General Information About the Course:

Chemistry 211, Winter Quarter, 1998 at Cal State Bakersfield, is a 5 unit, experimental WEB course covering the first quarter of general chemistry. The format is "virtual lecture", no labs. The present course design contains eight units, roughly paced at one unit per week. Each Friday, a quiz is placed on the site, "downloaded" by the students and returned to the "quiz-box" on Monday or Tuesday when they happen to be on campus. A mid-week "e-mail activity " for 10 or 15 points, is part of most units. There will be a midterm exam over the first four units and a comprenhensive final exam. These exams will held on campus and not published over the WEB site. The materials developed for the "virtual classroom", guide the students through the textbook, "Chemistry and Chemical Reactivity" , 3/e by Kotz and Treichel and the "Saunders Interactive General Chemistry CD-ROM" and "Workbook" by Kotz and Vining.

A number of students were interviewed and 15 "volunteers" were selected to participate. In additon to taking the class, they will be evaluating various aspects of it as the quarter progresses. A report on this "virtual lecture" experience will be posted on this site in the spring. If you would like to communicate with the course instructor , Dr. Mel Dutton at CSUB, you can send your inquires or comments to mdutton@csubak.edu or write to me at Department of Chemistry, CSUB, 9001 Syockdale Hwy, Bakersfield, CA 93311-1099.

Date 2/1/98

Final Exam

Wednesday, March 18 11:00 am to 1:30 pm (Meet at Science 260, my office-- MD ).

The final exam for the class is a edited version (12 questions omitted) of the 1995 "First-Term General Chemistry Exam" prepared by the Examinations Institute of the American Chemical Society and your score, number right/ 58, will be adjusted to represent a possible 100 point score. This is a standardized test which requires about 2 hours time. I will administer the test at the scheduled time. However, it will be possible for you to take this exam any time during the finals period, 3/18 to 3/20. Please arrange an alternate time with me if 3/18 is not convenient. -----MD

Date 2/22/98

I just "loaded" the Unit 6, "Assignment and Guide" . Look for the practice quiz and answerbook after Tuesday night, 2/24. Hope this type of "guide" is useful. Watch for "workbook" questions and exercises that are omitted. For electron structures, we will stay with the "s" and"p" block elements on the periodic table as much as possible. ---- MD

Date 3/6/98

1. I forgot to include an e-mail activity on Unit 7. There will be no e-mail activity for either Unit 7 or Unit 8 which means the relative quiz values will be adjusted to 50 points. Please keep in mind how well you think Units 7 and 8 "teach" bonding concepts. Bonding concepts are very important in Chemistry and you need a good foundation. I hope these units and the ROM activities will provide that background. If you have questions,please phone or e-mail or come by my office.

2. Several of you have asked about the final exam and whether it will be "open" book like the mid-term. While the final exam is a "standarized" test, I think it is fair for you to take it in a open book and notes environment since that is the way you study chemistry in this "virtual" school. Remember it will be timed and you will only have 120 minutes to take the exam, about 55 mulitple choice questions. The offer above is still in effect , let me know when you would like to take the final ar times other then the scheduled hours.

Please note, those of you who plan to take the final on Wed, 3/18 at 11:00 pm , we will not meet in WSL 16 but come directly to my office and we will go to a room in the Science Building. I had to give the computer lab up to another class because we did not need the computers for our test.

3. Last comment, I will not get Unit 8 "Valence Bond Theory" up until Wednesday morning 3/11, this will give you more time to study and work on Unit 7. Unit 8 will be short compared to the other ones. It only comes the first part of Chapter 10 in the text and workbook. Happy Homework ---MD

Return to Joe Chemist