Now you should get this:
CS
CS
Monday, December 15, 2008
AP CHEM: Day 72 - Links for you
I'll leave it up to you to find some general links for EM spectrum uses. Here are a couple of useful links I've found for you to explore and review some of our Sunday and Monday discussions:
Photoelectric effect - Try here. This is a link to the Physics Hypertextbook. Worth a look around. (No, Andrew, it's not Web 2.0. Still worth a look.)
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle - This is a link to a writeup of Heisenberg's famous thought experiment to illustrate a basis for understanding the principle. It's not quite right, but it's a good start. We'll be talking about this more on Wednesday.
FM Radio - This is the link (it's to Armenia, not Kyrgyzstan) I referenced in talking about FM radio today. The drawing in Figure 1 should be a little familiar. If you want a look at some circuit diagrams for mono and stereo equipment, keep scrolling down.
I have yet to find a good layman's explanation for radio transmission - either I get the general idea I showed to you last year, or I get really technical "here's how to make a radio during Physics Lab" stuff. The link above is about as middle-ground as I've found. If you find something better, please let me know.
Here's a general information link on how radio broadcasting works from HowStuffWorks. If you click through the sections, you'll find a list of broadcast bands for various applications.
Rutherford's Scattering Experiment - Here is an applet for you to play with. Some good discussion too.
CS
Photoelectric effect - Try here. This is a link to the Physics Hypertextbook. Worth a look around. (No, Andrew, it's not Web 2.0. Still worth a look.)
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle - This is a link to a writeup of Heisenberg's famous thought experiment to illustrate a basis for understanding the principle. It's not quite right, but it's a good start. We'll be talking about this more on Wednesday.
FM Radio - This is the link (it's to Armenia, not Kyrgyzstan) I referenced in talking about FM radio today. The drawing in Figure 1 should be a little familiar. If you want a look at some circuit diagrams for mono and stereo equipment, keep scrolling down.
I have yet to find a good layman's explanation for radio transmission - either I get the general idea I showed to you last year, or I get really technical "here's how to make a radio during Physics Lab" stuff. The link above is about as middle-ground as I've found. If you find something better, please let me know.
Here's a general information link on how radio broadcasting works from HowStuffWorks. If you click through the sections, you'll find a list of broadcast bands for various applications.
Rutherford's Scattering Experiment - Here is an applet for you to play with. Some good discussion too.
CS
Sunday, December 14, 2008
CHEM: Week 16 - Forecasting
For the week immediately prior to Winter Break, there will be no major assignments due. Last week was plenty busy.
This week, the major topics will be:
Light - the particle theory
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Atomic Spectra
Bohr's model
Fifth period is still a bit behind, so their material will be a bit compressed. Everyone should be on the same page by Monday's end.
You will have homework due every day this week. The Light Worksheets will be your major opportunity to practice with the light equations and expand your understanding of the behavior of light as needed to explain Bohr's concept of the atom. Fifth period will have to turn in their homework in on Friday to my office door before they go home for break. Third period will have a heavier HW load on one day, because they owe me an assignment the other two classes have done.
The lab this week will be another experiment graded in class. You will need to put in a TOC entry to keep the grade in your comp book, but that will be the extent of the "report." Two of you have not finished identifying your unknowns from last week; this will need to be done on Wednesday afternoon. Monday afternoon, there is a Senior Exhibition; Tuesday, I have a meeting; Thursday, I have another meeting. Plan accordingly. If you do not finish your unknown identification on Wednesday, I will see you after the Christmas party on Friday. You can complete your work then.
Your next exam will not be until the second week after we return from break - either that Tuesday, or on Friday. I'm hoping for Tuesday, but that will depend on the Literary Festival activities. For the next exam, your review sheet will be turned in and graded. That will be handed out on Monday, the fifth of January, and due back on that Friday, the ninth. First period will not have class that day, but they will be required to turn in that review sheet that day. The review sheet will be worth 25 points, so it is not a small assignment!
See you tomorrow -
CS
This week, the major topics will be:
Light - the particle theory
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Atomic Spectra
Bohr's model
Fifth period is still a bit behind, so their material will be a bit compressed. Everyone should be on the same page by Monday's end.
