Sunday, July 18, 2010

Google Docs for O-chem

This letter was to nine people who was helping me with the google docs. This sucks because this means that I really have to spend a lot more time on these stupid lab write ups. They were pretty much answering the questions for me, which was really cool. After Jared and my TA's strongly discouraged me to create them, Bill said he was still interested. So, I email those nine people who contributed in the past saying I wanted these to be on the down low. I didn't want anyone to print these. However, someone did in the other lab. There are two labs that go on at the same time. One with girl TA's and the other with boy TA's. I have the lab with the girls. Obviously, someone didn't follow my instructions and printed them off anyways. That's why the guy TA's told us not to use them. I just don't want to get into trouble. That would suck.

Hi Everyone,

So, Guess what??? I think someone didn't follow my instructions and printed the google doc for our last two labs. Why else would the guy TA's in the other lab would say not to use the google doc. I was hoping that people wouldn't print them off so we can still work together on them. Since this cannot be done, I'm closing down everything because I don't want to get into trouble. I don't want to be accused of cheating. I've been doing this because this saves me a little time. I type much faster than writing. That's why I started these. The TA's and Jared are strongly discouraging us to use these anyways because they don't want the why questions to be on hard copy. They don't want the next class to get their hands on them. This is really too bad because this has been saving me lots of time. However, my hand was forced. I just wanted to save people and myself time because I'm still going to create these google docs from myself. Stupid O-chem. :( Thank you Bill for your help with these. You were the major contributor for most of these.

Thanks,

Lizzie

Saturday, July 17, 2010

BYU and New Spice Commerical

I'm here in the Benson Building doing my O-chem homework. A few days ago, Joey told me about the new Old Spice Commercials. He mentioned that the BYU library made a parody of the Old Spice Man. So, I found two Old Spice commercials and the library's New Spice guy. The end of the library's commercial make me shriek with laughter aka squawk. Update from last post: Now, I have more time with my O-chem lab. I have a test I have to study which is on Monday. O-chem took over my life again. :(





Saturday, July 10, 2010

More Time and Google Documents

This email is to my instructor for my O-chem lab. I'm not calling him a professor because he's a graduate student. I'm posting this because I want you to get what's it's like in the O-chem lab. I don't think it's too personal about my instructor or myself.

Hi Jared,

OK, your way of having more time isn't working. On Friday, I didn't get the melting point and my IR for my acid for the lab we did on Wednesday. That means that I'm going to get points docked off. I tried to talk to you before and you pretty much dismissed me saying that I'll have more time the next lab period. Well, I didn't this time. So, I still want to be able to get that IR and melting point because I want those points back. PLEASE be more accommodating to me!!! This lab is really time consuming and stressful. If I don't get a lab done, can I work on it in the afternoon?? I just want to be able to finish a lab in the day that I started it. If I do finish a lab in the afternoon, I would like a break in between. I just don't like being chronically behind anymore. Don't tell me that I should be able to finish the lab in the same day like everyone else. I'm slower than everybody else and it isn't my fault. That's why I have you that letter. If you aren't going to accommodate me, I'm going to email Dr. Bronson. I'm assuming that you're not used to dealing students like me because don't have that much experience teaching since you are a graduate student. This class shouldn't be this stressful.

So, I just received an email about the google doc which I've been creating for each of our labs. She said, "you should not be answering questions for everyone else and then giving away the answers." I'm pretty sure that email was to everyone. For the first two labs, I did that because no one was helping me for the most part. However, I didn't want to be answering everything and giving the answers away because that wouldn't be fair. With these last two labs which we turned in, I only gave the people access to these google docs who contributed. Right now, I have eight people who are helping with these labs. I'm just surprised that more people aren't helping because in my last classes, lots of people helped. I created these google docs for us because these labs write ups are really time consuming. I mean I can spend more than five hours on one lab write up. That's a lot of time!!! My physiology class class required much less time than this last spring and was a four credit class. This is a two credit class!!! I'm just hoping the way that I set up these Google docs are OK with you. I only let people access if they contribute. I just want to make things easier for everyone who contributes while still being fair.

A person did email me that posting these google docs with the answers in a public domain won't hurt because the freeloaders will bring down the curve for the people who work hard. That's assuming that they will do poorly on the midterm and final. I disagreed with him to a point because the smart freeloaders will study the answers and get a good grade on the midterm and final. However, it makes sense that one doesn't want these "free answers" in the class because it would mess up the curve. These last two google docs pretty much have all the questions that are in the lab write ups because I included all the fill in the blank, the questions in the lab, and the why questions in the lab. Now, I want to start working on the why questions in the book because you are really emphasizing to do them. I don't really mind working on the google docs because it's easier for me to type my answers out instead of writing them. The TA's says that I'm over achieving. I don't think I am because it's less time consuming for me. Plus, I don't have to type all of the questions because I have all of them in digital format. So, I have a plus compared to everyone else. I can copy and paste instead of typing everything. That's why I included all the the fill in the blank for the last two labs. I figured it was easier putting my answers in bold instead of writing them down. Again, I only allow people access to these documents if they contribute.

Thanks,

Lizzie