Flash cards are such a popular device for learning organic chemistry. Why don't I like them?

Read More...

Tags: flash cards

Nick Kim Cartoon Read More...

Tags: chemistry

The content of the OrgoCards is in agreement with organic chemistry textbooks. Flash cards encourage connecting the start and end together without a middle. The middle is the explanation of why the reactions take place. My question is, "How will a flash card improve your organic chemistry thinking?" Read More...

Tags: flash cards, organic chemistry, osu flashcards, OrgoCards

Well, I knew I wouldn't be a big blogger. Let me update you on what has been happening (or not). In some ways, I too wonder, what the heck I have been doing.

I have been answering a lot of student questions on various web forums. This included my own. An additional word about this. My webforum was becoming heavily spammed and I wanted to cure that. I was looking for some phpBB hack that I could use. Long story short, my ISP was un-helpful, I changed my forum software twice and now operate with punBB. It hasn't been spammed yet and future is to install some hacks to moderate forum and block spammers.

Answering questions tells me two things. One, it tells me the kinds of questions or problems that students are having ... Read More...

I've put together a string of questions and answers in several email exchanges. You might want to skim over ... Read More...

Tags: how to study, "How to get an A in organic", endorsements, Bruice, mechanisms, TLOC, organic chemistry

I have taken a momentary side track from editing "The Language of Organic Chemistry". I have created a presentation in which I have written out my thoughts on how atomic structure exists and reactions work. My next objective is to find an audience for it. It would be useful to have someone who is both critical and yet open-minded. I am interested in receiving criticism, especially where I may not have thought of something ... Read More...

This is what is on my mind. I was going back over the chapters and writing notes for changes, new reactions, errors, and notes that might be made.

One, in order to keep the changes orderly for owners of the book, I am going to create an update that contain only the changes. This will involve new reactions, changes to reactions, and errors corrected.

Two, I need to decide how many notes I am going to include. The book was supposed to be a workbook. It was never supposed to be an organic chemistry textbook. Read More...

I see a lot of people trying to find an easy way to learn organic chemistry. That is the main hurdle to learning, trying to find an easy way. If you wanted to learn to drive a car, but didn't want to actually get behind the wheel, it would be exactly the same. It isn't that learning to drive is so difficult, but if you never actually drove, you could logically complain about how difficult it was.

The analogy of learning a foreign language is also apt. The most effective methods ask that you ... Read More...

I had created Adobe Acrobat files in December for each chapter of TLOC. When I did so, my objective was to put them in proper order and to protect them. I had begun to wonder why many people have examined the files for a few minutes and then moved on. Showing them the book is the best I can do. Why aren't they printing any pages? You really can't learn organic just be looking at a few problems. You have to do them. I don't see how people can do them without printing them.

So, tried my own site. I clicked on a page, but it wouldn't do anything. It wouldn't start Adobe Reader or anything. I went to Windows XP and it opened fine after entering my password as expected. I printed a page. Adobe Document Center logged the printing. This confirms that people are just looking at pages without doing any arrow pushing. Read More...

I've been spending my time getting TLOC ready for publishing with InDesign. I've taken one part, extracted all of the graphics files, saved them in ChemDraw, exported them as EPS files, and imported the document into InDesign. I then manually replaced each low res structure with the corresponding EPS file. What really made this doable in a practical sense was to use Quickeys. I created scripts that would go through MS Word, find the structures, copy them, paste them into ChemDraw, and save them. This took about 1.5 hrs (I was away). When I came back, it was done. I created another script to open each file and then save at as the EPS file. That took about an hour. I struggled with creating a script that I could use to put the files into InDesign. I didn't really attack this with the idea of using a script. As a consequence, I partly made it more difficult than it needed to have been. (I just realized this now.). I ended up creating another script that would let me place each file where it needed to be and scaled it into the graphics box. This was part script and part manual. I did that in a few hours. So, I did most of the heavy lifting in much less time than I first imagined. More importantly, by using scripts, it save me a lot of trouble matching content. Whew.

While that task in being worked on, I really need to get back to remedying parts of my website. My Google ads aren't generating the specific click through rate I would hope for. Read More...