CH 101
From WolfWikis
Welkom to the WolfWikis page related to the freshman chemistry course CH 101 as it will be taught by Dr. J Folmer.
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Materials and methods
The book we will be using is entitled CHEMISTRY, a molecular science by Dennis W. Wertz. In addition we will be using WebAssign for a number of assignments, tests and other more confidential materials.
The WolfWiki will only be used from some additional information for the purpose of self study by the students
| CH 101 |
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| Exercises 1 |
| Exercises 2 |
| Exercises 3 |
| Exercises 4 |
| Exercises 5 |
| Exercises 6 |
| Exercises 7 |
| Exercises 8 |
| Exercises 9 |
| Exercises 10 |
| Exercises 11 |
| Exercises 12 |
| Exercises 13 |
| Exercises 14 |
| Exercises 15 |
Exercises
Rationale
Experience shows that students entering the CH 101 course may well have a decent working knowledge of e.g. stoichiometry, moles, balanced equations and the like. That is a good thing because the lectures do not allow for much time to be spent on this. A brief review is all that time allows. Many freshmen find that the pace of learning at a university is a few notches higher than they are used to, but adapt quickly to the higher speed.
However, they often lack experience and skills in general problem solving. Solving problems is something that takes quite a bit of practice. It involves more than just knowledge or understanding of general chemistry. Much of it has to do with the language side of science and the ability to glean information from text. Often the same problem just worded a bit differently can totally baffle a student who has insufficient experience. The only solution to this is practice, practice, practice. Attending lectures or reading books will not remedy the problem. It really can be compared to a sport: instead of building biceps or stamina, the brain needs to grow. Yes, one can read a book about body building but to grow muscle the gym is the place to be.
Intended use
This wiki therefore is an attempt to offer the student some more practice material, but also the solution of the problem at hand. Of course, students learn most from not looking at the solution until having tried real hard to solve the problem themselves. Letting someone else lift the weight for you does not give you a stronger physique! Letting someone else play your trombone does not give you a better sound either.
Therefore the problems are on a separate lemma together with some general hints about what this type of problem often requires and how they can be tackled. It is recommended to first read the introduction and attempt to solve the problems, and then to click the corresponding key page to look how the author would tackle the problem.
Of course there is often more than one way to skin a cat and it may well be that different approaches lead to the same result. The methods by which the problems are solved are therefore varied a bit on purpose. After all developing a brain is not an exercise in memorizing how to solve something, anymore than memorizing what dumbbells are available or what a bicycle is composed of will make someone a successful cyclist at the Olympics.
So: go sweat and then trust your muscles!
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External links
Of course, NCSU freshmen are not the only ones that are faced with this problem and others have put material on the web as well, here are a few links:
- a general site about chemistry problems
- Purdue's VESPR page
- some general tips about how to dissect a problem
- Some tips about exams
- Note: We cannot guarantee the accuracy of or endorse the content of external links. They may also die. Using Google with keywords like general chemistry problems may produce more recent links.