Welcome to this special edition of Jenessa’s Chem 1000 Blog, brought to you from Lake Almanor, CA! We arrived yesterday evening after 12 hours of travel, me with textbook, notebooks, computer, scanner, and lab supplies in tow. When chemistry homework will allow, I am more than ready to kick back and enjoy the next week or so sunning, swimming and enjoying everything the mountains have to offer. It looks a little drab in the pictures, since we’ve got some cold weather, rain, and thunderstorms (imbalance of charges!) in the forecast tomorrow… so the sunning plans will have to go on hold for a few days. If I’m going to be stuck inside, though, it’ll be a good time to really work ahead on the assignments for this week!

This past week I read chapters 3 and 4 in the textbook (on “Matter and Energy” and “Elements and Molecules,” respectively). I remember all of the material from high school chemistry, so I was still in review mode. The one thing from chapter 3 that I’ll need to keep working on is the math involved with temperature scales and changes. I can do the math with no problems, but it’s remembering all the conversions and formulas that gets me. I enjoyed re-visiting the periodic table in chapter 4; I’ve always enjoyed studying the elements. I also enjoy the math aspect of it much more than the conversions we were dealing with earlier. I’m not sure exactly why, but maybe it’s because I feel like a detective trying to solve a mystery (like when we’re given fractions of isotopes and asked to find the atomic mass). Overall I felt that the reading was understandable, though since I didn’t really learn anything new it wasn’t exactly interesting. The one exception was reading about the radioactive isotopes in the “Chemistry in the Environment” section on page 110. Since we live within an hour or so of the troubled San Onofre power plant I appreciated learning more about how these plants work.

Thinking about how these readings tie into my major, dental hygiene… I don’t see a direct connection in how I would use what I learned. However, certain elements are used in the dental field, so learning about the trends and characteristics of elements on the periodic table would help me understand why an element like titanium would be used in dentistry. In fact, when I started researching titanium for my elemental brochure, I was surprised to see that it was used for both dental implants and in toothpaste.

Speaking of the brochure assignment, I really enjoyed working on it. I had no idea that titanium had been named after the Titans, and since I love Greek mythology I thought that was a fun fact. I also had been told that titanium wedding rings were too strong to be cut off if the finger began to swell, so it was interesting to discover that wasn’t true. I enjoyed looking at my classmates’ brochures as well. I thought the brochure on mercury was fascinating, especially reading about how it has been found in Egyptian tombs (I’m also a history fan, so seeing chemistry tying in with ancient civilizations is especially fun for me).

I have really been enjoying “Uncle Tungsten”; even though I’m not nearly as passionate about chemistry as he is, some of his enthusiasm rubs off on me! In the first chapter we read this week he talked about the development of the periodic table. I loved the different ways he described the table… a gorgeous banquet set with eighty-some dishes, different realms or kingdoms, and, perhaps my favorite, the enchanted garden of Mendeleev. I also thought it was fascinating that Mendeleev was able to tell which elements had yet to be discovered and was able to predict what their characteristics would be. In the next chapter he talked about spectroscopy – a method of detecting elements through the colors they produce. The fact that this method could be used to see that helium is present in the sun is amazing. The final chapter discussed the importance of the atomic number in determining the physical and chemical properties of elements. What I found most interesting about these readings actually came from the footnotes. Reading about Moseley’s “charming and boyish” spectroscopy experiment with a train and then reading about his death in WWI was surprisingly moving. I had never thought of these brilliant minds as being among those fighting in the trenches, but it reinforced the terrible toll that war takes on almost every aspect of life. I was also fascinated by the fact that the German scientist Noddack had been right about the atom being split but was ignored because of previously unsubstantiated claims. Thank God for those unsubstantiated claims… it’s amazing that something so seemingly unimportant could’ve been the difference between Germany with the atomic bomb instead of without it.

I watched all of the videos for this unit before doing the readings. Some of them, such as “How to Read Periodic Table Symbols” and “Valence Electrons” were review. But I thought the videos “Groups on the Periodic Table,” “Periodic Trends” and “Electronegativity and Polarity” were very helpful. I do best when things are explained in a very simple, straightforward manner without any frills, like those videos were. I am so happy that we had a video on “Condensed Electron Configuration.” When I watched the “Electron Configuration” video and realized what the longer formulas would look like I thought “Oh boy… I’m in trouble…” And then I watched the “Condensed” version and thought “Whew!” Here are the two videos side by side so you can see what I mean!

Lab this week was fairly straightforward, but turned out to be more time-consuming than I thought. I wanted to do labs 2 and 3 at the same time to give myself a little breathing room at the end of the week while prepping for the trip. I goofed a bit on the steel wool/water part of experiment 2 and measured the water levels on the containers instead of the jars. I need to sit down and read these labs word for word so I don’t keep making silly mistakes like that. Other than that, my main problem was keeping my younger siblings out of the M&Ms and Skittles experiment 3. Whenever the instructions read “Dispose of candies” I had no problems finding willing takers.

I also got a little ahead in the ALEKS homework this week, which was a big help. I have found the ALEKS homework to be helpful in some respects, but in others I find it lacking a bit. Let’s start with the helpful aspects. I like how it’s able to determine what you need to work on and what you already know. It’s very satisfying to see the progress on the pie chart, and the homework problems are very well set up. On the less-than-ideal side, it’s very frustrating when you get a concept down but are marked wrong due to a math error and are given more problems to work on (and if there’s another math error the cycle continues). I know it can’t tell where I went wrong in my math, but I think that’s where paper-and-pencil homework has the advantage. That way I can see that I actually do understand the concept but goofed on a significant figure in the calculations or on rounding. It’s a tough call when doing online homework. I think my ideal homework program would be something like ALEKS, but with a section that allows you to do the problem step-by-step and checks each step to make sure you’re on the right track. That way, instead of going back and doing the complex problem over again (and then discovering the answer isn’t 6.0 but 6.1), you’re able to see exactly where you went wrong.

Speaking of goofing on math problems, I took my first exam today. It was a bit of an ordeal. Of course, we were traveling all day yesterday so it was difficult for me to review. Today the Wifi at the house crashed so I wasn’t able to check our objectives to see what exactly to review. I went over the textbook and did some practice problems, waited to see if the Wifi would come back so I could review… and then realized that I needed Wifi to take the test. When it became clear the Wifi was AWOL I went down and sat outside the realtor’s office to take the test. I wasn’t expecting to see so many math-related problems, and I started blanking on lots of the conversion factors. Usually with some time I’m able to collect my thoughts and get rolling, and I can go back and check my work, but with only about 2 minutes for each problem time wasn’t a luxury I had! I eventually settled in and I was able to solve each problem, but after seeing my grade I suspect lots of those little math errors came back to bite me. Between that, my frustration over the internet situation and my disappointment that I hadn’t been able to prepare better, chocolate was necessary when I got back to the cabin. Well, at least now I have a better idea of what to expect. The first exam with any new class is always nerve-wracking.

So ends week 2 of Chem 1000. I feel like I’m navigating the sites better, and I’m enjoying interacting with the other students on the discussion boards. On the other hand, it was stressful trying to work ahead in preparation for this weekend, and my exam grade is a bit of a bummer. But hopefully this week will be more chill and I’ll be better prepared for my next exam. And now I’m off to the realtor’s office again to get this posted. Until next time!

Updated from realtor’s parking lot: So I just saw my final grade and it wasn’t as bad as I thought. That makes me feel more energized about tackling this week’s work!