Thanks for a great final semester

[Zellmer, Robert]

I hope your finals went well.

For those of you who may not have heard, this was my last
semester.  I'm retiring.  I may be back next year to help the
department with a few things related to exams but no more
teaching.  I want to be able to do some other things with my
time, like visiting relatives and friends.  I don't get many
opportunities for that when teaching.

I want to say thanks for a great semester.  It was fun.  A good
note to go out on.  All good things come to an end, hopefully
just a pause.

I know I didn't get to know most of you or learn your names but
don't be surprised if I remember some of your faces (at least if
I saw you in class or office hours).  I may remember some of
your names if we had the chance to speak on more than one
occasion or I got multiple e-mails from you throughout the
semester.  If you run into me somewhere in the future, please
don't feel bad if I don't recognize you or remember your name.
Please say hello.  As the years go by, I often don't remember
names for very long.  Hey, I've had over 30,000 students
during my career.  That's a whole lot of names and faces.  They
say your life flashes before your eyes when you die so I figure it
will take awhile for me to die if I go through all the faces of
people I've encountered.  Besides, my stubborn side will make
me hold on as long as possible.  There's so much I still haven't
seen or learned.

Thanks for your cooperation at the final.  We got set up pretty
quickly.  I can't say much about the final or average since they
haven't released them.  The scores will be released when the
grades are done and they release everything.  They will not be
releasing the questions and your answers for the final.

I want to say a special thanks to those who continued to come to
lecture.  I'm grateful for that.  It's much easier to lecture when people
are there.  I enjoyed the personal interactions being in person and
doing demos.  I hope no matter what the outcome, you can say
you learned something.  I think there were times we had a little fun
and laughed a little, even at the bad jokes.  Hey, I'm not getting paid
enough to come up with good ones.  Besides, many were sent by
my staff of joke writers and they weren't paid for them, so we got
what we paid for.  Whoever thought you would be able to laugh
during a chemistry lecture.  Maybe you even learned something
new and found a few things interesting (like how geckos can walk
on walls or how to get your clothes cleaner or how you can drink a
strong acid solution, if it's diluted properly, etc.).  Sometimes even
the simple and mundane parts of life can be interesting when you
know something about the underlying reasons.  Please continue to
learn as much as you can and educate yourselves about your life
around you.  It will make you a better person and citizen.  It will be
harder for people to pull the wool over your eyes.  Perhaps it will
come in handy someday in saving money on that
engagement/wedding ring).

A shout out goes to those who asked questions in lecture.   Asking
questions in lecture is good.  I got more questions when lecturing
remotely during COVID than being back in person.  Perhaps people
feel more comfortable participating when not in person.  I can
understand that.  Get over that.  You learn by asking questions and
if you have a question, it's a sure bet someone else has that question
or maybe didn't even think about it.  It also lets your lecturer know
what you don't understand and hopefully do something to fix the
problems right then.  I now know a better way to get across what it
means to "flip" an octahedral complex, at least I hope so.  Now when
you turn over in bed, you'll know which axis you're turning around (if
you remember my rotating marshmallow snowman).  I've got to get
working on that Velcro suit (my patent- pending Zelcro suit).  Maybe
I will come back to OSU and pull that demo off in the oval.

A special shoutout to those who came to office hours.  That keeps
me on my toes and I don't get so lonely waiting for people to show
up.  It helped me realize what people were having trouble with and
when time allowed, go over it again in lecture.   Plus, I get to know
you better, which is good if you ever want me to write a letter of
recommendation in the future.  Go to your lecturers' office hours,
even if you don't think you have questions.

A very special shout out goes to those who helped with demos,
especially my unsuspecting "Acid".  I hope you took it the way
it was intended, in fun.  Another shout out to everyone who knew
what we called the MaVa=MbVb equation this semester when we
discussed titrations.  My brother Bruce is finally famous.  Next
time you hear the name you'll think of this eqn.

I can't forget to thank my joke writers/providers.  I think everyone
appreciated the jokes, even the ones that caused groans instead
of laughs.  Sometimes they're funny because they're so bad.

