I'm thinking about simplifying covalent Lewis structure procedure to have students just line up unpaired electrons to form bonds. We're not doing exceptions to the rules (no expanded octets) and every one I've tried so far has worked. My "rightness" alarm is ringing a little, but for conceptual understanding, I think it will work for this first year class. #chemistry #teaching

Today in the classroom: First year chem is taking a short quiz on ions and ionic bonds. Then, we'll do some simple Lewis diagrams for covalent compounds. Second year chem is collecting hydrogen gas over water and doing some stoichiometry to round out our gases mini unit. #chemistry #teaching :cupofcoffee:

Because I couldn't find any plain language documentation on how to use docutils, I reluctantly turned to Google Gemini. I now have a minimally working script that I can build off of. This took way too much effort and I'm not thrilled that the only way I could find help was to use an LLM. At the same time, this feels the very _first_ time one has actually been useful to me.

Today in the classroom: First year chem is comparing and contrasting ionic and covalent bond mechanisms and drawing diagrams all over the place. They take a quiz tomorrow. Second year chem is wrapping up gases with partial pressures. We'll collect gas over water tomorrow to learn a new technique and do some stoichiometry with the results. #chemistry #teaching :cupofcoffee:

I've been reading the documentation for docutils on and off all night and I understand less than when I started. I keep losing the api docs about what methods exist on what elements and I just want to give up.

is there a way to parse reStructuredText files in #python and get _only_ the body text? The rst2html5 tool gives and entire HTML5 document, but I don't want any of the head syntax, just the body. The purpose is to work through a directory of .rst and .md files to convert and store output html into a sqlite database. #askfedi #webdev

I think I'm going to write a small script to run through my blog's markdown files and import them into the database just to see what happens. I'm liking the idea more and more of going back to a small web-based CMS for the main blog, but I want to preserve all the history.

Students have started using the term "cardio" when they think they're being asked to do too much. It isn't only a quantity of work, it can also be used when they're annoyed about the depth of the work. This has _really_ gotten under my skin and bugs me way more than the whole "67" thing. "67" is nonsensical and goofy. "cardio" is a specific complaint that learning should always be scaled down to the absolute minimum. I may need to talk with some individuals today.

Today in the classroom: First year chem will do Lewis diagrams for ionic compounds. They'll draw neutral atoms and then use arrows to show which atoms lose electrons and where they go. This will baby-step us into writing ionic compound formulas. Second year chem is wrestling with their first lab report for the semester over their Charles' Law data. They'll have today to finish graphs and submit. We'll do partial pressures next week & collect gas over water. #chemistry #teaching :cupofcoffee: