OVERALL Update

Nine weeks into my sabbatical, here is a list of what I have done so far:

Lab Manual:

I have gone through every lab to be revised, cleaned up the OCR files, revised safety precautions and incorporated other changes based on my notes from teaching the classes and notes from other faculty.  These changes include redrawing structures of molecules, correcting chemical formulas and symbols, cleaning up tables, graphs, and figures, rewriting chemical equations, and rewriting calculation steps.  Other changes include removing any references to the use of mercury, rewriting instructions for new equipment such as the pH meters and the Vernier visible spectrometers, replacing some chemical reagents.  I also have spent close to 20 hours improving upon the 30B Lab 19.2.  I also have spent 5 hours trying out a new set of salts for Lab 3102.  Notes and changes are documented in an Excel spreadsheet.  For each revised lab, I have detailed notes of what changes have been made both in an excel spreadsheet and highlighted in blue with accompanying comments in the annotated versions.  I will be posting these annotated versions for review by faculty and lab staff.

SLO Research:

I have completed descriptions of the SLO process for at least 3 colleges (Santa Rosa JC, Contra Costa College, and Mt. San Antonio College).  These three Colleges responded to questions by e-mail.  I have also perused the City College of San Francisco website and I believe I can have all my questions answered from their website.  I am still waiting for two more responses (Chabot College and Sacramento City College).

Based on what I have learned from the 4 colleges, I have written up a proposal for our own Chemistry Program SLO Implementation process that I have sent to my full-time colleagues.

Micro-Physio Questions

I have perused the lab manuals for the Physiology Course and Microbiology Course that Jill and Barbara have lent me.  I am also 3/4 done perusing relevant chapters and sections from the text used in the Physiology course (Silverthorn).  Up to date, I have written 65 questions, mostly for the 30A course but some for the 30B course as well.  The topics covered range from unit conversion and dimensional analysis, density, solution concentrations including osmolarities, gases, acid-base and pH, redox, nomenclature and molecular structure, etc.

I have also written 32 slides worth of notes to incorporate into my lectures for 30A and 30B.

Book Reading

I have read 3 books so far out of the 15.  I have started my fourth book.

Article Reading

I have collected some 20 or so articles for reading.  I am sure that reading these articles will generate more articles that will go on the list.

Lab Manual Update

I finalize the new Lab 19.2 and cleaned up the original one.

I posted all of the annotated pdfs for review.  I will send an email tomorrow.

I downloaded some new labs to review.

Tomorrow, I will:

Run lab 3102

CuO empirical formula lab

Review the downloaded labs

Complete the questions from the Silverthorn text

Prepare answer keys

Send 2 more SLO inquiry emails

Lab Manual Update

I have gone through all the printed copies of revised 30A labs and incorporated further changes.

I did not print out the 31 and 30B labs as there are too many pages but double checked everything.  I have redrawn most if not all of the molecular structures.

I also revised the articles "Why Study Chemistry?" And "Information for the Instructor" written by Jim Adams along with Reading 11.1 Why the Metric System.

I also did two more experiments for 19.2.  The absorbances still are 1.2 for the highest concentration standard but both plots were pretty linear.  I have completed rewriting the new lab 19.2.

I will post all of the annotated versions on google drive tomorrow.

Lab Manual Update

I made hardcopies of the 30A revised labs and started the process of checking spacing and making other corrections.

Micro-Physio Questions Update

Continued to peruse the Silverthorn text.  I read several pages of Chapter 17 on gases.  Now starting Chapter 18.

Jill sent me a copy of her syllabus.

Added more questions and notes, on gases in particular.

Micro-Physio Questions Update

Today, I continued to peruse Silverthorn's Human Physiology text, Coursesmart ebook 6th edition.

I e-mailed Barbara and Jill to ask for a syllabus so I know what chapters they cover.  Barbara sent me a link to hers.  She does not cover all of the 25 chapters.

I just started Chap 17 and have come up with 25 questions.  I also continue to take notes useful for addition to discussion of relevant chem 30A concepts.

Lab Manual Update

I have reviewed all of the Chem 31 labs and 30B labs again.  I am almost done replacing molecular structures with new drawings.  There may be 3-4 labs left where I have to redraw more complex molecules.

I queried Rob Schmidt about Lab 3.1 which he just finished with his class last week.  I sent him a revised version incorporating his changes.  He immediately got back to me today, answering my questions!

I am not sure what the next steps are:

1) I still have a few questions to ask Gerry.

2) I am still working on a replacement set of salts for Lab 3102.

3) I have not tried out the Cu-AgNO3 possible replacement for the empirical formula lab.

4) I still have to try out one last time and finalize 30B Lab 19.2

5)  I am thinking I should look at print copies of the labs before I actually post them for review.