Hi,
We are in the process of designing a new science building at SUNY New Paltz and we will have space for a new laboratory that will mainly be dedicated to general chemistry. I'm looking for advice on what works the best for desgining such a laboratory. Our main parameters are:
We are know working on basic chemical nomenclature of ionic and diatomic molecular compounds (we are in Chapter 2 of Chang) in our first semester General Chemistry course. I am looking for a good, low prep time resource for using an in-class activity to aid in the learning process. I'd like to utilize this either tomorrow (Friday) or next Wednesday (after the Labor Day holiday). I apologize for the short notice.
Things I have found online but am uncertain about are:
I'm thinking about using "clickers" to get students to respond to questions during class this fall in my general chemistry section. I'd be interested in hearing from people who have used them and in what ways they were used most successfully.
Yesterday, I went to an outstanding talk by Simon Peyton Jones on how to write a scientific paper. It was directed towards people in CS writing a manuscript for a conference proceedings, but it was still broadly applicable. That got me thinking about other resources on writing research papers and how can we best help students learn to write about their research.
Although I've never done it, I've thought about giving students the opportunity to get hints on exam questions for reduced credit on the question (both 'long answer' and multiple choice). I'm curious to hear if anyone does this in their classes (and why or why not). If you allow students to get hints how do you do this (mechanics) and do you think students learn more by being able to get hints?
Having just gone through "the rules" for balancing redox reactions in my Gen Chem class, I once again am faced with a textbook that does things in a different order than I prefer. When I balance redox reactions, I add electrons at the beginning of the process to balance the change in oxidation state/number of the species being oxidized or reduced. Then, at the end, I can use charge balance as a self-check; if the charge balances itself out, then I probably did everything correctly. My current textbook (and many others), have students go through all the steps (add wa