and the homework questions as well.  A makeup exam has been scheduled for Thursday, October 12 at 8:00 a.m. for students showing proof of enrollment in another course that meets during the exam. To arrange a makeup exam, please send me an e-mail no later than Tuesday, October 12 at 4:00 p.m.  You will be required to show proof of enrollment (e.g., a printed UIC schedule) before taking the makeup exam. 

Phew! Exam 1 Graded!

Give a big round of applause to your TA.  They worked well into the night to grade your exams so that you could check your scores this week on Blackboard and end your suffering.  Overall, I was very pleased with the results.  We had a record number of As (20%), which was more than the number of Bs (15%)--an unusual, but pleasant circumstance.  For many of you, your hard work has paid off.  Congratulations!  If you are disappointed with your score or frustrated with your progress, don't despair yet.  Get help as soon as you can. Stop by my office or visit a tutor in the SLC .  There is plenty of time to make major improvements since we have completed only 36% percent of the course.  For more statistics, including the exam curve and distribution, visit the Grades Fall 2010 page on the course website.

Look over your exam very carefully next week.  If you believe that there are grading or adding errors, follow the instructions in the document exam_corrections.pdf, which can be found on the File Sharing page of the course website.  You must submit your exam within two weeks of the date the exam was given in order to have it reviewed for errors. Your TA will return the exams during discussion section next week.  They will not return the exams before that time, so please don't ask.

Review Session and Sample Exam

A sample exam has been posted on the course website's File Sharing page.  Do not rely solely on the sample exam as your source of practice.  Also review OWL homework, quiz questions, and the end-of-chapter problems in the textbook.

A review session will be held on Thursday, September 16 at 6:00 p.m. in room 130 SES.  It will be primarily student-driven and not formally structured.  Plan ahead so that you are able to bring specific problems that you would like to work on to the review session (e.g., print OWL questions, end-of-chapter questions, quiz material, sample exam material).  You and your colleagues will work on these together in front of the group at the whiteboard.  The class and myself will help and discuss the problem you and your colleagues are presenting.  I will not be lecturing or working out the problems for the class.  I am only there to guide your work and assist in the general discussion of the group.  I will not answer any questions pertaining to the content of the exam itself.

SLC Tutors

Tutors are available every week in the Science and Learning Center (201 SES) to assist students with general chemistry and organic chemistry.  Download the schedule of tutors here.

Take-Home Quiz 3 Posted

Quiz 3 is a take-home quiz and has been posted on the File Sharing page of the course website as well as in the Blackboard Course Documents.  Print the quiz, complete and turn in during your discussion section the week of September 13.  The quiz must be turned in personally to your TA during discussion section.  It will not be accepted late or outside of your discussion section.

OWL #1 & #2 Extension

As many of you have noticed, the OWL system is down.  Therefore, I will extend the deadline for both Assignment #1 and Assignment #2 to Wednesday, September 8 at 11:59 p.m. as soon as I am able to log on to the system myself.  Hopefully everything will be back online soon.

Also, because of the Labor Day weekend I've decided to make Quiz #3 a take-home quiz that will be due next week during your discussion section.  I'm working on it now and more details will follow shortly. 

Newest mascot suggestion: Bond, Double Bond.  Any others? :)

Have a great weekend.

Chad

SLC Study Groups

There is a fantastic opportunity to sign up for semester-long organic chemistry study groups in the Science and Learning Center (SLC; 201 SES).  These groups will meet every week all semester and are peer-led by highly qualified CHEM 232 students.  There are a limited number of positions available and the deadline for signing up is this Friday, September 3 at 3:00 p.m.  For more information, download the document SLC_orgostudygroup.pdf from the Blackboard Course Documents menu or from the course website File Sharing page.  If you have questions, contact Kevin Sullivan (ksulliv2@uic.edu).

OWL Assignment Extension & Lecture Notes Addition

I have extended the OWL deadline for the first assignment to Sunday, September 5 at 11:59 p.m.  OWL assignment two is still also due on Sunday, September 5 at 11:59 p.m.  This is a longer assignment.  Be sure to start well in advance so that you have plenty of time and can reflect on the questions carefully.  Also, I was unable to present my last slides during lecture today on naming cycloalkanes.  These have been posted with lecture 3 on the course website.  You are responsible for learning the material in these slides on your own since they will not be presented during the next lecture.

