Chem 201 Archive – Alan Shusterman

Tag: hw

  • New Homework Signals New Direction

    I have just posted a new homework assignment: HW #6. You can download it from the homework page.

    This assignment signals a switch from an emphasis on modeling to an emphasis on chemical transformations. It is essential at this point that you adjust your study techniques so that you learn about transformations from several angles:

    • knowing what to expect from certain reactions (fill in the product)
    • knowing how to bring certain transformations about (fill in the reagent)
    • knowing how to produce desired materials (fill in the starting material + plan a synthesis)
    • knowing how to rationalize why things are the way they are (draw a plausible mechanism).

    I hope that the new direction in homework assignments will encourage you in this.

    A Study Guide and Solutions Manual essay that is particularly worthwhile: 5.2 How to Study Organic Reactions (p. 70). I hope you will incorporate the suggestions that this essay makes into your study habits. Some other valuable essays:

    • 5.3 Solving Structure Problems (p. 74)
    • 11.1 Learning New Reactions from Earlier Reactions (p. 211)
    • 11.2 Common Intermediates from Different Starting Materials (p. 211).

  • Advice on working with models

    Problem-solving
    and working with molecular models are fundamentally different activities. It’s
    natural to feel some urgency when you practice solving problems, and the more
    you practice solving a certain kind of problem, the easier and faster it should
    get.

    This is not a useful way to approach the molecular modeling questions on homework assignments. The models that
    you build contain a lot of information, some of it useful, some of it
    not. You should take your time to
    look the models over from different angles, juxtapose what you see against what you have learned
    elsewhere, and develop some mental pictures that inform your understanding of
    chemical phenomena. The goal is not to learn a new problem-solving skill, but to create another dimension for thinking about chemistry. If you don’t feel like you have the time to do this, save
    the models for another day.