HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS COURSE

One of the beautiful things about science is that it allows us to go along, getting it wrong time after time, and feel perfectly fine as long as we learn something each time. No doubt, this can be difficult for students who are accustomed to getting the answers right. No doubt, reasonable levels of confidence and emotional resilience help, but I think scientific education might do more to ease what is a very big transition: from learning what other people once discovered to making your own discoveries.
Martin A. Schwartz
Professor of Medicine, Microbiology, and Biomedical Engineering
Yale University

Chemistry can be challenging, especially when you are asked to act more like a scientist; developing your own experiments and drawing conclusions from the data you gather rather than following prescribed directions. You may not get the results you expected, and that is okay! This is how science works. General ways to be successful in the course can be found in the syllabus, and below are some details on what you can be doing before, during, and after lab to help you meet the course objectives and be successful in the course.

PRIOR TO LAB
Like any scientist, doing preliminary research is essential in developing methods for solving problems. We highly suggest you do some researching prior to planning, experimenting, and presenting, and have provided some resources that may help guide you in this process. * Prior to planning in lab, each student should read over the project and the planning questions for the day. At the beginning of each project, you will complete a prelab assignment in Mathematica that will get you thinking about the project. You will save significant time and trouble during the planning sessions by also reading suggested articles, looking over the study guides (posted in the Resources folder in Collab), and preparing a preliminary draft of what you propose to do in lab that day. This preliminary plan will help you contribute to the group discussion and final proposed plan. * Prior to experimenting, students should read over other relevant laboratory techniques in the lab manual beyond the practice technique, watch any pertinent videos, and look up techniques online prior to performing the techniques in lab. * Prior to presenting, each team member should be contributing to the creation of a presentation on the project. This may take the form of doing some additional research on chemistry concepts related to lab and integrating these ideas into your presentation. The team should come up with 3 discussion questions (and answers!) to be included in the discussion on presentation day. The presentation and three questions to the TA 24 hours prior to presentation lab day.

DURING LAB
Gaining knowledge in science requires cooperation and teamwork, and we have students work in groups to gain experience in scientific collaboration. Below are some details on how teams will work together to structure the collaborative process, and we provide suggestions on what you can do to be a productive member of your team.