CHEM 232 Fall 2010: To-Do List, Syllabus and Course Info

Welcome to CHEM 232: Organic Chemistry Lecture I

As we approach the start of the Fall 2010 semester, I want to welcome you to the course and also to give you a list of tasks that should be completed before the first lecture so that you are adequately prepared and do not fall behind.  One of the most important skills required for success in a large university lecture course is your ability to seek out and follow directions carefully and to keep up with the workload.  I encourage you to read all of the resources on the course website as well as on Blackboard that are discussed in the to-do list below.  If you have any questions, my door--and e-mail inbox--are already open and waiting to assist you.  I look forward to sharing my passion for the exciting world of organic chemistry with you.  This semester I aim not only to teach you the chemistry content that you require for your academic endeavors, but also to train you in the type of analytical thinking that is required for solving scientific problems in the professional field to which you aspire.  While you may not want to be an organic chemist, the learning process in this course involves many general skills that  you will undoubtedly employ in your future careers.

Cheers,

Dr. Chad Landrie

To Do List:

1.  Become acquainted with the resources available on Blackboard and on the course website ( www.chadlandrie.com).

2.  Carefully read the document Organic Chemistry I (CHEM 232): Syllabus & Course Information, which may be downloaded from the course website's File Sharing page (gettingstarted_232F10_b.pdf).  This document will not be distributed during the lecture or your discussion section.

3.  Purchase the required text and materials for the course including the textbook, i>clicker and OWL registration code.  The textbook and i>clicker are available at the UIC bookstore.  The OWL registration code must be purchased online.

 4.  Register your OWL code online according to the instructions in the getting started guide or on the course website's OWL page.

5. Register your i>clicker online according to the instructions in the getting started guide or on the course website's i>clicker page.

6.  Read Chapter One in the Carey textbook.  All of the material in this chapter should be a review from your general chemistry courses.  We will cover this chapter very quickly during the first two lectures.  If you're a bit rusty on some topics and need a more thorough review than is presented in Chapter One of our text, you may want to view some of my past general chemsitry lectures.

7.  Attend your first discussion section.  There will be a quiz during the first discussion.  The quiz will cover the material in chapter one.

8.  Begin working on your first OWL assignment.  The first assignment is due on Sunday, August 29 at 11:59 PM.

CHEM 233 To-Do List, Course Info & Syllabus

Welcome to CHEM 233: Organic Chemistry Laboratory I

As we approach the start of the Fall 2010 semester, I want to welcome you to the course and also to give you a list of tasks that should be completed in the coming weeks.  Most of these should be completed before the first lab session so that you are adequately prepared and do not fall behind.  One of the most important skills required for success in a large university laboratory course, is your ability to seek out and follow directions carefully.  I encourage you to read all of the resources on the course website as well as on Blackboard that are discussed in the to-do list below.  If you have any questions, my door--and e-mail inbox--are already open and waiting to assist you.  I look forward to sharing my passion for the exciting world of organic chemistry with you.  This semester I aim not only to teach you the chemistry content and laboratory techniques that you require for your academic endeavors, but also to train you in the type of analytical thinking that is required for solving problems in a laboratory setting as well as the professional field to which you aspire.  While you may not want to be an organic chemist, the practical application of technical knowledge in a laboratory setting involves many general skills that  you will undoubtedly employ in your future careers.  

Cheers,

Dr. Chad Landrie

To Do List:

1.  Become acquainted with the resources available on Blackboard and on the course website ( www.chadlandrie.com).

2.  Purchase the required texts and materials for the course including the lab notebook, textbook and goggles.  All of these items are available at the UIC bookstore.  The lab manual will be distributed during the first laboratory sesssion.

3.  Carefully read the course syllabus.  The syllabus can be found in the lab manual, which will be distributed during the first laboratory session, or downloaded from the CHEM 233 File Sharing page on the course website.

4.  Review the principles of infrared spectroscopy as well as the common functional groups in organic chemistry.  During your first laboratory session, you will complete an activity titled Infrared Spectroscopy Primer (also in the lab manual) designed to review the principles of infrared spectroscopy and to demonstrate how this technique is used to identify functional groups in organic molecules.  If you are currently enrolled in CHEM 232, and have not encountered this analytical technique yet, you may want to begin working on the IR Primer as well as the pertinent sections in your lecture textbook before your lab.  You may also want to look over lecture slides from my CHEM 232 course on infrared spectroscopy.  The IR Primer activity will not be collected or graded (a pre-lab notebook entry is not required); it's sole function is to provide you with the information you need for the first laboratory experiment the following session.  Be sure to ask your TA plenty of questions so that you get the information you need.  During the following lab session, you will learn how to collect IR spectra on one of our two infrared spectrometers.  You will then use this technique on that day to identify unknown organic compounds.