You will have homework due every day this week. The Light Worksheets will be your major opportunity to practice with the light equations and expand your understanding of the behavior of light as needed to explain Bohr's concept of the atom. Fifth period will have to turn in their homework in on Friday to my office door before they go home for break. Third period will have a heavier HW load on one day, because they owe me an assignment the other two classes have done.
The lab this week will be another experiment graded in class. You will need to put in a TOC entry to keep the grade in your comp book, but that will be the extent of the "report." Two of you have not finished identifying your unknowns from last week; this will need to be done on Wednesday afternoon. Monday afternoon, there is a Senior Exhibition; Tuesday, I have a meeting; Thursday, I have another meeting. Plan accordingly. If you do not finish your unknown identification on Wednesday, I will see you after the Christmas party on Friday. You can complete your work then.
Your next exam will not be until the second week after we return from break - either that Tuesday, or on Friday. I'm hoping for Tuesday, but that will depend on the Literary Festival activities. For the next exam, your review sheet will be turned in and graded. That will be handed out on Monday, the fifth of January, and due back on that Friday, the ninth. First period will not have class that day, but they will be required to turn in that review sheet that day. The review sheet will be worth 25 points, so it is not a small assignment!
See you tomorrow -
CS
AP CHEM: Day 71.5 - HW for Monday
And a grand time was had by all...
I put some problems up on the board after a couple of you left today, so here they are:
Ch. 12: 35, 36, 51, 54, 57
Ch. 7: 31, 32, 33
Also - Read Ch. 7 Sections 1 - 4.
Remember - the Kinetics Quiz will be on Thursday.
CS
I put some problems up on the board after a couple of you left today, so here they are:
Ch. 12: 35, 36, 51, 54, 57
Ch. 7: 31, 32, 33
Also - Read Ch. 7 Sections 1 - 4.
Remember - the Kinetics Quiz will be on Thursday.
CS
Monday, December 08, 2008
CHEM: Day 67 - Homework
For those of you who were too consumed with test-taking to write down the homework, here you go:
1) Read pp 111 - 114, pp 123 - 124
2) ?s - p 128: 36, 37, 40, 44, 50, 53
3) Think about your Exp 14 results. How will you apply your observations to the problem of separating and identifying a mixture of the Group I ions?
Remember - your valence test is Friday. Lots of points for you this week!
CS
1) Read pp 111 - 114, pp 123 - 124
2) ?s - p 128: 36, 37, 40, 44, 50, 53
3) Think about your Exp 14 results. How will you apply your observations to the problem of separating and identifying a mixture of the Group I ions?
Remember - your valence test is Friday. Lots of points for you this week!
CS
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Friday, December 05, 2008
ALL: Freaky Friday - Week 14
I'm writing this post from a ScribeFire window in FireFox. I'll be setting this up on all my machines this weekend. Now whenever I find anything remotely interesting (and that won't get me in trouble), I can post it directly.
If you blog, you should check it out.
----------
So, I used to take time off on Fridays and show movie trailers and clips in class. These were known as Freaky Fridays. Unfortunately, Freaky Fridays became all Freaky Friday, all the time. Followed by requests for Manic Mondays, Tubular Tuesdays, Wacky Wednesdays, and Trippin' Thursdays. So, no more Freaky Fridays. Blame the alumni.
But I guess I can do that here.
So, for your edification, I present the following:
1) Boom de Yada!
2) Since we're talking about electricity in class, here's a tremendous video of lightning in super-slow motion:
Remember that air is an insulator. When a spark jumps from your finger to the doorknob, or lightning jumps from cloud to ground, the electrons have to punch their way through the air, in order to get the air out of the way to allow conductivity through the vacuum. In the first seconds of the video, you can see wide-ranging branching as the initial electrical surges from the cloud attempt to find the path of least resistance through the air to the ground by working their way through the thin eddies in the air that they can find or create. Once a streamer finds its way to the ground, the path from the cloud to the ground becomes the primary (only) conductive pathway, and flashes through the length of the path are seen throughout the rest of the video. Note that the rest of the branches flicker once or twice as electricity flashes down the still-open partial pathways, but most of the flow is through the primary path and the rest of the branches are quickly abandoned.