Finally, thanks to all of you who caught errors in the textbook, the
solutions manual and Mastering.  It helps all of you when I can send
the corrections out and helps Pearson make things better for future
students.

I know this course is tough and we cover a lot of material in 14 weeks.
Chemistry is done so you can all rest a little easier.  I know some of
you are done for good and are probably happy about that.  I know
some of you will take organic chem.  You'll use some of what you
learned this semester.  Review kinetics, equilibrium and thermodynamics
(Ch 19) and Bronsted-Lowry and Lewis acid/base theories.

I know some of you may have to repeat.  That's not the end of the world,
as you may think right now.  It is not the worse thing that will happen to
you in your life.  It happens now and then, even to the best students.
If you will be retaking the course, you can still speak to me over the
next couple of months.  If you didn't come to one of my "How to Learn"
sessions you still have access to the video in the Lecture module on
Carmen.  I'm sure if approached properly anyone can pass this course
and do well.  I don't want you to have to repeat a second or third time.
Repeating a course will not put an end to whatever your dreams are.
Believe me, I know.

You can go on to organic with a D in 1220 but you could struggle if you
don't make sure you learn the material better.  Also, once you go on to a
subsequent course in Chemistry and later repeat a previous course to get
a better grade, the grade in that course isn't forgiven.  Keep this in mind
if you plan on going on to organic with the intention of going back and
repeating 1220 for a better grade.  Your original grade in 1220 would
then not be forgiven and still be factored into your GPA.

I know it feels like forever to get your grades.  I realize it can be excruciating
wondering what your grade will be.   You should have access at this point
to all your scores except the final.  Once that has been processed and the
grades have been assigned they will release your scores for the final and
total score for the course.  You can get a rough idea from the grade scale
given in the syllabus what your letter grade might be.  Keep in mind, the
score for recitation and the final course total will not reflect taking account
of the fact our course had quizzes or any possible differences in scores in
the different 1220 sections for the on-line homework.  Once everything is
done, the Vice Chair will get the grades.  He and I will then discuss how
to account for the quizzes.  If there's a big discrepancy in the on-line
homework scores that will be considered as well, but this isn't usually the
case.  I wish I could give you details on how but I'm not sure just yet,
maybe by simply adjusting the scores needed for the grade cuts.

Your grades probably won't be in Carmen until next Monday when the
grades are due to the registrar.  They will not make it to BuckeyeLink until
next Monday.  Please be patient, it's not an easy task for the office staff to
get grading done for ~4000 students in our first-year courses in just a few
days.

Keep a couple of things in mind if you're wondering how you did relative
to the class averages.  When you look at the average for a specific quiz
Carmen will average in scores for all students, even though it might be
one of the lowest 2 quizzes for some students which would be one of
their dropped quizzes.  That means the average for a specific quiz is
artificially low.  The same applies to lab and exams.  While we don't
drop any labs or exams, there are some students still in the course who
haven't done much of anything, including not taking some of the
midterms.  That affects the averages for everything.  The class
average doesn't affect the grade cuts.

If you wish to inquire about your grade, you can but again think about
what it would have been on a "normal" grade scale.  There is no extra
credit.   I will try to answer e-mails as quickly as I can, even though it
will be summer.

Finally, our lecture sections have done relatively well.  I can't give
details but good job overall.

It was a pleasure this semester.  It certainly was a lot more fun with
the jokes.  Also, I enjoyed the banter with you during class.  The
interactions are good.

Have a good summer.  Enjoy yourselves and rest up.  Good luck in
the future.  I wish you well.

Feel free to e-mail me.  You should be able to use my zellmer.1 at osu.edu<mailto:zellmer.1 at osu.edu>
e-mail.  I believe they will allow me to forward it to my personal
e-mail account.

I'll say one last thing (sort of - see joke below).  This was something
we would say when I was younger.  It came from a TV show.

"Happy trails to you until we meet again."

Dr. Zellmer

P.S.  One more bad dad joke I heard awhile back.  You might have
to think for a few seconds before you look at the answer.

What did the bear say to the bear hunter when they met in the
woods (scroll down)?





Moo!






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