Why chemistry is so difficult ?

[DrDu]

Yes Borek, your page is outstandingly pedagogical in this respect!
The only thing I mind is that there is no linux version of your calculators :-)

 

[chill_factor]

Also I have an issue with chemistry electives in college. Why do I get the feeling 90% of the electives are bio related? Do we really need "Biochemistry", "Advanced Biochemistry", "Chemical Biology", "Physical Biochemistry" "Computational Biology"... all as chemistry electives, while there's 0-1 classes on traditional chemistry things like electrochemistry or polymers? Or newer but not explicitly bio related topics in chemistry like surface science, nanofabrication and colloids?

I mean, you learn things deeply in research, not classes, of course, but what about those who just want to take a class in something and not necessarily do research in it? How do you even do research without first taking a class in something and making an informed decision that its interesting and deserving of research?

Shouldn't the school actually teach what industry is using? Or at least what they expect students to know to do well in their own graduate programs in physical chemistry? I mean, I look at the curriculum for some physical chemistry departments, and think, how many chemistry students have the background to do it? How many could make an informed decision that "hey that research on nanotech was pretty cool" when most would never even see the "big picture" of what the current status of the field was and only would instead know the 10000000 interpretations of biology? Shouldn't the school at least teach a class on things that a sizable chunk of the faculty are doing?

I went to a big state university with a well known physical chemistry program and 100 majors graduating a year. If its like that here, then what's it like elsewhere?

 

[aroc91]

Also I have an issue with chemistry electives in college. Why do I get the feeling 90% of the electives are bio related? Do we really need "Biochemistry", "Advanced Biochemistry", "Chemical Biology", "Physical Biochemistry" "Computational Biology"... all as chemistry electives, while there's 0-1 classes on traditional chemistry things like electrochemistry or polymers? Or newer but not explicitly bio related topics in chemistry like surface science, nanofabrication and colloids?

I mean, you learn things deeply in research, not classes, of course, but what about those who just want to take a class in something and not necessarily do research in it? How do you even do research without first taking a class in something and making an informed decision that its interesting and deserving of research?

Shouldn't the school actually teach what industry is using? Or at least what they expect students to know to do well in their own graduate programs in physical chemistry? I mean, I look at the curriculum for some physical chemistry departments, and think, how many chemistry students have the background to do it? How many could make an informed decision that "hey that research on nanotech was pretty cool" when most would never even see the "big picture" of what the current status of the field was and only would instead know the 10000000 interpretations of biology? Shouldn't the school at least teach a class on things that a sizable chunk of the faculty are doing?

I went to a big state university with a well known physical chemistry program and 100 majors graduating a year. If its like that here, then what's it like elsewhere?

Definitely not. The chem electives at my school include organic, advanced organic, biochem, analytical, instrumental, inorganic, advanced inorganic, and physical.

 

[chill_factor]

Definitely not. The chem electives at my school include organic, advanced organic, biochem, analytical, instrumental, inorganic, advanced inorganic, and physical.

physical is not an elective here... you have to take a year and that's all there is to it. same for inorganic, its required. organic is lower divsion here, analytical is lower division here too.

advanced organic is so close to bio, to me anyhow, that it might as well be part of bio. organic doesn't use math or physics and its applied mostly in the pharmaceutical industry just like bio is, so to me its the same stuff.

i guess what i was looking for was an "applied physical chemistry" class about things that is actually used in industry. let's say physical chemistry of colloids. There's like 5 faculty in my alma mater that do colloids. There's not a single class on colloids. How do we know that colloids is interesting and want to do research in it? what if we're interested but don't want to commit?

Sure you might say "read yourself" but then why can't bio guys "read themselves"?

i'm in physics now so i have no stake in this, but my concern is for how students are not employable because they're not learning what industry does except instrumental analysis which is just 1 class. colloids are used all the time in industry; why are they not sponsoring classes in colloidal thermodynamics? surface characterization is a huge part of analytical chemistry, yet we spend all the time on small molecule stuff, and there's no "theory" class for surface science, just a materials lab. same with nanofabrication; that's an important part of applied physical chemistry yet where's the classes in it? Look, professors in colloids are teaching stuff like "chemistry of cooking", ok, so its not like they don't have the resources.

why does it have to be pharmaceuticals or bust?