The conductive pathway is a good vacuum - remember, no vacuum is perfect - but the vacuum is continually compressed and invaded by the higher-pressure atmosphere around it. As the electricity pushes the air out of the way in the first branching, the air is excited by the electrical charge and emits light. Those are the flashes. As the electrical charges pass a given point in the pathway, the pathway contracts from the outside pressure, and the next charge has to push the air back out of the way, exciting the molecules again. This is what gives lightning its flickering nature. In addition the air is heated to tens of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit, as much as 50,000 deg F. This superheated air collides with the colder air outside the pathway and sheds its energy in the collisions, creating a shockwave through the air we hear as thunder. The rippling nature of thunder comes from the successive shockwaves of each electrical pulse re-evacuating the conductive pathway, each of which generates a "crackle."
3) A primer on the Somali pirates. Why? Because there's information here I found interesting, and - PIRATES!
And that'll do for now. Check your mail later for the Gas Law Review key.
CS
If you blog, you should check it out.
----------
So, I used to take time off on Fridays and show movie trailers and clips in class. These were known as Freaky Fridays. Unfortunately, Freaky Fridays became all Freaky Friday, all the time. Followed by requests for Manic Mondays, Tubular Tuesdays, Wacky Wednesdays, and Trippin' Thursdays. So, no more Freaky Fridays. Blame the alumni.
But I guess I can do that here.
So, for your edification, I present the following:
1) Boom de Yada!
2) Since we're talking about electricity in class, here's a tremendous video of lightning in super-slow motion:
Remember that air is an insulator. When a spark jumps from your finger to the doorknob, or lightning jumps from cloud to ground, the electrons have to punch their way through the air, in order to get the air out of the way to allow conductivity through the vacuum. In the first seconds of the video, you can see wide-ranging branching as the initial electrical surges from the cloud attempt to find the path of least resistance through the air to the ground by working their way through the thin eddies in the air that they can find or create. Once a streamer finds its way to the ground, the path from the cloud to the ground becomes the primary (only) conductive pathway, and flashes through the length of the path are seen throughout the rest of the video. Note that the rest of the branches flicker once or twice as electricity flashes down the still-open partial pathways, but most of the flow is through the primary path and the rest of the branches are quickly abandoned.
The conductive pathway is a good vacuum - remember, no vacuum is perfect - but the vacuum is continually compressed and invaded by the higher-pressure atmosphere around it. As the electricity pushes the air out of the way in the first branching, the air is excited by the electrical charge and emits light. Those are the flashes. As the electrical charges pass a given point in the pathway, the pathway contracts from the outside pressure, and the next charge has to push the air back out of the way, exciting the molecules again. This is what gives lightning its flickering nature. In addition the air is heated to tens of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit, as much as 50,000 deg F. This superheated air collides with the colder air outside the pathway and sheds its energy in the collisions, creating a shockwave through the air we hear as thunder. The rippling nature of thunder comes from the successive shockwaves of each electrical pulse re-evacuating the conductive pathway, each of which generates a "crackle."
3) A primer on the Somali pirates. Why? Because there's information here I found interesting, and - PIRATES!
And that'll do for now. Check your mail later for the Gas Law Review key.
CS
Thursday, December 04, 2008
ALL: Word 2007/08 File converter options
A lot of you are still using the past version of MicroSoft Office - Office 2003 for PCs, and Office 2004 for Macs. MicroSoft has released the new version of Office or the Mac, 2008, and Office 2007 has been out on the PC for over a year. I'm sure the school will switch the Macs to 2008, if they haven't already. MS probably requires them to do so.
So, you'll need to be able to open the new files at home even if you're working with the older versions of Word and Excel. Here are four options for you:
1) You can get the MicroSoft file converters from the source itself:
For Windows XP and Vista: Here
For Mac: The MS site won't give me a direct link for the download. So:
--Go here.
--Go to the menu at the bottom of the page, on the left. Select "Additional Tools."
--The first option in the center menu should read "Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0.1." Click on that.
--In the right-hand box, the release notes and download links will appear. Choose the English disk image link and follow the instructions in the .dmg file.
2) Google Docs can open these files, as can Gmail. So if you get a file from me or another teacher and you can't read it, Gmail can open the file for you. If you have a Gmail account and I sent the file to your school address, forward it to your Gmail account and read the attachment there.
3) There is a free online file converter called Zanzar. It will convert most common file types to something readable by your machine. So, you can convert the .docx file to a .doc file for an older version of Word. There are a number of other options as well. Useful for converting images and web page files also.
