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.