(updated version of post from Aug 20, 2008)
An idiosyncratic assortment of suggestions and observations based on 23+ years of teaching.
The Registrar’s Office has reassigned lab and/or conference sections for several students. Please check your class schedule this weekend to see whether it has been affected. If changes were made, they were made for a reason. You must attend your assigned section for now (note: labs do not meet this week), but there is a small chance (described below) that you can change your section again. Continue reading
(initial version published Aug 20, 2008)
Once you get used to them, you may find that the problems
in your textbook have a game-like quality. If you make the right mental
“moves”, you will nearly always solve the problem. It’s a nice way to
get started thinking about organic chemistry, but not terribly realistic.
Modern organic chemists spend most of their time working on problems that can’t
be solved just by making the right moves. These problems are both scientific
and technological and if we ever solve them, we will change how the entire world thinks and lives.
Continue reading
(first published Aug 20, 2008)
My first genuine taste of organic chemistry came in my sophomore year
of college (73-74). I studied from a large (1000 page) textbook not too
different from yours. There was a lot to remember, but I was doing
alright until the second quarter when a subtle and unannounced change
in the book quite threw me.
Continue reading
This site will be updated periodically during summer ’09. You can still look at the entire site, including all of the posts from ’08-09, but not much has changed yet. Major changes will get announced by adding to this post. If you have nothing better to do, check back every few days. [last changes posted 8/30/09, see below]
Pre-registration for fall
Changes
Summer reading
Piles of paper surround me. Wrapping paper for presents. Your exams and lab reports. (Not to worry, no one in the family received socks wrapped in a lab report.) And it’s snowing. So what do I do?
What would anyone do?
Surf for distractions, of course.
A student emailed me this song from Science Groove: Hooray for NMR Spectroscopy! (http://www.science-groove.org/Now/Hooray_lofi.mp3)
I also watched the winners of Gonzo Labs & AAAS/Science magazine 2009 Dance Your Ph.D. Contest. My personal faves: the Sue Lynn Lau & group on the left (good music, joyful sunshine, capoeira moves) and Vince LiCata with red-shirted subunits on center right (watch for Old Man Winter as a cryogenic cooler). Check it out!
Maybe Reed should have a “Dance Your Non-dance Thesis” contest? (To make this fair, dance majors would have to sing their theses.) Got any nerdy web material to share? Post a comment or just say “hi”.
If you recall, the winners of this contest were chosen by pulling cards out of a hat, an unusually large (size 7 3/4″) black top hat. The questions asked by the winners* were:
These are all great questions and none of them have obvious answers so its a good thing I wasn’t forced to answer them on the night of the contest.
Continue reading
The following images (click image for full-size view) show potential maps (0 –> +1500), ball-and-spoke formulas, and space-filling formulas of
The potentials surrounding the organic cations are more moderate, but not always for the same reason:
The PowerPoint slides from today’s lecture can be downloaded here. A couple of comments on each slide … Continue reading
The Oregonian ran an article today titled, “Markets Threaten Oregon University Endowments” (Nov 30, 2008, Metro NW section, B-1). The article profiles Reed College’s finances (which are gloomy, but probably no worse than anyone else’s) and it features a nice picture of students walking away from Eliot Hall.
What am I saying? These are not just any “students” in the photo, but rather our very own Laurel Oldach pondering a just-completed Chem 201 lecture as she heads across the Blue Bridge.
