Since I don't have to wake up early tomorrow, I made some progress tonight on an importer to move markdown and restructuredtext files into my new blog engine.
Today in the classroom:
First year chem is wrapping up ionic and covalent bonding. We'll draw some Lewis structures together on whiteboards and then they'll have time to work on their review materials for the test on Friday.
Second year chem is wrapping up gases. We'll do AP Chem practice multiple choice questions and a couple calculations before they finish up their weekly homework. No test this week, we'll move into kinetics tomorrow.
#chemistry #teaching :cupofcoffee:
Blech...I'm not done with work for today, but I need to finish it up before I can do other things because I'm going in late tomorrow and I lose some of my planning time.
Two observations:
1. This article confirms my thoughts about simplifying covalent Lewis structures for my students.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ed075p317
2. This article is also 28 years old and would still cost me $50 to read, all to ACS, not the authors.
I'll stick with the abstract confirming my thoughts.
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:
