This is what it says on his website. Look at the posts from 06/28/10 to 07/07/10, but specifically look at 07/07/10. Our test that we took was our midterm.
Sorry to keep bothering you. I just want to prove that I am not taking a take home exam :)
---------------------------------------
GENERAL CHEMISTRY
CHEM 1C, Course Code: 40190
Quarter: Summer Session I 2010
Dr. Shaka
What's new?
From time to time I need to disseminate important information to you, without delay. While we have a class e-mail list, some people allow their mailboxes to become too full, resulting in bounced messages. Others do not check their e-mail as regularly as they should, or may have some difficulty accessing e-mail from other Internet access points off campus. For non-UCI students taking the course, we may not even have an up-to-date address. Obviously, a bounced message about an exam change, or something like that, is not good. To minimize these kinds of SNAFUs, I will try to post important information here, and update it as necessary. It will be your responsibility to check this page and make sure that you know what's up. For some items, this page will be my only method of communicating with you, so act accordingly. The advantage of this way of working is that you may check this page from any Internet access point (read Starbuck's, your car, the breezeways at the Library, your phone (maybe) or wherever else you like to "study" aside from a proper, quiet room at the library) and that you can make a habit of bringing up the page each day or so, to keep yourself abreast of all the latest developments. It also minimizes spam and other unwanted e-mail from reaching your inbox.
----------------------------------------
Wednesday, 7/7/10 Many of the short answer exams were excellent! If your score is 65 or higher on this section, you knew exactly what you were doing. But, if not, then go over the exam yourself and try to see how you can improve for the next one. A total score, with the scantron portion included, of >110 is a solid A. This Friday, 7/9 we have our third quiz, which will be exclusively focused on the reading in Chapter 13. Look over the kinetics material in detail.
----------------------------------------
Tuesday, 7/6/10, later Here are the answers to the Review Problems I made up. See how you did!
----------------------------------------
Tuesday, 7/6/10 No room large enough for any organized review is available today. Check the up-to-date Seating Chart, especially if you have requested a left-hand seat or asked to be added to the roster. Come armed with #2 pencil, calculator, and your wits. We will supply a Periodic Table, but there are no formulas at all listed on the exam. You should know Ka, pH, and so on, and how to obtain the answer to the required accuracy. The exam is from 10 am to 10:50 am, so we will begin handing out the materials at 9:50 am. Please make sure you know your seat assignment!
----------------------------------------
Monday, 7/5/10, later Amber wanted to share a partial key for some of the week 1 discussion sheet problems. She will also have additional office hours Tuesday (tomorrow) at 2 pm on the 2nd floor of FRH (Frederick Reines Hall, the large building closest to the Espresso Cafe near the hybrid tea rose garden). Do take a moment to smell the roses. Professor Penner and I chose them individually and care for them throughout the year. All except one are very fragrant!
----------------------------------------
Sunday, 7/4/10, later Here are some Review Problems to have a look at while the fireworks go off. Answers, but not methods, will be posted Monday or Tuesday. You should be able to do problems like these.
----------------------------------------
Sunday, 7/4/10 By way of clarification: our first exam focuses primarily on Chs. 14 and 15. Topics we went over in Lecture are also fair game, but Ch. 16 will not play any major role. Review the assigned Problems from Chs. 14 and 15 only, for this exam. When I want a certain number of significant digits, I will tell you what I want. If there is no specification, try to obtain 3 digits. Accuracy will count. Some review problems will appear in due course. Do not put the rest of the course on "hold" while preparing for the exam. We will finish Ch. 13 quickly, and move on to other material. The next exam, which will be in less than 2 weeks will feature Chs. 13-16 (I inadvertently left 16 off the list on the Syllabus) and so keeping pace is paramount. Take the exams "in stride" rather than making an elaborate pit stop for each one. This race keeps running!
----------------------------------------
Friday, 7/2/10 Please look at the attached Seating Chart for our midterm exam next Wednesday. I have not assigned any of the seats for left-handers. If you would like a left-hand seat, please send me an e-mail with your full name and the current seat you have been assigned, and make the subject line of the e-mail "Left Hand Seat Midterm 1 2010" so that I can dig it out of the bevy of messages. I will give you a left-hand seat, and tell you what it is. Please also bring your UCI ID, or a Driver's License if you are from another school. To prepare yourself, please review all the assigned book problems, and those on the Discussion Sheets. Practice determining pH, [H+] and the like, and get good at doing it quickly and accurately. Any method you would like to try is fine with me... as long as it results in the correct answer. N.B. An answer, of any sort, that could only arise from a different version of the exam will be sure to land you in very hot water.
----------------------------------------
Wednesday, 6/30/10, later We are on track to complete Chapter 16 this week. Midterm is next Wednesday 7/7/10 at 10 am sharp, for 50 minutes. There will be 50 points as multiple choice questions, and 75 points as short answer. The level of the questions will be like the easier problems on the Discussion Sheets, and the problems that were assigned work from our textbook. I will outline exactly what areas I consider to be important on Friday, and hope that we may be able to organize a mini-review on Tuesday, as a refresher.
----------------------------------------
Wednesday, 6/30/10 With respect to equations involving Kp I prefer to explicitly include the standard pressure (1 atm, symbol p°) to remind myself that pressure should be in atmospheres when figuring Kp. Pressure is often quoted in psi, bar, mm Hg, torr, etc., and using the wrong numerical values will give an incorrect value for Kp. Always remember that Kp has no units; also changing the pressure does not change Kp. Gas equilibria shift for exactly this reason: the pressure goes up or down, but the value of Kp is the same, so the partial pressure of the reactants and products have to adjust to bring the system back to equilibrium.
----------------------------------------
Monday, 6/28/10 Achtung! WebWorK has been reopened until the end of today for the first two assignments. Some students downloaded last quarter's syllabus. While most of it is okay, the due dates are not, because the Spring Quarter has 10 weeks, not five. Please try to complete all the work ASAP, and then keep up for the other labs. Also... a quiz on Wednesday, and a midterm a week from Wednesday.
----------------------------------------
Friday, 6/25/10 To those of you who made errors on the first quiz: (1) please read the instructions-- you were only to do either the A questions or the B questions, not both! When in doubt, just ask. I will clarify things. (2) We shall replace the lowest quiz score with the highest, so one bad outcome need not affect anything. (3) Our next quiz is Wednesday as some people leave town for the long 4th of July weekend, and I wanted to allow them to do so if they want. The material will be mostly acids, bases, and sparingly soluble salts. See the second week Discussion Sheet for guidance.
----------------------------------------
Thursday, 6/24/10 A comparative cognitive scientist considers the effects of high-calorie diets on the brain. Don't gorge before the quiz!
Journal club
Nicola Clayton
Nature Volume: 465, Page: 989
Date published: (24 June 2010)
It is well established that an excessive intake of high-calorie foods, unless coupled with plenty of exercise, leads to obesity, which is a growing public-health concern. As a dancer and a scientist, I am well aware of the intimate connection between the body and the brain, and not at all surprised by the recent accumulation of evidence showing that a high-calorie diet leads to a suite of cognitive impairments, particularly in memory. What is striking, however, is how quickly the effects can occur and how selective they are.
Scott Kanoski and Terry Davidson at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, studied the effects of a high-energy diet on the memory performance of rats trained in a radial-arm maze (S. E. Kanoski and T. L. Davidson J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Proc. 36, 313-319; 2010). They found that maintaining rats on a high-energy diet for just 72 hours was sufficient to result in a marked impairment in spatial memory. Deficits in non-spatial memory took much longer to detect, emerging only after 30 days. Spatial skills are therefore particularly vulnerable.
This finding has important implications for our own lifestyle. Clearly, consuming an excessively high-calorie diet can result in marked decreases in cognitive abilities, especially in spatial memory. The fact that this occurs in such a short space of time, prior to any significant gain in body weight, suggests that diet-induced cognitive impairments could contribute to, rather than simply be a consequence of, obesity. So hide the high-calorie foods - if out of sight is out of mind, it might just save your brain!
Reference:
Different patterns of memory impairments accompany short- and longer-term maintenance on a high-energy diet.
Kanoski SE, Davidson TL.
J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process. 2010 Apr;36(2):313-9.
PMID: 20384410
----------------------------------------
Monday, 6/21/10 later Please be aware that you have to come dressed appropriately for the laboratory course. No open-toed shoes, no shorts, bathing suits or any other ridiculous ideas. If you want to, you can always change your clothes for the lab, and then change back into something less protective. Chemicals can cause bad burns, blindness, and other injury. Guard your eyes with goggles, keep your hair out of the way, and cover up as much bare skin as you can. You'll be glad you did if anything unexpected should happen. We have an excellent safety record, and we want to keep it that way. No exceptions.
----------------------------------------
Monday, 6/21/10 pm I will post
abbreviated versions of the slides after each lecture. I still believe in taking notes, though. Reading, writing, and listening work together to bring the material into focus. If you aren't taking notes, you won't do as well. I hope the laboratory experience is not too hectic. The first two webworks assignments are due by 5 pm on 6-25-10. The main Webwork page is homework.ps.uci.edu where you can select the 2010 Summer Session 1 Chemistry 1LC to access the login page. Students that do not have a UCInetID or that add late should contact the staff by using the supplied help form on the main Webwork page. Do it now. You may not have time later. We are already 6% through the course!
----------------------------------------
Sunday, 6/20/10 pm Happy Father's Day. Think carefully before you become one. There is more to it than meets the eye. Our syllabus has firmed up with office hours and other information available, so please download the latest version of the class syllabus. Some students have been disqualified from taking the course by not meeting the prerequisites, so some spots may become available. If you want to take the course, pretend you are already taking it, and cross your fingers.
----------------------------------------Thursday, 6/17/10 pm Please download the new version of the class syllabus. There have been some changes. This class is essentially full, but the only way to "add" is to attend the class and hope. Some students may drop out for various reasons, and spots may open up. If so, you'll probably have to be very flexible with respect to laboratory sections. Good luck! I hope we can accommodate everyone who wants to take the course.
----------------------------------------Wednesday, 6/16/10 pm We're live! Download the syllabus, read Chapters 14 and 15, in either the 9th or 10 Edition of Chang, and work out the assigned problems. Catalina will go over these problems in Discussion Sessions during the first week, as well as the questions that I have laid out on the Discussion Sheet. Our exams will have problems of similar difficulty to these problems. You should be able to do them without looking back at the chapter, or getting lost in the details. If not, review the material again and/or ask plenty of questions about how to tackle the problems. It is not important exactly what method you use to get the answer, as long as it's all your own work and the answer is correct. See you all on Monday! First Quiz is on Friday, covering the reading for Chapters 14 and 15.
----------------------------------------
The Electronic Educational Environment
University of California, Irvine
Based on the information provided, the post from 07/07/10 states that many of the short answer exams were excellent, and a score of 65 or higher indicates a solid understanding of the material. It also mentions that there will be a third quiz on 07/09 that will focus exclusively on the reading in Chapter 13, specifically on kinetics.
To find this information, you can visit Dr. Shaka's website and look for the posts from 06/28/10 to 07/07/10. Then, specifically look for the post on 07/07/10.