All New Office Hours for FINALS WEEK

Here are all our Office Hours for Finals Week.

There will be no formal reviews for finals week. If you have a question about a specific topic, take your question to any one of the new office hours listed in the schedule.

Exam 4 - the CURVE has arrived!

Probably not the huge curve you were hoping for but you are getting a full +5 points for the extra credit problem on exam 4. You did answer that question with the give me the points choice, right? Quest should be showing this update now.

Thermodynamic Equations

Below is a link to a page with all the formulas for thermodynamics. Memorize the formulas and make sure you know how to use them properly. Formulas are meant to be scrolled through - like on a phone or tablet. You might turn phone to landscape view to see whole formulas without wrapping.

Thermodynamics Equations

Incentives for doing the eCIS

Getting an extra +2 points on your final exam next week simply by completing the eCIS and uploading your screen shot of the "Completion" page. Click the big-ass graphic to the left and you'll be taken to Canvas where you can follow the directions about the upload.

Deadline on this is Friday at 5pm!!!

Thermodynamic Equations

Below is a link to a page with all the formulas for thermodynamics. Memorize the formulas and make sure you know how to use them properly. Formulas are meant to be scrolled through - like on a phone or tablet. You might turn phone to landscape view to see whole formulas without wrapping.

Thermodynamics Equations

Thermodynamics!!

Get ready to dive into thermodynamics. You'll need to work hard. Make sure you have the energy to get it done. Laws are meant to be broken OBEYED! Although breaking bonds is necessary. The heat is on.

The good news is that there will be lots of HUGS. Let's get started.

Here's a good start:     \(\Delta U = q + w\)

EXAM 3 is TONIGHT!

Exam 3 - Thursday, 11/6, 7-9pm

Exam 3 info 34+1 Multiple Choice questions. The +1 is for bonus points – answer that you DO want the points. The other questions are all 3 points each except for two questions worth 2 points each. The material matches up nicely with the learning outcomes and all the questions you've been working on for quizzes and homework - AND - the Top Hat questions I've asked in class.

Also NOTE: There are no calculations on the exam, therefore NO CALCULATORS.

Conjugated Systems (π-systems)

Conjugated Systems are a series of sp² hybridized atoms (usually carbons, although a nitrogen sometimes enters the picture as well) where the non-hybridized p-orbitals combine to create a π-system.

The π-system is a collection of π-orbitals that are delocalized to cover the set of nuclei providing the p-orbitals.

Remember that you will get as many π-MO's out as you went in with p-orbitals. Half of those will be bonding in character and the other half, antibonding. Generally, a stable molecule will only fill the bonding π-orbitals and leave the antibonding π*-orbitals empty. This provides a great deal of stability to the structure and also leads to a unique HOMO-LUMO situation that is right in the middle region (energy-wise that is) of the π-system.

Here is a link to Wikipedia's take on Conjugated Systems. Its good, give it a look.

A Study Tip from Dr. McCord

What is "ping-ponging" when you are studying your chemistry? Or anything else for that matter. Ping-ponging is the act of reading a question, then finding the answer via the internet or friends or whatever it takes. Then answer that question and do the next one - find answer... back and forth, back and forth, over and over again and again.

This practice minimizes the ACT of actually studying the material. You spend all your time "finding answers" and your brain starts to depend on the back and forth method that you have subconsciously created. You know where to look and how to look up answers, but you have not mastered any real knowledge in the way in which it will pay off on exams.

Exams do NOT allow for ping ponging. You have to sit and answer all the questions in a continuous uninterrupted setting. You have no "go to" resource during an exam except for your own brain. This is why it is critical that you study and internalize the material for yourself. You need to become an expert in the subject matter. When you know the material well, you do not have to "go find the answer". You think and analyze and act on what you know and the answer is revealed through that process.

Make the material YOURS to keep. Don't think that you only need to answer the question - there is a much much bigger concept in play here. You are educating yourself to have ALL the needed information in your head and you know exactly how the concepts all fit together. Your exam scores will improve greatly when you start realizing that you must master the material. Own it. Make it yours. When the concepts are truly yours, you will not forget it on the exam and you can call upon it anytime for reference. Once the ping-ponging is ALL going on inside your head then that is when you win the game, and the student will become the master.