4) You can use a FireFox plug-in called OpenXML Viewer. This will let you open an Office 2007/2008 file in your FireFox browser. This will work for PCs and Linux machines at the moment. Do not download the source code file; download the Reader ZIP file.
---------
I will probably keep using Windows Journal to write up homework keys and the occasional handout.
Here are two options for reading those notes:
1) To read the Journal file, you can use the Journal reader from Microsoft.
2) The MHT file can be read in Internet Explorer natively, or you can download the unMHT plug-in for Firefox. Note that there is a plug-in available at that site for Opera and Safari users, and one for reading an MHT file in Outlook as well.
I've been told that Gmail/Google Docs will also open/read/print the files, but I haven't used it yet.
If you still can't read a file I send you, then there is something else wrong in your setup. What kind of chip do you have in that computer - a Dorito?
CS
So, you'll need to be able to open the new files at home even if you're working with the older versions of Word and Excel. Here are four options for you:
1) You can get the MicroSoft file converters from the source itself:
For Windows XP and Vista: Here
For Mac: The MS site won't give me a direct link for the download. So:
--Go here.
--Go to the menu at the bottom of the page, on the left. Select "Additional Tools."
--The first option in the center menu should read "Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0.1." Click on that.
--In the right-hand box, the release notes and download links will appear. Choose the English disk image link and follow the instructions in the .dmg file.
2) Google Docs can open these files, as can Gmail. So if you get a file from me or another teacher and you can't read it, Gmail can open the file for you. If you have a Gmail account and I sent the file to your school address, forward it to your Gmail account and read the attachment there.
3) There is a free online file converter called Zanzar. It will convert most common file types to something readable by your machine. So, you can convert the .docx file to a .doc file for an older version of Word. There are a number of other options as well. Useful for converting images and web page files also.
4) You can use a FireFox plug-in called OpenXML Viewer. This will let you open an Office 2007/2008 file in your FireFox browser. This will work for PCs and Linux machines at the moment. Do not download the source code file; download the Reader ZIP file.
---------
I will probably keep using Windows Journal to write up homework keys and the occasional handout.
Here are two options for reading those notes:
1) To read the Journal file, you can use the Journal reader from Microsoft.
2) The MHT file can be read in Internet Explorer natively, or you can download the unMHT plug-in for Firefox. Note that there is a plug-in available at that site for Opera and Safari users, and one for reading an MHT file in Outlook as well.
I've been told that Gmail/Google Docs will also open/read/print the files, but I haven't used it yet.
If you still can't read a file I send you, then there is something else wrong in your setup. What kind of chip do you have in that computer - a Dorito?
CS
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
CHEM: Day 64
Starting the Group I Cations lab today. SOOO much fun!
Homework:
1) All classes - Finish your lab reports for Experiments 12 and 8. Due tomorrow.
DON'T FORGET TO BRING YOUR OBJECTS BACK!! You will lose points for not bringing back your objects. I want my stuff!
2) Period 3 - Pre-Lab sheet for Experiment 14 is also due. DO this in your duplicate notebook.
3) Gas Law review sheet should be completed by Friday. Check back here for the Key.
Exams next week -
Gas Law and Gas Behavior - Monday 120808
Valence Test II - Friday 121208
CS
Homework:
1) All classes - Finish your lab reports for Experiments 12 and 8. Due tomorrow.
DON'T FORGET TO BRING YOUR OBJECTS BACK!! You will lose points for not bringing back your objects. I want my stuff!
2) Period 3 - Pre-Lab sheet for Experiment 14 is also due. DO this in your duplicate notebook.
3) Gas Law review sheet should be completed by Friday. Check back here for the Key.
Exams next week -
Gas Law and Gas Behavior - Monday 120808
Valence Test II - Friday 121208
CS
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
CHEM: Day 63 - Homework
Pds. 1 and 5 -
1) Read Experiment 14 carefully. This is not written with as much on-the-road detail as your previous experiments. A lot of what's happening here will depend on your careful determination of what to do next.
2) Dilution Worksheet - Do this in your duplicate book. You will turn this in tomorrow.
Pd. 3 -
1) ?s - p 128 (end of Chapter 4, wherever that is): 30 - 33
If you're ready, open your shoeboxes tonight! Let's see how you did.
Lab reports due Thursday.
