mccord
announcementsAll Final Exam Scores are in Canvas Now
Canvas now has all your class scores (including the final exam). This also means that Canvas is currently showing your correct overall score for the course.
The average for the final exam was an 81 for both classes which is exceptionally good - an all time high. Great job. - Dr. McCord
Stay Tuned for Final Class Announcements HERE
All that currently remains is assigning letter grades and submitting them to the registrar. I have everything I need to do this. You can send me emails and I will read them - most likely I will not respond due to the high volume that I get. I will not be able to have a personal chat with you about your grades - it would not change the outcome anyway. I go completely by your scores on all the assignments as stated in the syllabus*. I'll sign off on this web page in a day or two. Any late breaking news will appear here.
- Dr. McCord
* Note that nowhere in the syllabus is there a part of your overall grade in the course based on "effort" or "need".
New Protocol for Final Exam!
Forget those version numbers from canvas. No preassigned version numbers.
Please read over the NEW Final Exam Protocol for HMA so you will know what to do on Monday afternoon.
Want Some Blank Exams?
Below are blank pdf copies of our five exams for the semester. Keys (solutions) are there as well.
Fresh Copies of HW in Sapling
If you wish you could work the entire set of homeworks in Sapling again, you're in luck. All 11 HWs have been reposted as "ungraded" asssignments. This means you can use them as you see fit - test yourself again on those problems. Have fun.
Formula Page PDF
Remember, you'll get a whole page of formulas on the back side of the periodic table handout that comes with your exam. Here are pdfs of both of those pages.
Announcement about this Announcement Page
This poor sad page of old announcements has been ignored and sadly is no longer being updated. Sad. Say bye to all those mundane announcements that were once in view - only memories remain.
Give OpenStax a LOOK
The OpenStax site is a very good resource for further developement of your chemistry brain. They have a lot of good thermodynamics stuff to take a look at. They split 1st and 2nd Law up into two very separate chapters (5 and 16). Here are direct links to those chapters.
OpenStax: Chapter 5 - Thermochemistry
OpenStax: Chapter 16 - Thermodynamics
Bigass Exam 5 Practice Problem SET
Dr. LaBrake combined four of our previous years thermo exams and got these two really big practice assignments in Quest. So know that these were real exam questions from Fall semesters from 2013-2016 for thermodynamics. There is a lot of redundancy so you can work the same type problem over and over (practice!). Most of the data needed for each problem is with the problem - however, some questions will require you to look up the values (like bond energies). The exams themselves had a cover page with the values - this practice exam doesn't have a cover page so you might have to look up some values that aren't directly given. Yes, you should be able to work all 70 questions from the Practice Exam 7 and all 20 from Practice Exam 8... the difference in Practice Exam 7 and 8 is that 7 is First Law stuff, and Exam 8 is Second Law stuff. You should be able to work both (90 questions). The KEYS to these two exams will be up soon.
Please DO realize that Exam 7 + Exam 8 for the MWF courses EQUALS Exam 5 for the TTH courses.
First Law: Exam 7 Practice Problems | KEY
Second Law: Exam 8 Practice Problems | KEY
Sad Facts about Homework: You can easily have a 90-95 average score on your homework and then make incredibly LOW scores on your exams (like well below 60). Why? Sapling allows multiple guessing with only 5% penalty. Remember, you only get ONE and only ONE attempt on the exam.
What can you do? You MUST study the material extensively and deep enough to get questions right on your very first try. You are studying the science and method of chemistry. The exam will show your weaknesses. Try to discover your weaknesses now and adjust your study habits/methods.
Special "Study Hall" Session
Gabe James (one of our senior PLAs / SI Instructors) is having a special "Study Hall" over thermodynamics. He will especially go over various problems on the two practice sets given above.
Monday 12/4, 3pm - 5pm, in RLM 4.102
Exam 2 Graded
Exam 2 has been scanned and graded. Your scores are available on Quest. The solutions (pdf) are also available on Quest as well.
day after talk like a pirate day 
Arrrrrrgggg!! now I still be a talkin' like a pirate. Let it be known... The SOLUTIONS to the exam are now available on Quest. Take a looky and see which questions you got right and which ones you got pooped on. Come to class Thursday for more info on this AND the start of a new UNIT. Avast.
talk like a pirate day
Arrrrrrgggg!! shiver me timbers... the quest grading be done... hear ye, hear ye, only you're scores be thar to see. You scallywags will have to wait till it be 'morrow for the tallies and solutions. Don't be sending me no emails neither or I'll be having you swab the deck. Wait till our landlubber class on Thursday for more info.... Yes, we had to make one of the questions walk the plank to Davy Jone's locker. It is all for the better treasure though. arrrgggg-on!!!