Details for the Final Exam, Lab Practical and Laboratory Notebook

The CHEM 233 final exam is on Thursday, August 5 in Lecture Center A1 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. For more details, including a list of final exam topics, download the document finalexaminfo_SU10.pdf from the File Sharing page. This document also contains additional details for the laboratory notebook and upcoming lab practical exam.

Midterm Exam Corrections and Stats

The midterm exams have been graded; your TA will return them in class this week or next.  You may also view your score on Blackboard.  The exam curve and and distribution can be found on the course website Grades Summer 2010 page.  If you believe there are grading errors on your exam, follow the instructions in in the course manual for submitting your exam for review. Be sure to review your exam carefully now.  The deadline for submitting your exam for review is July 26.  Cheers, Chad

Midterm Exam

Reminder: The CHEM 233 midterm exam is on Monday, July 12 at 6:00 p.m. in room 250 BSB (not SES).  Please arrive 10 minutes early so that you can find your seat according to the seating chart that will be passed out that night.  The midterm will cover the material in labs 1-6.  You may download practice exams from the course website.

Consolidate All Your Webservers with Cyberduck

Disclaimer:  Mac Geeks Only!

I work with several remote servers during the semester.  These include tigger and iccarus accounts (UIC) that host my websites, a Blackboard webdisk, two servers for NMR data at UIC, my MobileMe iDisk and even a server for my copier scans in the Chemistry Department.  Managing each separately is an annoying and time consuming task.  Not only do I have to remember the addresses and login information for each, but until today I used different access methods (e.g., Fetch, MacFusion and the Mac Finder).  Enter Cyberduck.  With this open source freeware app, I have been able to consolidate all of my server connections in one place.  It's main advantage over Fetch (a common FTP client) is that it supports all of the protocols I require, including: FTP, SFTP, WebDav and MobileMe.  If you work with several servers utilizing more than one file transfer protocol, I highly recommend this app.  It's intuitive, has a clean GI and works as advertised.  If you're looking for an app that will allow you to mount those servers as disk images on your desktop, checkout MacFusion which is built on Google's MacFUSE code.  This app, however, does not currently support OS 10.6 (Leopard).

CHEM 233 Summer 2010 To-Do List

Welcome to CHEM 233

As we approach the start of the Summer 2010 semester, I want to welcome you to the course and also to give you a list of tasks that should be completed in the coming weeks.  Most of these should be completed before the first lab session so that you are adequately prepared and do not fall behind.  One of the most important skills required for success in a large university laboratory course, is your ability to seek out and follow directions carefully.  I encourage you to read all of the resources here on the course website as well as on Blackboard that are discussed in the to-do list below.  If you have any questions, my door--and e-mail inbox--are already open and waiting to assist you.  I'm looking forward to sharing my passion for the exciting world of organic chemistry with you.  This semester I aim not only to teach you the chemistry content and laboratory techniques that you require for your academic endeavors, but also to train you in the type of analytical thinking that is required for solving problems in a laboratory setting as well as the professional field to which you aspire.  While you may not want to be an organic chemist, the practical application of technical knowledge in a laboratory setting involves many general skills that  you will undoubtedly employ in your future careers.  

Cheers,

Dr. Chad Landrie

To Do List:

1.  Become acquainted with the resources available on Blackboard and on the course website (www.chadlandrie.com).

2.  Purchase the required texts and materials for the course including the lab notebook, textbook and goggles.  All of these items are available at the UIC bookstore.  The lab manual will be distributed during the first laboratory sesssion.

3.  Carefully read the course syllabus.  The syllabus can be found in the lab manual, downloaded from the course website (www.chadlandrie.com).

4.  Review the principles of infrared spectroscopy as well as the common functional groups in organic chemistry.  During your first laboratory session, you will participate in an infrared spectroscopy primer (also in the lab manual) designed to review the principles of infrared spectroscopy and to demonstrate how this technique is used to identify functional groups in organic molecules.  If you are currently enrolled in CHEM 232, and have not encountered this analytical technique yet, you may want to begin working on the IR Primer as well as the pertinent sections in your lecture textbook before your lab.  You may also want to look over lecture slides from my CHEM 232 course on infrared spectroscopy here.  The IR Primer activity will not be collected or graded (a pre-lab notebook entry is not required); it's sole function is to provide you with the information you need for the first laboratory experiment the following session.  Be sure to ask your TA plenty of questions so that you get the information you need.  During the following lab session, you will learn how to collect IR spectra on one of our two spectrometers.  You will then use this technique on that day to identify unknown organic compounds.

