I fixed a couple of homework solutions for CHEM 1050. Problems 2.30d (final unit problem), 2.39d, and 2.40d were fixed.

I added a calendar on Friday, 7/13, to the CHEM 1090 page to show the daily assignments in a nicer fashion. It looked good. Until I started looking at the new quizzes in the tutorials' section and found that the way they were displayed was all screwed-up. I mean majorly tweaked. It took me some time but I figured out that I made a mistake in the site’s style sheet which applied a style to both the assignment calendar and the quizzes. It was only meant to be applied to the assignment calendar.

Oops. Sorry about that! I’ve fixed it.

I’m now working on the dimensional analysis quiz. I’ve figured out how to use MathJax with JavaScript so I can create questions with randomly generated numbers. Now I just have to do it!

I've finally started to work on the tutorials/quizzes and the one for inorganic nomenclature is finished. I removed the old tutorial for it and replaced the pages with links back to the quiz. I’m going to work on the one for dimensional analysis next and I hope to have it finished by the time the summer quarter starts. I’m completely rewriting the JavaScript for each one and removing all of the pop-up windows (yea!).

I fixed problem 17.27a and 17.27b.

I finally added some notes for the organic section for CHEM 1050.

Whoops! There was a problem with CHEM 1100 5.80a. I was reminded by a student that after 10 mL of base have been added, there are now appreciable amounts of both the acid, HF, and the conjugate base, F^1-. I’ve fixed the pH calculation for that part.

I corrected 9.16a for CHEM 1050.

I checked problem 15.80 for CHEM 1100 and the posted solutions are correct. Part c establishes that it takes 50 mL of the base to get to the equivalence point. Part d asks about 80 mL which is 30 mL past the equivalence point.

I fixed a problem for CHEM 1050, 5.26 and CHEM 1100, 14.71 and 14.72.

Huh. It turns out that the HTML5 versions of the podcasts do play in Internet Explorer v9 and the problem was mine all along (I hate that!).

I have been working on the problem of my not being able to see the podcasts since I started using the HTML5 tags and I’ve searched the web for clues since the beginning (about 9 months). I finally accidentally stumbled upon the problem. It turns out that there are some problems when running Internet Explorer v9 virtually in VMWare Fusion v3! I don’t have access to IE v9 at work because we’re on v8 so I’ve been doing this with my own machine.

Sure enough, when I reboot my Mac using Boot Camp, they worked! More digging turned up the real problem. I have to disable 3d graphics hardware acceleration in the VMWare settings and then the HTML5 video works.

I’ve finished updating all of the podcast links and I’ve removed the old pages and the old script file.

All of the CHEM 1050 podcast links have been fixed/updated.

I’ve updated the podcast links for CHEM 1050 through chapter 5, CHEM 1090 through chapter 2, and CHEM 1100 through chapter 12.

I’ve been able to update the links for the podcasts in each course that cover the first exam. I discovered and fixed a number of bad download links in the CHEM 1050 section and I added some ogg files for in CHEM 1100 chapter 11.

I’ve changed the JavaScript code I previously wrote for the podcast pages using what I’ve learned over the past month while working on the lab resource pages. I did have a couple of days of agony trying to find a problem with Internet Explorer but I’ve been able to adjust for it (heavy medication along with primal scream therapy directed at Microsoft helped). There are warnings on each of the podcast pages for my three classes- CHEM 1050, CHEM 1090, and CHEM 1100. I don’t know how long it will take. Although it’s nothing major, I do have to change every single link because of the coding I did so it will take some time.

I’ll concentrate on the first section for each class so I can stay ahead of the students. My plan is to have the first section completed for each class by the first day of class.

I’ve uploaded the new documents for spring quarter for CHEM 1050, CHEM 1090, and CHEM 1100.

I also added a new lab resource for experiment 6 in CHEM 1100. I still need to add one more for experiment 5b.

There’s now a page for the gas law experiment, experiment 9. That one was interesting because I had to go and find a mathematical formula that describes the relationship between temperature and water vapor pressure. There was either the Antoine equation or the Wagner equation and I decided to go with the Wagner equation.

I also modified the statistics page for large and small numbers. If the magnitude of the average is larger than 10⁴ or smaller than 10^-4 then the results will be displayed using scientific notation.

