Did I Say "Hate"?

To this day I regret not following through on my pre-med degree. It was that wretched chemistry that forced me to run away with my tail between my legs and join the education department. How is it that now this stuff makes sense? I know this is basic chemistry, but I'm understanding things now that I know tripped me up in high school and college.

I currently have the flu. I went to bed with 103.6 and can only assume I slept at some point. When my alarm went off I immediately downed two Aleve and a cup of bold coffee. Then I headed off to class covered in a cold sweat. I managed to stay upright through the lab and review. Then I took the test that kills weaker men, a test of nomenclature (naming formulas). I'm so glad I've been studying for this chapter for 3 weeks because I wasn't learning much the last two days. I could have waited to take the test, but I was ready and I wanted to get it over with.

I admit the test was pretty easy. Some of the questions were word for word off of the study guide, but I guess that's an advantage of studying. I flew through the test one time and then double checked my answers without changing a thing. It all made sense even through the fog. And it paid off. I got another 100. Oh I could have been a doctor!

PS: My teacher felt it necessary to remind me that people die of the flu. Good to know.

Here we go.

So far, there just hasn't been much to talk about. We had a substitute one week and got out of class 2 hours early. Nice, but not interesting. This last week we started talking about compound nomenclature. I have to understand ionic charges and covalent bonding in order to name compounds correctly. This is the stuff that I've gotten lost in before. I'm going to try to stay on top of it this time. We'll be spending the next several weeks on just this and then testing on October 31st. I should probably read the chapter soon.

Test One Done

I didn't blog about last week's class because it was pretty uneventful. The only noteworthy item was that we were assigned to read chapters 3 and 10, do the chapter review questions, do a cumulative review and online practice test and finish up by completing last weeks lab homework and and next weeks pre-lab questions. Then, first thing next week would have a test over all of that. What? We aren't going to go over this stuff, just test on it? No problem.

All that sounded bad and it definitely took a long time to get it all done. But really, it turned out all right in the end. I got an email mid-week that the test would be at the last part of class with a review first. That helps, but the concepts were still a bit tough. I felt like the textbook did a terrible job of explaining things. But I did everything I was told and then some to be as prepared as possible.

We got the lab out of the way first thing Saturday morning and ended up with a relatively lengthy review before the test. Fortunately, very few of those "tough concepts" would be on the test. It was mostly math. I knew how to do all the math stuff, but quite often I made mistakes (some stupid, some I just didn't know) with significant figures. I knew the formulas and some of the important conversion factors just from doing a thousand practice problems. In fact, the teacher said no one would get a perfect score but it was easy enough that we should do well. That's encouraging, not really. Keep in mind that my teacher does not teach the textbook or the power point slides. He does it his own way. That may be all well and good, but he doesn't write the tests. Another teacher who happens to like the textbook writes the tests.

It took about 5 problems in to the test before my brain really started working. I was more nervous than I usually am before a test. I just hate chemistry. I did all the problems once through and then went back and did each problem a second time. One major complaint was that there was stuff on there that was never mentioned in class. Is brass a mixture or a compound? What is tungsten? (other than that it coats light bulbs, I have no idea) When converting a height of 5.0 feet, 6.5 inches to meters, how many significant figures are there? When I asked for a better explanation of some of this, my teacher smiled and said, "No comment." Um, wait a minute. It's your fault that this stuff wasn't covered in class and is now being thrown at us for the first time on this test, but all you can say is, "No comment"? I got pretty mad and it took me a few minutes to be able to focus on the test again. I did my best to answer everything and ended up being one of the last to turn in the test and I got the heck out of there.

My grades were posted online yesterday. I'm almost embarrassed to admit I got 100%. After all that complaining and anger I got them all right. I guess I'll shut my mouth. But I will say that one of the main reasons I got the 100% is because I made a ton of mistakes on my homework. I learned how to be really careful and a lot of my mistakes exposed areas that I just didn't understand and was able to correct. I guess homework really does serve a purpose.

Scientific Gibberish

Last Monday I took Luke and Willow to Ivy Tech to get some of my errands done. I first dropped off my form and got my parking permit. Fortunately, there were people there. Then I went to the library to update my ID. But I'm stupid. I forgot to bring any proof that I was enrolled. They don't want just anybody claiming they go to Ivy Tech. So the kids and I had to get online and print off my schedule first. I must say that Luke and Willow were exceptionally well behaved. So I took them upstairs and showed them my lab and bought them some Cheese-Its. They loved it.

We walked over to the bookstore to check out the prices for lab coats and goggles. I had already priced the coats online at $20-25 before shipping so when I found they were $24 at the bookstore I went ahead and got one. I also found the goggles were $3 at Lowe's but I was willing to pay $4 at the bookstore rather than make another trip.

The first chapter of the chemistry book was lame. It was basically the author begging the student to not hate chemistry. I didn't hate it fully until I had to do the 16 chapter questions. Each "question" was made up of about 4 or 5 questions within it. Several of them were redundant. "Name five ways chemistry has enriched your life." "Name five chemical reactions you use everyday." "What's the difference between a law and a theory? "What's a theory?" "What's the difference between a theory and a hypothesis?" I was writing the same stuff over and over again.

I had my second class yesterday. Our quiz was over the scientific method. One of the questions was "What's the difference between a theory and a law?" Good thing I did that one several times. The way our teacher describes it is different than the way the slides describe it which is different than the way the book describes it so I answered it in my own words. I got two points taken off. So I asked Millsium why it was wrong and he gave me my two points back. See, that's how you get me to not hate chemistry.