CS
1) Read Experiment 14 carefully. This is not written with as much on-the-road detail as your previous experiments. A lot of what's happening here will depend on your careful determination of what to do next.
2) Dilution Worksheet - Do this in your duplicate book. You will turn this in tomorrow.
Pd. 3 -
1) ?s - p 128 (end of Chapter 4, wherever that is): 30 - 33
If you're ready, open your shoeboxes tonight! Let's see how you did.
Lab reports due Thursday.
CS
Monday, December 01, 2008
Day 62 - Homework
CHEM:
1) Read pp 102 - 110
2) ?s - p 128: 30 - 33
3) Work on your lab reports for Experiments 12 and 8 - due Thurs
4) Gas Law Review problems "due" Friday
AP CHEM:
1) Finish reading Chapter 12 by Friday
2) ?s - Ch. 12: 11, 24, 25, 27
CS
1) Read pp 102 - 110
2) ?s - p 128: 30 - 33
3) Work on your lab reports for Experiments 12 and 8 - due Thurs
4) Gas Law Review problems "due" Friday
AP CHEM:
1) Finish reading Chapter 12 by Friday
2) ?s - Ch. 12: 11, 24, 25, 27
CS
Sunday, November 30, 2008
AP CHEM: Week 14 - Forecasting
Well, here we go again.
For this week, here's what's coming:
Lecture - Kinetics, Week II. Basic calculus and the Integrated Rate Law. Graphical analysis of reaction rates. Collision theory. We'll probably finish this on Monday.
We need to figure out which day, if any, we'll be coming up on the weekend for catchup. Food will be provided.
Lab - UNKNOWNS. Week One. What you've all been working for. You must be finished with your unknowns by 400PM, Friday, December 19. You will more than likely need to come in and spend some extra time to give yourself enough time to finish without a time panic.
We'll need to talk about weekend lab time, too. This will be optional.
Exam - Thermodynamics. Thursday, 7/8 or 8/9. Pick a slot and tell me before Thursday.
Special Event - You will be in Assembly by 800AM on Friday morning. There will be an assembly lasting for most or all of first and second period. Class will resume as normal for third period. More on this in class.
You're going to hear this all week, but I will reiterate it here - the assembly is a Big Deal. Get some sleep and eat some breakfast.
It's going to be a busy week, but the next two should be regular and - well, easy isn't a word I'd pick, but ordinary ... well, I hope not.
CS
For this week, here's what's coming:
Lecture - Kinetics, Week II. Basic calculus and the Integrated Rate Law. Graphical analysis of reaction rates. Collision theory. We'll probably finish this on Monday.
We need to figure out which day, if any, we'll be coming up on the weekend for catchup. Food will be provided.
Lab - UNKNOWNS. Week One. What you've all been working for. You must be finished with your unknowns by 400PM, Friday, December 19. You will more than likely need to come in and spend some extra time to give yourself enough time to finish without a time panic.
We'll need to talk about weekend lab time, too. This will be optional.
Exam - Thermodynamics. Thursday, 7/8 or 8/9. Pick a slot and tell me before Thursday.
Special Event - You will be in Assembly by 800AM on Friday morning. There will be an assembly lasting for most or all of first and second period. Class will resume as normal for third period. More on this in class.
You're going to hear this all week, but I will reiterate it here - the assembly is a Big Deal. Get some sleep and eat some breakfast.
It's going to be a busy week, but the next two should be regular and - well, easy isn't a word I'd pick, but ordinary ... well, I hope not.
CS
Saturday, November 29, 2008
CHEM: Week 14 - Forecasting
Back we come. Fourteen days for all of my classes between now and Winter Break, except Third, which gets to have class all fifteen days.
Major topics for the week:
Lecture - The beginnings of atomic theory. Democritus, Dalton, Thomson. Most of the information will come from class, not your book. Most books give pretty short shrift to early atomic theory, but you can't tell a story without Chapter 1. So, take good notes.
Lab - Week One of something completely different. You'll love it. Well, maybe not. But you will be surprised.
Major assignments -
Experiment 8 - Finish and write report. Due Thursday.
Experiment 12 - Write report. Due Thursday.
Gas Law review sheet - "due" Friday. The format and setup will be the same as the stoichiometry review sheet. This will not be picked up for credit. I will give out a key for the sheet on Friday.