I now have a page up that will help students with the data from experiment 8.

I’ve added the calculation of the mean and sample standard deviation to the lab resources section.

Because of the canvas elements in HTML5, one can now do graphing on the web without having to resort to Flash, Java, or some plugin (I do NOT miss the days of rampant plugins!). I don’t remember how I found out about it (some random stumbling through the web I’m sure), but here are a couple of sites that discuss it:

• Mozilla has a nice tutorial
• W3Schools.com’s description

So last week I decided to do more than simply stumble through the web and started looking for a library that I could use and I found a great one called JSXGraph. After about a week of learning how to use the library, how to dynamically modify tables, and getting some feedback from other people (thank you Dana Nimic!), I think I finally have a nice, generic solution to graphing which will help students do a quick analysis of data.

I didn’t place it explicitly in this site, however. OK, I nestled it in a folder of this site but it’s not really part of my site because I’ve started working on something for lab. We are in the (slow) process of upgrading the computers in lab and a big (ginormous) problem is that all of the programs are specialty ones written specifically to do certain tasks with a command-line interface. I need to replicate the functionality of those programs and I plan on having students access it using a web browser.

Graphing and linear regression (best-fit lines) was the first step...

Here’s the link to the chemistry lab resources.

I updated the homework solutions for CHEM 1100 chapters 14 and 15 with acid and base ionization constants using the values in the tables I gave you.

I’m still making podcasts. Right now my focus continues to be on my CHEM 1100 (Gen Chem 2) class as I update and add new podcasts.

I did add a couple of new handouts for CHEM 1100 that deal with ionization constants for weak monoprotic acids and bases and polyprotic acids. Unfortunately, I did *really* mess up the weak base table so I had to fix it. Sorry!

I’ve updated the CHEM 1100 homework solutions and finished linking to the podcasts I put on YouTube for CHEM 1100. I do need to add annotations to the ones that are broken up into multiple parts or that depend upon values calculated in other podcasts.

I’ve finished linking all of the available podcasts for CHEM 1050 and CHEM 1090 to the appropriate ones on YouTube. I need to do those for CHEM 1100, next.

I’ve finished updating the homework solutions for CHEM 1050.

I’ve finally put back in the course grade calculators that I had so many years ago. It’s been many years since I’ve done any JavaScript and it was nice to discover that I can now round off to a certain decimal place without having to write a special routine. Yea!

I’m continuing to upload my podcasts to YouTube and link to them. I think it’s easier to watch them off of my site since there typically isn’t much lag to worry about but YouTube has a large number of chemistry tutoring so it’s nice to have one-stop shopping when you need help. It has been taking quite some time to upload a few of the videos. Grr...

I think the next thing I’ll tackle is to try and figure out why Internet Explorer chokes on my HTML5 video pages.

I’ve created a channel on YouTube (you can find the subscription link here) and started uploading my podcasts. I’m adding the links as I upload them.

I’ve finished updating the objectives for CHEM 1050 and CHEM 1100. However, the homework solutions have note yet been updated.

I’ve added new podcasts in a couple of areas.

I’ve also uploaded new policy and timeline documents for my winter quarter classes. I still need to update the objectives and the homework solutions for my CHEM 1050 and CHEM 1100 classes. These will be finished by the end of the next week.

I’ve updated and added some gas law podcasts for CHEM 1090.

I've added a podcast for molecular orbital theory.

I checked iTunes 10.5.1 in Windows 7 and discovered that it will now show my captions so I added/modified some comments in the podcast introduction page.

I’ve reworked the CHEM 1090 VSEPR podcasts.

Minor modifications made to the VSEPR handout.

I’m finished with the CHEM 1090 Lewis structure podcasts. I’ve also added two new ones for nitric acid and sulfuric acid. I’d like to revise the molecular structure podcasts this week.

I’ve started updating the Lewis structure podcasts for CHEM 1090. I plan on finishing them this week.

I adjusted the objectives and homework solutions for chapters 3 and 4.

The CHEM 1100 podcast section has been updated and the links have been checked.

I fixed the homework solutions for a problem in chapter 9, CHEM 1090.

Changed the CHEM 1090 course page for the upcoming fall quarter.