We did lab work in class. All of it was with water. We were learning to measure with cylinders, burets, pipets and thermometers. None of it was nearly as difficult as the lab book made it sound. I had to read everything 3 or 4 or 5 times to figure out what they were asking me to do when it was really simple. I hate books like that. And my teacher didn't seem to know any better than the rest of us what the lab book said so his instructions were confusing and often contradictory. My lab partner was just as confused but we eventually got through it after translating everything into non-gibberish. "Oh, just get a beaker and put water in it. Why didn't they just say so?"

I know the content is going to get much more complicated. I just hope I can figure out what everybody is saying. I felt so stupid all morning. And I looked stupid too because, even though we only worked with water, we all had to wear our goggles. After being on for two hours, the goggles left a line on my forehead that didn't go away fully until after I went to bed that night. So I went to Schlotzky's, Hobby Lobby, Value City and church with goggle lines on my face. Thanks, Chemistry!

Only 60 more hours to go...

My first four hours of chemistry are behind me now. Saturday I arrived at Ivy Tech early, around 7:40, hoping to get my parking permit and ID updated before class. As it turns out, that place is a ghost town on Saturdays. Scrap that plan. I went to my third floor classroom a little early and got a good seat facing front and in a corner. This is not a regular desk classroom, though. We spend the entire four hours in a laboratory. It's only a little intimidating.

My teacher, who prefers to be called Millsium, said I looked familiar. I hope that is a good thing. He taught at Gibson Southern for 42 years, so I'm not sure how I would know him. Despite his somewhat lame jokes and penchant for talking too much and saying things that are borderline offensive, I think I'm going to like him. He not only has an obvious love and respect for chemistry, he has a passion for teaching it to people who haven't got a clue. He has a conversational style and does not assume too much about what we know.

We spent a long time just discussing Observation, Law, Hypothesis and Theory. I must admit, I got a little confused about Law. We then went through the power point slides that I am comfortable with thanks to last semester with Dr. Murphy. I think I was the only one in class who printed off the slides for taking notes. Rookies.

During the 10 minute break, I ran back downstairs to see about that parking permit and ID again. Still, no one was there except one security guard who pointed out the parking permit form I could turn in to the business office. But there's no one in the business office. I guess I'm coming back during the week.

The second half of class was lab time. We talked ad nauseum about safety and signed a paper promising to be good kids. Our outfits were inspected and given pass and fail grades. My coat and tennis shoes failed. Too bad on the shoes. It's pretty much all I have. And I wouldn't need the coat if it weren't 50 degrees in the building. We were also told we needed to acquire before next week a lab coat and safety goggles. So when you see an Ivy Tech sign bragging about how you can get a degree for less than $3000, don't believe them.

We managed to squeeze in some time do some actual lab work...sort of. We measured our textbooks so we could discuss significant numbers. He asked us to work together. Yeah, right. We don't start talking to each other until around the third class.

We then went over the homework. This was not what I expected. We had hardly anything to do outside of class for anatomy. I spent lots of time reading and rereading and doing the chapter questions but none of it was technically an assignment. But in this class we had 4 different lab sections to read and fill out, chapter one to read, 16 chapter questions to do, and several extra pages of stuff to review. I'm not so much whining about doing it. I would have done it anyway. I just don't like being told to do it and I especially don't like that other people are doing it. I count on people's natural laziness to make me look good.

Sorry this post is so long. I'll cut it short and tell you about my mid-week return trip later.

Books

I've purchased my chemistry books. I guess I gotta go to class now.

I went to the Ivy Tech bookstore to find out what books I needed. I found the textbook new is $167. Used was around $120 or something. The lab book was around $95. So I wrote the names and editions down and went to find my books online. I found the textbook from a vendor on Amazon for around $90 new. I found my lab book at Barnes and Noble for around $70 new. Both arrived within a week in great shape. I refuse to pay the full outrageous prices for these books. It just takes a little looking around to save money. If only I could get my tuition cheaper online.

Time to start blogging again.

The summer is almost over and I have had several friends ask me about my plans for school this fall. I realize that means I need to start blogging again. I'll tell you everything I know up to this point, but until school starts, there won't be much to say.

A quick recap: My plan is to start the RN program at Ivy Tech next fall (2010). This will put my graduation and subsequent job starting in line with my youngest starting school full time. I just finished Anatomy 101 and 102. I have two semesters to wait and two classes left to take. I will be taking Intro to Chemistry this fall and Microbiology in the spring.

I registered online for my Chemistry class. I did not like my options. Most of the classes were on two different days at two different times. With three young kids I need to keep things simple. I opted for the Saturday morning class. Starting August 29th I will be in class each Saturday from 8am to noon until around Christmas. I'm not a fan of chemistry or 8am so this will be long semester.

Soon I will run over to the Ivy Tech bookstore to figure out what books I need. Then I will try to order them online to save some money. It worked well last year. Also, in November I will be attending a required meeting for all students wanting to join the nursing program. It's a big deal because there is an 8 month waiting list. So if something goes wrong and I miss it, I am in huge trouble. After that I take my TEAS tests (don't know anything about them yet) and then I work on my application for the program. The deadline is the beginning of April and then I find out if I am accepted in mid-May.

That's pretty much all I know for now. I may have a post or two in the meantime, but otherwise this blog will be quiet again until August 29th.