Book Reading Update

I have started reading my second book on the four laws of tehrmodynamics, also by Atkins.

I have also started reading a book on the history of the field of electromagnetism byput decided to set it aside for now.

Lab Manual Conversion to Electronic Files Update

I have completed the first stage of cleaning up the OCR files for 30A and 30B and only one experiment left for 31.  As I do these clean-ups, I have been documenting the small changes I have been making, a list of suggested further changes, and tasks that need to be done in the lab.  I have sent one of these to both Rob Schmidt and Richard Grow for comments for the 30A lab manual.

Start of Chemistry SLO RESEARCH

Today I took the first step in my research for the implementation of student learning outcomes process for various community college programs.  I decided that my strategy would be to, first of all, gather as much as I can from websites and then contact individuals by email to request responses to four or five questions I have outlined in my sabbatical proposal:  what the SLO's are, how they are assesed, what type of analysis and dialogue take place, and how they are integrated into program planning.

My first google search used the keywords chemistry student learning outcomes.  One of the surprising results to me was the fact that less than 10% of the first 4 pages of results were for community colleges.  Some of these include, Mt Sac, Sacramento City College, Moorpark, and College of San Mateo.  I believe all of these list their chemistry SLO's online but only one showed a full report showing the SLO, assessment method, results, analysis, and plans.  This was Sacramento City College.  I like the excel spreadsheet they use to document results and I plan to suggest to Mike and Rich the use of a similar spreadsheet to document our own results.

I also looked at the Santa Rosa Junior College's website to see what their SLO's are but I couldn't find them on the website. I chose this college because I know that they typically get very good accreditation evaluations.

After further internet research, my next plan is to identify ten colleges to contact by email with the questions.  I will likely share with them what our current process is.  I am hoping out of these 10, at least three will give me a complete report!

Chem 30B Lab Manual

Completed first pass, cleanup edits!

Book 2: Still deciding which one

Choices are:

Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersey Williams

The Violinist's Thumb by Sam Kean

Napoleon's Buttons:  17 Molecules that Changed History by Penny LeCouteur and ...

Four Laws that Drive the Universe by Peter Atkins

The Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager

Faraday, Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field

Started First Pass Edits and Format Cleanup of 30B Lab Manual

I started cleaning up the word files of the 30B lab manual units from the OCR'd odf files.  Just finished 12.1 and 12.2.  Now starting on 13.1.

30A Lab Manual Progress

Finished cleaning up and doing first pass revisions today up to 10.2!