Special Event - You will be in Assembly by 800AM on Friday morning. There will be an assembly lasting for most or all of first and second period. Class will resume as normal for third period. More on this in class.
You're going to hear this all week, but I will reiterate it here - the assembly is a Big Deal. Get some sleep and eat some breakfast.
Exam - the gases/gas laws exam will be on Monday, December 8, due to the special assembly on Friday.
That's all I can think of for now. More later.
CS
Major topics for the week:
Lecture - The beginnings of atomic theory. Democritus, Dalton, Thomson. Most of the information will come from class, not your book. Most books give pretty short shrift to early atomic theory, but you can't tell a story without Chapter 1. So, take good notes.
Lab - Week One of something completely different. You'll love it. Well, maybe not. But you will be surprised.
Major assignments -
Experiment 8 - Finish and write report. Due Thursday.
Experiment 12 - Write report. Due Thursday.
Gas Law review sheet - "due" Friday. The format and setup will be the same as the stoichiometry review sheet. This will not be picked up for credit. I will give out a key for the sheet on Friday.
Special Event - You will be in Assembly by 800AM on Friday morning. There will be an assembly lasting for most or all of first and second period. Class will resume as normal for third period. More on this in class.
You're going to hear this all week, but I will reiterate it here - the assembly is a Big Deal. Get some sleep and eat some breakfast.
Exam - the gases/gas laws exam will be on Monday, December 8, due to the special assembly on Friday.
That's all I can think of for now. More later.
CS
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Cool Link of the Day: What DO bears do in the woods?
"Ever wonder what a bear really does in the woods? Scientists finally are answering that question, thanks to some high-tech cameras hooked to an equally high-tech Internet uplink. More important, the solar-powered remote sensors also are helping biologists to catch just the bear they want, when they want."
Here's a video of a wolf and bear cubs playing around - no joke - with Mama Bear not liking any of it.
Next up: Hooking bear trap cages to a remote-controlled trigger, so that the rangers can capture just the bear they want.
Faaaaantastic.
Here's a video of a wolf and bear cubs playing around - no joke - with Mama Bear not liking any of it.
Next up: Hooking bear trap cages to a remote-controlled trigger, so that the rangers can capture just the bear they want.
Faaaaantastic.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
AP CHEM: Opening message 081308
THE FIRST WEEKS
The first few weeks of AP Chem will hold few surprises for you. We will re-cover the basic chemistry skills you learned in the first trimester of your sophomore chemistry course, albeit at an accelerated rate. The first unit will include basic mathematics, classification of matter, chemical reactions and equation balancing, the mole, nomenclature, and stoichiometry. Advanced reactions (redox, precipitation and complexation) and gases will be covered in the second unit. After that, the REAL fun begins.
We will cover all the necessary material in class. However, we expect that you have retained or will quickly recover the following skills:
--nomenclature, including the Stock system ( Iron(II) vs Iron(III) )
--writing chemical formulas/charge balance for salts
--balancing equations
--molar math/unit conversions
--the metric system
--sig figs
If you find you are having difficulty with these topics when we go over them, make sure you ask questions and come in for extra help. We are not going to spend a week on nomenclature like we did sophomore year - more like a day, maybe a bit more. It should come back to you quickly. Those skills have found a quick footing in students' heads in the past.
GEAR
You will need to buy a comp book for your lab reports as you did in your first-year course. You DO NOT need to buy goggles prior to class starting. The student store is still being set up. We will provide goggles for you if the store doesn't have them available by Day 1. My section has Lab on the first day of class, so I wouldn't expect you to have goggles yet anyway.
You DO need to have some gloves to use in lab. The little bags of gloves for sale in the student store will not be sufficient for your lab work this year; in fact one bag might not last the first month! Bring your gloves to class for the first lab period.
Go buy a box of 100 gloves/50 pair from a CVS or Walgreens pharmacy. There are several types of gloves, but the two you should look at are the regular latex gloves and the nitrile gloves. The latex gloves you used last year tend to be less expensive, but less durable. The nitrile gloves are normally blue; they are more expensive but tend to be more durable physically (less ripping). Some students like the feel of the nitrile gloves better; they feel a little thicker than latex but are less pliant. It's your preference as to which gloves you would like to use - both provide sufficient chemical protection - but anything more expensive than nitrile would be overkill. The gloves should be disposable; don't buy the heavy-duty butadiene gloves and expect them to survive being crumpled up in your drawer.
