"Welcome to Chemistry at Nerinx for 2011-2012!"

I am continually in the process of updating this site.  If you have any suggestions or questions, let me know.

A couple of things:   I completely rebuilt this website in 2008 due to hosting changes.  I continue to work on it as I think of things or other things are needed or become available -- tabs change, files are moved, etc.  Please let me know if you find anything that is not correct, does not show, or does not show properly.  Former students should be able to find any information you are looking for by looking at the approprite sections in the current chapter notes.  If you have any questions or specific needs, let me know.

I will try to keep things updated in PowerSchool as grades become available but some things have not been easy to translate to what you might see there.  I generally enter the grades as I can but sometimes these are after adjustments you receive after corrections or other things.  Some things do not ever appear specifically, such as extra credit points.   I am still trying to figure out how to use PowerSchool so please understand that some things may take a while, but you should understand that any "quarter or semester average" that shows in PowerSchool is pretty meaningless until the actual end of the quarter/semester given the way scores are treated by the program. 

Based on some discussions this past summer with former students, this year I have started out treating homework differently than in years past -- I have made homework mandatory and assigned a definite point value to homework.  This will likely have an impact on grades as I record them vs. what PowerSchool calculates.  It may take me a little while to make the necessary adjustments to get the two things in sync.  Ultimately, however, it is the grade that I calculate which will be the final grade.  [It is certainly possible that I may go back to the more fun practice described in the syllabus, but I will have to see.]

Moreover, with the beginning of the second semester, I am going to be more careful with homework assignments.  Included in this will be a "statute of limitations" for late homework.  At the moment that is arbitrarily going to be a calendar week from the day the assignment was originally due.  I am seriously considering, however, no longer giving full credit for a late assignment.  If you are sick, the clock starts he day you get back and I will give you one day to get a missed assignment in without penalty.  Further, as we now get into more things, I want to see your work if there are calculations in a homework problem in order for you to get credit.