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Chemistry Student Attitudes And Utilization Of Office Hours, Dieng Barbacar, Edgar Gomez, Andre Rodriguez Dec 2018

Chemistry Student Attitudes And Utilization Of Office Hours, Dieng Barbacar, Edgar Gomez, Andre Rodriguez

Publications and Research

While research has demonstrated that faculty-student interactions increase retention and graduation rates, faculty often report that their office hours are underutilized. To better understand students’ attitudes, usage and plans towards faculty hours a survey was administered in the second to third week of the fall 2018 semester to students in 5 sections of general chemistry courses. The goal was to better understand how students perceive the benefits and hindrances of office hours, along with current or planned attendance. Prior to survey administration, it was speculated that not attending office hours could be because they were not scheduled at a convenient …


Engaging Undergraduate Students In Planetary Science Research For Parabolic Flights, Gillian Gomer, Adrienne Dove, Seamus Anderson, Jeffery Jorges, Alexandra Yates Nov 2018

Engaging Undergraduate Students In Planetary Science Research For Parabolic Flights, Gillian Gomer, Adrienne Dove, Seamus Anderson, Jeffery Jorges, Alexandra Yates

Gillian Gomer

Microgravity investigations are key to understanding the behavior or regolith, or dusty granular material, that is ubiquitous on planetary surfaces. We see features on other planets that resemble avalanches and landslides seen here on Earth, while eroded craters and so-called ponds (smooth level dusty deposits at the bottom of some craters) reveal the action of various regolith flow mechanisms. The SLOPEs experiment was designed by an undergraduate group to address questions on the statics and dynamics of granular matter on the surfaces of small Solar System bodies, including a) the flow behavior of granular material along slopes (landslides and avalanches) …


Air Pressure, Clouds, And Weather, Laura Shofield Jan 2018

Air Pressure, Clouds, And Weather, Laura Shofield

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

1) What are basis characteristics of the atmosphere?

2) What is the horizontal and vertical movement of air in a “High” and “Low?”

3) How do clouds form and what can they tell us?

4) How are temperature, pressure and clouds related?

5) Applying concepts to real-time data


Concentration, Amount And Counting By Weighing, Julian Tyson Jan 2018

Concentration, Amount And Counting By Weighing, Julian Tyson

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

Concentration, Amount and Counting by Weighing

UMass Amherst STEM Ed Institute Saturday Workshop 2/3/2018

Julian Tyson, Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry. Tyson@chem.umass.edu

Session 1. Introductions.

Ice-breaker: The elementarity contest.

Setting the scene: “How much arsenic do we eat?” Why do we want to know? The Consumer Reports articles (Nov 2012 and Nov 2014)

Dealing with really big and really small numbers.

Session 2. Amount, concentration

Solids, liquids and gases. The “parts per” concept.

Session 3. Counting by weighing

The count equation. Rice grains (the bottle content problem), atoms and molecules.. Chemical formulas and balanced chemical expressions. The numbers in the …