UT Honor Code
“As a student of The University of Texas at Austin, I shall abide by the core values of the University and uphold academic integrity.”
ALEKS or OUT?
ALEKS ?! 27 of my students were dropped from the course because thier ALEKS score was less than 85%. You have until this Friday (9/15) to get the score up to 85 or you are permanently out.
Where You SHOULD be AT
So are you keeping up with the material and assignments? Where should you be at? You should have already finished (last week) and submitted LE00-LE05 on Canvas. You should have finished LE06 by Monday night 9/11. You should be starting LE07 and LE08 on Tuesday this week and finishing them by Thursday or Friday. Although you should be completely done with HW00 and HW01 on Sapling, you have until 9am on Wednesday to beat the actual deadline. Hw02 is active and you should be working through it this week. Remember, Exam 1 is in class next Tuesday (9/19).
adds and drops (access)
If you just added this course, know that canvas takes overnight to actually add you to the course. This means you'll have to wait a day to start in on assignments and linking/syncing your Sapling and Reef. You WILL have to resync those assignments if you were in one (non-mccord) class and then switched into my class. Do NOT however set up a new Sapling and Reef account, still use your accounts you made previously, just LINK to my classes and not theirs.
Register and Sync Sapling and Reef
There are two sync "assignments" on Canvas for you to use to register and sync with Sapling Learning and Reef. One assignment is for Sapling and the other is for Reef. Feel free to go click through and get registered. Just please please please - pay attention to your newly created account login name and password for each site. Also read the next announcement box about ONE and only ONE. If you are worried about how to do this, come to class and we will show you.
One more thing... you can sign up for each service without paying anything right now. Setting up the accounts is free and you get free full use for 14 days. After the 14 days you will have to buy the subscription - or use the UT Coop bundled package with access codes.
If and when you are asked for an enrollment "key code" on the Sapling registration side of things... use our 5-digit unique number for the course. That is 50070 for the 9:30am course, and 50085 for the 11am course.
You FOUND the Announcements Page!
All announcements will ultimately end up on this page. Think of it as and announcement archive. Newest announcements will be at the top of the page. Scroll down to see older announcements.
Home page icon
Anytime you see this 6 atom (trigonal pyramidal) molecule, click it and you'll land on our home page.
Please just Come to CLASS
I'm sure you have lots of questions about the class and what to buy and where to buy it. Continue reading here on the web site - but really, you just need to go to class and you can hear it all. You don't really have to do anything yet. Just go to class on Thursday. - Dr. McCord
ONE and only ONE!!
Let's NOT set up multiple accounts in Sapling and Reef. Never sign up more than once. REMEMBER your login name and password for each - probably easiest to just use the same login name and password for both Sapling and Reef. You do not want to have two accounts. You'll get charged twice and your grades will never be in the right account (Murphy's Law applies here). Good luck.
So to be clear: ONE account for Sapling. ONE account for Reef.
Something to BUY at the UT Coop Bookstore
UT Coop now has right McCord package(updated 8/16)
UT Coop now has right McCord package(updated 8/16)
The UT Coop now has the correct "McCord" CH301 class (50070 and 50085) package for students to purchase.
I am the one CH301 instructor who does NOT use a "course pack" (or "workbook" as the coop calls it) for my classes. The course-pack/workbook is a spiral bound hardcopy of many worksheets and activities. The Coop sells a bundled package for all the other CH301 classes that do use course packs and the price for those are about $20 more expensive than the "plain" package for my classes. I can't prevent you from buying a course-pack, but do know that it will not be used in my class.
The UT Coop web store now has the correct information and package for my two classes. Below is a copy of what to get at the coop - just seach for the McCord CH301 classes and you'll see it. There is also a year subscription that would then work for the spring 2018 semester as well. Up to you to decide which one. The 6-month one is the most flexible - in case you decide to change majors or courses. FYI - you are basically buying an access code for Sapling and Reef. There really isn't a hardcopy or any hardware associated.
Shown below is what you should be seeing on the UT Coop web site. Look for this package when you go over there in person. It won't be very big/thick. Really just an access code.
6 MONTH SAPLING AND REEF (NO WORKBOOK)
AUTHOR: MACMILLAN
ISBN: 9781319149598
STATUS: REQUIRED
EDITION: 1