[Preplabstudents] Autumn 2024- Week 10

[Weaver, Tyler A.]

Be sure you are reading the entirety of this email. You are accountable for the entirety of all email messages sent to you by the Prep Lab Staff.

Howdy y’all!

Believe it or not, week 10 is just around the corner. Here’s what it has in store for us:

[cid:image001.png at 01DB230C.4E7CE7F0]

Experiment Notes-Refer to the window notes and gather sheets for additional details.

PPG
We’re expecting to go through LOTS of microcentrifuge tubes this week. All rooms all have a stash of microcentrifuge tubes behind their marker boards. The students will be using the centrifuges for this- if they report one is not working check the following: it’s plugged in, turned on, and the lid is fully closed. If it still doesn’t work, trade it with one of the extras in the window. Place a broken item sticker on the faulty unit. When doing cart checks for this experiment, swap the entire bucket of reagents regardless of fill level. Do not check individual bottles- it’ll take too long.

EMS
These will be set up on the bench beside Hood A. Replacement parts are available in the window.

SST
pH meters…Students and pH meters don’t always get along. The lab supervisors have made significant efforts to help this. We have made some changes in how these are supplied to assist. pH meters and probes are on the bench closest to Hood A.

There will be some rooms with a mix of old (black wire) and new (white wire) probes, and some rooms with only new (white wire) probes. The probes with the black wires will need to be attached to the top of the meters whereas the new probes will need to be attached to the white cables that are already on the meters.

The new probes will easily screw onto the cable (the other end is already connected to the meter), but the students may have issues with the old cables being connected to the meters. The black wires are attached to the top of the meter by pusing and turning. Both pH meters will have either a black o-ring (old probes) or a blue rubber piece (new probes) at the top of the meter to cushion it from the glass storage tube and help seal in the storage solution. These can stay at the top of the probes while the students are taking readings.

For pare meter or probe supplies, the 2nd floor window will have a mobile cabinet in it. The cabinet contains extra o-rings, blue rubber pieces, storage solution, probe solution for inside the old meters, extra probes, cables, and a "broken" pH probe box.

If a student claims their pH meter is “broken”, they should have their TA try to calibrate it before bringing it to the window for an exchange. “Broken” meters should be placed in the labeled bin so that one of the prep lab staff can check them and make any necessary repairs. If a student has a broken old probe, they will need to pick up a cable with the new replacement probe.

XUF Day 1
Students will not be running XRF analysis on their pennies, instead Sarah has done this for them. The results are on the sticker attached to each bagged penny. We will be using the blue and white spectrometers for this experiment. Pennies are in the window. Hazardous gas will be produced when the penny dissolves. If the exhaust stops working the lab room must be evacuated. The “old UV-Vis solution” will be provided ready to use, no dilution needs to be done before analysis.

SYN Day 1
Be prepared to direct students to the ice machine outside of the restrooms. There is no scoop provided, students should just use a beaker from their drawer. Extra red flea size stir bars and vacuum tubing will be available in the window. Sarah and I will manage the microwave. Note that concentrated phosphoric acid is not needed for Day 1 and will not be provided. Each room will have a microscope. We will snag a tiny amount of sample from the first group to obtain crude product to put under the microscope. If students observe the temperature on the digital readout going down as they heat up their melting point apparatus, they plugged the thermocouple in the wrong way. They just need to remove it, turn it 180˚ and reinsert it. Replacement thermocouples will also be available in the window. Each room is limited to only 6 groups due to the layout in the microwave. If a room asks for more reaction tubes, please check they don’t have more than 6 groups before handing anything out. Any questions you cannot answer should be directed to me.

Other Important Information

Welcome Emma!

As of Monday October 21st, Emma Lintelman will be permanently joining out team. You may have interacted with her in her previous role of Assistant Lab Supervisor. Emma will occupy the desk I have been using for the past few months. I will still be around quite a bit but will likely start using my office on the second floor again.

To celebrate having a full team again, we will have cookies in the prep lab office on Monday.

Recent Issues

If you have not reviewed my email from Friday about recent issues, please do so.

https://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/preplabstudents/2024-October/000211.html

Restocking Items

If you notice something is low during a lab check, or in general, please refill it. We’ve been seeing some bags of centrifuge tubes sitting next to the red bins. It may not be from us, but please be sure things go into their bins, and are not just left beside them.

Best,
Tyler

[The Ohio State University]

Tyler Weaver
Instructional Lab Supervisor
General Chemistry Prep Lab Manager

The Ohio State University
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
280E Celeste Lab
120 W. 18th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 688-3929 Office
weaver.646 at osu.edu<mailto:weaver.646 at osu.edu>

Pronouns: he/him/his

Please do not feel obliged to read or reply to my messages outside of your normal working hours.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/preplabstudents/attachments/20241020/5d07580f/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.png
Type: image/png
Size: 8556 bytes
Desc: image003.png
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/preplabstudents/attachments/20241020/5d07580f/attachment-0002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001[11].png
Type: image/png
Size: 10820 bytes
Desc: image001[11].png
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/preplabstudents/attachments/20241020/5d07580f/attachment-0003.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: mixed probes.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 851289 bytes
Desc: mixed probes.jpeg
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/preplabstudents/attachments/20241020/5d07580f/attachment-0002.jpeg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: all new probes.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 700642 bytes
Desc: all new probes.jpeg
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/preplabstudents/attachments/20241020/5d07580f/attachment-0003.jpeg>