Chem.501/502, summer 2006 reflection
When I started these classes couple months ago, I was really excited about what I’m
going to learn here at UPenn.
I was sure it would be a big challenge
especially when it comes to Organic chemistry, but I accepted the challenge as I
always do in my life.
Day after
another I became overwhelmed with the workload, but I made it through, thanks
to all (great teachers, amazing TAs, and wonderful group).
Chem.501:
I have learned a lot in this
class, in this class we had approached many old topics in a different and
deeper ways, also hit on many new topics I never heard of it before.
I liked more those topics which
I can use in my classroom such as valence electrons, Lewis structures, electronegativity,
acid- base, bonding ……..
For sure I had learned a lot,
not only those topics I had before in my previous education but also new materials
like all of those ways to draw in Chemistry (Neumann, line-angles, fisher
bonding-nonbonding…..).
Working in groups is another
character of Chem.501, as much as I like it and intend to implement it in some
of my classes but somehow I still enjoy traditional way, I found that my
learning style is different, I need more time to go over the material and
digest it first then I can handle it in a nicer way with my group, I know this is
not the case for everyone but that’s how I see it.
Chem.502
I love labs; I had learned
some new techniques I can use with my students, especially this school year I’ll
teach Honor lab, it took me almost 6-8 hours to write one lab, for the first
time I used Chem draw and chem3D.
Even though Organic lab usually
take long time but it was an enjoyable time, no need to talk about the technology
part or the webpage, at the begging building web-page was a real pain, but now I
like it and spend more time to improve my webpage, I’ll use it for my school
too with my classes and it’s really a good product of Chem. 502, I wish I can
use blackboard for my classes and the drop box, I need to find out more about
it.
I was in a big need to go
over different styles for writing labs, I had my education from overseas where
it’s different style from here, but I’m teaching here and I want to prepare my
students for their college in the best way.
Proposal
I believe I’ll start to teach
my students about formal charge, I use to give them a table for the famous
groups like SO4, OH and they had to memorize some charges there, but now I’ll
ask them to calculate it and no more given tables.
Bonding, intermolecular
forces, VSPER, and Lewis structures would be other topics I’ll hit hard on them
much more than before.
I believe in 501 I have very
good POGIL, and I would try to use them for the first time in my classes.