If you and some of your classmates run out of gloves, you can get a glove pool together and buy common boxes to share. However, you will not be allowed to "borrow" gloves from other students unless we KNOW you're in the pool! You can set this up at the beginning if you wish, but if one of you forgets to buy a new box for the pool, you may find yourselves making up lab after school, when you have your gloves.
Your schedules should be available at the school's website this Friday, August 15, barring any complications. You can discuss among yourselves what you would like to do. My preference is for individual purchase, but we've done the pool before and it's worked fine.
INFORMATION FROM YOU
What I need from each of you, as soon as possible, is your coat size in inches. We will buy each of you a 100% cotton full-length lab coat, which you will prep and tie-dye and wear in lab. If everyone sends me his coat size - I need the numbers, not S/M/L/whatever - early, I can get the coats ordered before school starts. If I have to wait until school starts to get your sizes, then it will be several weeks into the year before we can find a timeslot to tie-dye. I will only order coats once I have everyone's coat size, so get that done. Reply here and I'll keep track.
That's all I have for now. Watch this space for more.
The first few weeks of AP Chem will hold few surprises for you. We will re-cover the basic chemistry skills you learned in the first trimester of your sophomore chemistry course, albeit at an accelerated rate. The first unit will include basic mathematics, classification of matter, chemical reactions and equation balancing, the mole, nomenclature, and stoichiometry. Advanced reactions (redox, precipitation and complexation) and gases will be covered in the second unit. After that, the REAL fun begins.
We will cover all the necessary material in class. However, we expect that you have retained or will quickly recover the following skills:
--nomenclature, including the Stock system ( Iron(II) vs Iron(III) )
--writing chemical formulas/charge balance for salts
--balancing equations
--molar math/unit conversions
--the metric system
--sig figs
If you find you are having difficulty with these topics when we go over them, make sure you ask questions and come in for extra help. We are not going to spend a week on nomenclature like we did sophomore year - more like a day, maybe a bit more. It should come back to you quickly. Those skills have found a quick footing in students' heads in the past.
GEAR
You will need to buy a comp book for your lab reports as you did in your first-year course. You DO NOT need to buy goggles prior to class starting. The student store is still being set up. We will provide goggles for you if the store doesn't have them available by Day 1. My section has Lab on the first day of class, so I wouldn't expect you to have goggles yet anyway.
You DO need to have some gloves to use in lab. The little bags of gloves for sale in the student store will not be sufficient for your lab work this year; in fact one bag might not last the first month! Bring your gloves to class for the first lab period.
Go buy a box of 100 gloves/50 pair from a CVS or Walgreens pharmacy. There are several types of gloves, but the two you should look at are the regular latex gloves and the nitrile gloves. The latex gloves you used last year tend to be less expensive, but less durable. The nitrile gloves are normally blue; they are more expensive but tend to be more durable physically (less ripping). Some students like the feel of the nitrile gloves better; they feel a little thicker than latex but are less pliant. It's your preference as to which gloves you would like to use - both provide sufficient chemical protection - but anything more expensive than nitrile would be overkill. The gloves should be disposable; don't buy the heavy-duty butadiene gloves and expect them to survive being crumpled up in your drawer.
If you and some of your classmates run out of gloves, you can get a glove pool together and buy common boxes to share. However, you will not be allowed to "borrow" gloves from other students unless we KNOW you're in the pool! You can set this up at the beginning if you wish, but if one of you forgets to buy a new box for the pool, you may find yourselves making up lab after school, when you have your gloves.
Your schedules should be available at the school's website this Friday, August 15, barring any complications. You can discuss among yourselves what you would like to do. My preference is for individual purchase, but we've done the pool before and it's worked fine.
INFORMATION FROM YOU
What I need from each of you, as soon as possible, is your coat size in inches. We will buy each of you a 100% cotton full-length lab coat, which you will prep and tie-dye and wear in lab. If everyone sends me his coat size - I need the numbers, not S/M/L/whatever - early, I can get the coats ordered before school starts. If I have to wait until school starts to get your sizes, then it will be several weeks into the year before we can find a timeslot to tie-dye. I will only order coats once I have everyone's coat size, so get that done. Reply here and I'll keep track.
That's all I have for now. Watch this space for more.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
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