I fixed the CHEM 1050 policies document to reflect the correct 75 %/25 % grade split between the lecture and the lab.

I adjusted the periodic table quiz so it will now allow you to request a new quiz from the popup window rather than having to switch back to the main page and request it. This was done for Internet Explorer years ago because it would crash not only the browser but the operating system. Microsoft fixed the bug some time ago but I had forgotten all about it until a student asked about it.

Fixed!

I tweaked a couple pages and fixed some of the wording.

I’ve added a podcast that discusses a problem with how we use the significant figure rules by relating it to statistics.

I’ve updated the CHEM 1090 homework solutions for chapters 9 and 10. Done!

I’ve updated the CHEM 1090 homework solutions for chapter 7 and chapter 8. Only one more chapter to go!

I’ve updated the CHEM 1090 homework solutions for chapter 4 and chapters 5/6.

I’ve updated the chapter 3 homework solutions for CHEM 1090.

I checked my office computer and both of the classroom computers that I will be using this quarter and all of them are running Internet Explorer v7. And my Flash podcasts now work!

IE v7 and v8 didn’t like the way I was dynamically changing the file information. Instead of having a separate web page for the Flash, HTML5, and QuickTime formats for each podcast (yikes!), I have one of each page and when a podcast link is selected, the URL sends the file information to the appropriate page. This, in theory, is easier because I only have to maintain three different video pages.

I haven’t actively developed web pages for a few years so I could work both on my lectures and podcasts. So with the exception of adding new podcasts, before I recently reworked the site using RapidWeaver, the site (including the JavaScript tutorials) had been in maintenance mode. Before XHTML was standard, the way I used to dynamically write pages was to use the document.write function. When I tried it a few weeks ago and validated the web page, I found out that things have changed and document.write was no longer the best way to do it.

As I started learning how to do it (and I’m still working on it!), I got stuck on the Flash podcast pages with older versions of Internet Explorer. As I was searching the web, I hit upon using innerHTML and I have a JavaScript function which will write out the page code with the appropriate file names. I do plan to continue trying to get the DOM method to work, but for right now this works so I’m happy.

I’ve updated chapter 1 and chapter 2 homework files for CHEM 1090 to the new edition.

I think I actually fixed the problem with the Flash podcasts in Internet Explorer <v9 web browser!

Shall I explain how I expertly diagnosed the problem, formulated a solution at a cost of many person-hours, and then successfully implemented the solution?

Or shall I explain how I fixed it by accident?

I won’t be able to verify the fix until I go into work on Monday and try it on the computers in my office and the classrooms I’ll be in this quarter; but, it now works for me. If I really did fix it then I’ll give a brief explanation.

I’ve tweaked and tightened the coding for the podcasts and included a link on the HTML5 video podcasts pages (those with this image- ) that links to a QuickTime video file.

After thinking about the Flash and Internet Explorer problem for the past day, I think the best option is to do a bit of browser detection and if the Flash podcast page detects that someone is using a version of Internet Explorer that’s prior to v9, a link to an optional file format will be displayed. I’m trying to avoid a lot of browser detection since it’s a pain and I don’t want to go that route again because it was extremely frustrating. I also don’t want to block it and force someone to do something else in case it actually works for them.

All of the CHEM 1050/1090 podcasts are properly linked in the new site format. I’ll get to the CHEM 1100 ones at a later date since I still have to fix the CHEM 1090 homework files for the summer quarter.

I found a number of bad links from before and fixed them.

I’ve just finished updating the CHEM 1090 objectives for the new edition of the textbook. I still need to go through the homework solutions.

I suppose it's not really a relaunch since the site was never taken down, but I have started recoding the site. My current focus is on getting things ready for the summer quarter. The course handouts in pdf format are available and I have the podcasts relinked for the first few chapters for each class. I will slowly continue to reindex the podcasts and make the Flash versions available so they can be watched online instead of downloading them as an option. Oh, the objectives for CHEM 1090 still need to be updated because we’re starting with a new edition of the textbook. I’ll get right on that!

The tutorials will take a lot of time to put into the new format since I'm going to recode each one (yikes!) to be up-to-date for XHTML code. Until that happens, I have a link to the old Tutorial section.