Upward Bound Chemistry

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Chemistry Links
Periodic Table
Examples of Chemistry Problems
A fully-functional scientific calculator for chemistry including a table of useful constants.
And here’s a useful download: a program that will quickly and easily convert units for you. Download and unzip to use.

At the moment it seems to me that the best course of action is to meet by default in the lab (Druckenmiller 148) and then move to Rm 16 only when we are not doing anything in the lab. This gives me the chance to do demonstrations in the safest possible place.

At the bottom of this page is the date of the most recent update to this page. Note the day you print this document and come back periodically to see if things have changed.

Quick Links to the schedule below:
Week 1, starting Monday, June 26, 2006
Week 2, starting Monday, July 3, 2006
Week 3, starting Monday, July 10, 2006
Week 4, starting Monday, July 24, 2006
Week 5, starting Monday, July 31, 2006

Course Overview

Instructor: Aaron Keller

In this course you will learn about some of the basic, important topics in chemistry. This should prepare you to approach a school-year chemistry course with some real confidence in conceptual knowledge, mathematical skills, and laboratory technique. I intend to cover the Ideal Gas Laws, the Periodic Table, Scientific Notation and the mole.

As with all the Upward Bound courses, you are not given a final grade. Instead, I will write a narrative evaluation which assesses:

This evaluation will be based, in part, on the grades you earn on the work you do. I will give grades for each assignment and test so that we can both keep track of your progress in the course.

Problem Solving

This course emphasizes problem solving skills. Most people learn concepts better when they can apply them immediately. Problems are a way for you to apply new knowledge in a way that helps you to remember it. Having good problem solving skills is also of general value since problems of all kinds constantly crop up in everyone’s lives. We will be solving problems mostly in small groups but you will also be required to solve problems on your own (especially in tests). I have designed a method for working in groups and a separate set of documents describes this in detail.

Group Work

Working in small groups to solve problems is a great way to learn chemistry. We will work in small groups throughout this course both in and hopefully outside of class. Here are a few documents to give group work some shape and definition so that it can be a self-regulating learning tool:
Definitions   |        Process   |    Observer Form   |   Recorder Form

Lab Notebooks

Keeping an accurate and complete lab notebook is essential to being a good scientist. It is also essential to earning a good notebook grade in this course. In a separate document I have outlined what you need to know about keeping a good lab notebook.

Scientific Writing

Many people do not realize that knowledge does not really fall into neat little compartments like ‘science’, ‘english’, ‘social studies’, ‘math’, etc. In our heads all of it is jumbled together in a meaningful and important way. In order to help you to draw connections between the compartments of knowledge we are all familiar with I require you to do some scientific writing. You will need to be able to put scientific concepts in your own words and to tell me about your observations and what they mean in a scientific context. Good writing is essential in science since science can give precise information that should not be written about sloppily or ambiguously. Throughout the course we will spend class time on writing lab reports.




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Schedule




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Last updated: Jul 21, 2006      Home