Chem 201 Archive – Alan Shusterman

Students who want to earn one unit of credit for Chem 201 in Fall 2010 must sign up for four activities:

• lecture (MWF 9-10 AM)
• conference (choose from Th 9:30, 10:30, 12, 1 and always attend the same conference)
• lab lecture (Th 6:10-7 PM)
• lab (choose from MTuW 1-5 PM and always attend the same lab)

It is not unusual for certain conferences and labs to fill up during pre-registration; the Tu lab was particularly popular last fall. It is also not unusual for students to change their plans during the summer and want to change sections, add the course, or drop the course, during fall pre-registration. To add to the general uncertainty, I have no idea how many students will pre-register for the course in the spring.

Here are some common pre-registration requests and my customary responses:

• I cannot override the enrollment caps on conference and lab. The lab situation is simple: we only have room for 24 students in each lab section and not one person more. The conference situation is more complicated. We will reassign students to conferences in the fall to make sure that each conference has roughly the same enrollment.
• I cannot override the Chem 101/102 prerequisite for students who haven’t completed these courses. This includes students who plan to complete these courses during the summer. If you complete the prerequisite during the summer and your institution is “slow” to send a transcript of your summer work to Reed, have your summer instructor send me a note (email is fine) that you have passed these classes and I will override the prerequisite requirement during pre-registration in August.
• I will approve conflicts with the lab lecture on Th evening. However, I do this only with the mutual understanding that the student accepts full responsibility for any missed material. I will not give make-up lectures, explain parts of lecture, provide copies of my lecture notes, and so on, to students who miss class because of a conflict with another activity.

If a student finds that a must-have lab or conference section closes during pre-registration, I recommend the following: first, pre-register for courses assuming that the section will stay closed (call this Plan B), and second, contact me during the August pre-registration period and explain which “closed” section you want to enter and why, i.e., give me Plan A. The Registrar and I will use our (limited) powers of persuasion to move students around and accommodate requests.

Welcome back!

Chem 202 pretty much picks up right where Chem 201 left off: same book, same rooms, same hours. There are some important changes, however, so please check out the following.

• Lecture. My role will be reduced. Pat McDougal will take over all of the lectures and all that that entails (homework assignments, exams, and so on).
• Conference. Pat and I will swap conference sections. He will direct the morning sessions and I will direct the afternoon sessions.
• Lab. I will continue on in the Tuesday lab, and Pat will take over the Monday and Wednesday labs.
• Online materials. Pat will distribute assignments in whatever way he likes best, but with only one important exception: he won’t use this website. The exception is the online lab manual. This manual includes all of the experiments currently planned for Chem 202.

If you have questions about how Chem 202 will operate, please direct them to Pat (Rm. 420, ext. 7206, Patrick.McDougal@reed.edu)