CHEM 112: To Do List

As we approach the start of the Spring 2010 semester, I want to welcome you to the course and also give you a list of tasks that should be completed in the coming weeks.  Most of these should be completed before the first lecture so that you are adequately prepared and do not fall behind.  One of the most important skills required for success in a large university lecture course, is your ability to seek out and follow directions carefully.  I encourage you to read all of the resources here on the course website as well as on Blackboard that are discussed in the to do list below.  If you have any questions, my door--and e-mail inbox--are already open and waiting to assist you.  I'm looking forward to sharing my passion for the exciting world of chemistry with you.  This semester I aim not only to teach you the chemistry content you require for your academic endeavors, but also to train you in the type of analytical thinking that is required for solving problems in chemistry as well as the professional field to which you aspire.

Cheers,
Dr. Chad Landrie

To Do List:
1.  Become acquainted with the resources available on Blackboard and on the course website (www.chadlandrie.com).

2.  Obtain the document, General Chemistry (CHEM 112): Syllabus and Course Information, by picking up a hard copy at the bookstore or by downloading a pdf version from the course website.  Read all of the information carefully before the first lecture.  This document will not be distributed in lecture.

3. Register for ALEKS, the online homework system we will be using this semester, by following the instructions in the course info document or from the course website.  It is important that you complete the initial assessment at least one week before the first lecture so that you will have an ample amount of time to relearn some of the pre-requisite material that you may have forgotten.

4.  Purchase the required texts and materials listed in the course info document as well as the course website.  (Note: The list on the bookstore website is not up to date.)  Be sure to purchase your i>clicker now; we will be using the i>clicker on the first day of class.  Also, do not forget to purchase your goggles.  You will not be allowed to participate in the laboratory without goggles.

5.  Vote on at least one i>clicker question during the first week of lectures.  Then, complete the instructions for web-based registration of your i>clicker.  Proper registration is essential for matching your i>clicker votes to your name.  The instructions can be found in the course info & syllabus document as well as on the course website.  Note: The registration instructions are incorrect in the hardcopy of the General Chemistry (CHEM 112): Course Information & Syllabus document that is being distributed by the UIC bookstore.  View the revised instructions--essentially, use your UIN as your student ID--in the newest version of that document found on the course website.

6.  Carefully read the requirements and descriptions for keeping a laboratory notebook.  You will be required to turn in a Pre-Lab notebook entry before the start of your first laboratory session.  This means that you will have to carefully read the first experiment that will be completed on that day, The Floating Egg Problem, from the laboratory manual that must be purchased from the UIC bookstore.

CHEM 233 Final Exam

The CHEM 233 final exam is scheduled for Monday, December 7 in room 250 SES from 6:00-8:00 p.m. For more information, download the file "finalinfo_F09.pdf" from the orgo labs file sharing page. This document contains information on exam conflicts, policies, format and sample questions. It also has reminders for the lab notebook due date and the practical exam.

Lab 9 Revised Experimental Procedure

The experimental procedure for Lab 9 (diazo coupling) has been revised. The diazo coupling reaction will now be performed at reflux, which precludes the need for purging the reaction flask with nitrogen. You may download the revised procedure from the Shared Files page. This procedure replaces the one found in the course manual. Use the new procedure when writing your pre-lab entry. Sorry for the late notice.

Midterm Grades

This semester UIC has asked all instructors of 100- and 200-level courses to enter midterm grades. I have entered midterm grades for CHEM 233 so that you can make informed decisions about your work in this course. The midterm grade was determined from your scores on lab reports 1-6 and the midterm exam. You will be able to view your midterm grades using the Student Self Service Login at 5:10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23. Your TAs have also been given your your midterm grades and can provide you with your current percentage score in the course, which will give you a clearer picture of your standing. I have also posted the course curve and midterm curve on the Grades Fall 2009 page. For more information on midterm grades, visit the Office of Admissions and Records site. If you'd like to discuss your standing in this course, particularly what quality of work is required to achieve your goals, stop by during office hours (M,W,F; 12-2 p.m.).

Midterm Exam Corrections

This semester I am instituting a new policy for making corrections to exams that have grading errors. If you suspect that an error has been made in grading your exam, first speak with your TA or myself to determine if in fact there is a grading error. If you are confident an error has been made, a formal letter must be written to me that clearly states the nature of the suspected error and the proposed adjustment in point value that will result from this correction. The letter and the original exam must be personally submitted to me in my office no later than 2 weeks from the date the exam was taken; these items may not be submitted to your TA. Original exams that are submitted for review will not be returned; be sure to make a photocopy for your records. For submission instructions and requirements, download the file "exam_corrections.pdf" from the Organic Chemistry Labs File Sharing Page.