VIDEO: THE POLYMERIZATION OF NYLON

Students:

This post gives an excellent demonstration, by a graduate student in college, of the polymerization of nylon.   Nylon can be formed out of various sub-units, such as:

In this demonstration, layering two different liquids allows a reaction to precipitate at the interface between the two fluids.  A peptide bond is formed similiar to what has been described for amino acid synthesis in lecture:




There is no assignment attached to this video, but watching this will give you better understanding of the course material concerning polymerization.

VIDEO: CARBON, THE SHAPE OF LIFE (Part 3)

This is the final video of notes for our Final Unit of the Spring 2020 Semester:



The STUDY GUIDE based on all the Organic Chemistry Notes is available HERE.

By popular request, there will be one more (makeup) ZOOM session tomorrow morning, Saturday, May 29th, at 11:00 AM.   

All outstanding work in the course will be accepted until 12:00 (noon) on Monday, June 1st.

Made available outside of instructional time for my students.   Copyright (C) 2020 by Scott Hatfield.  All Rights Reserved.

VIDEO: MONOMERS AND POLYMERS

Previously, we talked about the difference between organic (based on carbon) and inorganic (based on some other element) molecules.   Life, of course, is based on organic molecules.

There are four major classes of carbon-based compounds used by living things:   carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids.

Each of these compounds is made of individual 'building blocks' called MONOMERS.   The monomers are linked together with covalent bonds to make large chains called POLYMERS, and the process of making polymers is referred to as POLYMERIZATION.

Here's a video from Bozeman Science, with animations, that gives some nice background on monomers and polymers:




A worksheet based on this video has already been emailed to students.  If you did NOT receive it, you may also download it as a PDF file, HERE. 

VIDEO: CARBON, THE SHAPE OF LIFE (PART 2)

Students:  The video below covers hydrocarbon structure and their nomenclature (the rules used to name organic compounds), and introduces the concept of functional groups.   





Students who attended no ZOOM conferences in the previous week should first watch the earlier video before watching this, and should use the 'Naming Organic Compounds Study Guide' sent last week as a PDF file attached to an earlier email.

A makeup ZOOM conference will be held on Tuesday morning for all students, at 10:00 AM, May 26th.   The regularly-scheduled ZOOM will be on Tuesday after at 1:00 PM for Honors and 2:00 PM periods 2-4.

If you have not visited ATLAS recently, please do so.  Any assignment shown on ATLAS since March 20th that does not show a grade is probably something you need to attempt in order to raise your percentage grade.

VIDEO: CARBON, THE SHAPE OF LIFE (Part 1)

This video summarizes the major points of the first ZOOM conference from Week 5 (May 10-14).



Students are introduced to the astonishing versatility of carbon, and asked to consider how carbon's atomic structure allows it to build so many different kinds of molecules, with so many different shapes.

Videos for subsequent lessons will appear during the next week, where we are introduced to hydrocarbon nomenclature.

FINAL ASSIGNMENT: NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY

STUDENTS:

You should have received a NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY STUDY GUIDE as a PDF file through district email.  That STUDY GUIDE is available on-line, HERE.

The STUDY GUIDE is based on material covered in the ZOOM Conferences.  If you missed one or more of the ZOOM Conferences, you can still complete by watching the four videos that demonstrate this material, available on the class blog in previous posts.

This assignment is worth 35 (!) points of extra credit, and Instructions on how to complete the assignment are in the email.   It's worth a lot, because it summarizes the material we've covered on Nuclear Chemistry, and we've covered A LOT:

Beginning this Tuesday, we will be in our next unit, on ORGANIC CHEMISTRY.

VIDEO: THE ROAD TO FISSION

Students:

This is the video that covers material in the course related to fission and fusion, the kinds of nuclear reactions that are common in high-energy conditions (such as the interior of stars), but which for all purposes have little natural impact on planet Earth: 



Beginning in the 1930's, scientists learned how to make these reactions occur in experimental conditions, and for better or worse, ushered in the Atomic Age.  An important step in the development of this technology was the Manhattan Project, which in turn was triggered by the Einstein-Szilard Letter to President Roosevelt.

An assignment ("The Einstein-Szilard Letter") based on this material, as given in class, is available online HERE.

The front part of the video also covers, with some detail, the mathematical basis of half-life calculations based on two related functions (ex and ln):

If students are still struggling with this content, Mr. Hatfield refers you to the full demonstration video, found in the previous blog post, HERE.

STUDENT INTERACTION

Students:

Beginning next week, FUSD will begin an additional level of support for students during this 'social distancing' time that has so disrupted our school year.  

As shown in the infographic below, instructors will be expected to use ATLAS to document their level of outreach to students, and how students have responded.  

Please notice that students' level of participation, and thus connectivity, will be scored according the Rubric on the far right.  Mr. Hatfield wants to remind you that you earn points for attending ZOOM conferences (classwork) and by completing work assigned outside of ZOOM (homework), and that after today we have only three weeks of opportunities remaining.

VIDEO: HALF-LIFE CALCULATIONS FOR HONORS STUDENTS

HONORS STUDENTS:

The following is a somewhat challenging video, that students need to approach with SERIOUS CONFIDENCE. What do I mean?

Student should take this video SERIOUSLY, because it uses concepts (and calculator functions) that are typically not encountered by most high school students until a third-year math course. Most of you are sophomores, and have not taken a third-year math course!

But, students should also approach this new material with CONFIDENCE, because it doesn't actually require you to have a deep understanding of the functions used in the calculations.

Instead, it focuses in a practical way on just using buttons on the calculator to set up and solve problems----and, as you know, we've been that the entire year! So, if you take it seriously and remember that you have already been expected to learn new calculator routines to solve problems, then this is nothing new---and nothing you can't handle!




The video begins with examining two functions found on a student's calculator: 'e^x' (a function of Euler's number) and 'LN' , natural logarithms ('ln' or 'natural log', for short).

It explains how these functions 'mirror' each other as they describe exponential processes.

Your instructor then shows how radioactive half-life (t^1/2) and decay constants (k) can be derived from each other by using them to divide the natural log of 2 (ln 2, or .693).

Finally, your instructor shows two related equations, one than employs natural log (ln), and one which employs 'e^x', to predict how samples of radioactive isotopes might change over time.

NEW ZOOM MEETING SCHEDULES

STUDENTS, WE WILL NEED TO MAKE SOME CHANGES TO OUR SCHEDULE!




In order to accomodate a scheduled series of Teacher Meetings and reflect changing directions from the state of California,  we will need to modify our schedule of ZOOM meetings.   

IF YOU ARE IN 1st PERIOD HONORS:

You now have meetings TWICE A WEEK in Honors in order to complete this unit and move on to Organic Chemistry.

Your first ZOOM session this week will be TOMORROW, Tuesday, May 5th, at 1:00 PM.  The link for this session has already been sent to you in email.

There will be a makeup for this session on Wednesday, May 6th, also at 1:00 PM.   The link for this session will be sent on Tuesday.

Your second ZOOM session this week will be Friday, May 8th, also at 1:00 PM.  The link for this session will be sent on Tuesday.

IF YOU ARE IN 2ND PERIOD, 3RD PERIOD, 4TH PERIOD or 5TH PERIOD:

Your first ZOOM session this week will be TOMORROW, Tuesday, May 5th, at 2:00 PM.

There will be a makeup for this session on Wednesday, May 6th, also at 2:00 PM.

Your second ZOOM session this week will be Friday, May 8th, also at 2:00 PM.

Please complete outstanding work as soon as possible.  This week's calculation demonstration will be more challenging.   The link for Tuesday's meeting is found at the bottom of this email.