CHEM 1410

Linda Columbus is a fabulous CHEM1410 teacher who constantly pushes us to strive for excellence. She emphasizes the "why" of chemical phenomenon rather than dogmatically telling us to memorize, furthering understanding of the chemical concepts.

She uses online homework (similar to Mastering Chemistry) to teach this course, the majority of the class being independent study through this medium. Tests are HARD though. They are formatted like this:

Part I.
Standard Individual Questions, Easy from the Chapter
Part II.
Hard Group Questions, Answered by Individuals
Part III.
Groups Questions during Friday EXPO (similar to a group test).

Lectures are rather useless and disorganized; I only go for Dr. Columbus's humor because she is great!

This class is oriented towards organic chemistry in terms of material (seriously, we didn't even bother learning stoichiometry). It is different from traditional lectures with Welch, Metcalf etc. in that way.

A lot of math in this course is eschewed for physical understanding which I believe is wonderful! Leave the math to the physics guys...

I would highly recommend this class to anyone interested in taking an intro to chemistry class. She is a fabulous teacher and is passionate about her students and teaching. One of the best parts about this class are the 'expos', which are very similar to discussions except they are interactive and focused on collaboration with a group you have semester long. Her tests are very difficult!! They are tests taken at home, except for the final, which means you have about 3 days to complete them. I would say that the 3 exams take me about 5 hours each to complete. I am satisfied with this class, however. Definitely take this course if you want to learn about chemistry in the most theoretical, hypothetical way

This class has potential, but it is nowhere near ready. Linda, although knowledgeable and kind, is very disorganized during lecture and is not successful in making the textbook a good resource. The fact that she constantly tells us to utilize other sources for the class only emphasizes this fact... I feel that this class is a lot more work than it needs to be- coming from a person who took AP Chemistry in high school. Additionally, the CPR assignments are ridiculous and unfair (expecting us to have mentioned concepts that we never would've thought of mentioning, unfair peer reviewers with unrealistic expectations for an introductory-level course. Take this class with Welch if you can- you'll have a much better learning experience. It is essential to have a strong lecture to have a well-functioning course- they don't seem to understand this yet.

The course itself is not hard but she is very confusing. The lectures often leave me more confused than when I go in and she answers questions by responding with a question and it makes everyone even more confused. Since everyone is confused, everyone takes up lecture time by asking questions and we never actually go over the material.

Columbus does a good job using her evidence-based teaching methods (such as having her students do actively engaging tasks instead of just reading a paper and asking if people understand it the next day). The class is quite abstract and conceptual, as it's heavily based on quantum mechanics, but I've definitely learned about a lot about how atoms interact on a molecular and subatomic level. Columbus seems to care about her students and though not an easy A, it's also not a weed out course either. My main complaint was the use of Top Hat, but I've heard that they might not use it next year.

Columbus uses TopHat which in itself is a world of issues, but she's a super nice and understanding person. Even if you get an answer wrong, if you have a strong justification for it, she will give you the point. There are 3 midterms which are all take home and open-book, and 1 final closed-book and individual. Every week you get a good amount of reading due Tuesday (before lecture), an assignment due Thursday or Friday (before your expo), and something due Sunday. There's also writing assignments right before your midterms that are graded by your peers. It's kind of arbitrary due the questions being so vague, but it usually works out if you know what you did wrong. Overall, the class is an easy A if you put a good amount of effort into it and ask questions. Otherwise, you could get by with a B for showing up to Expo and looking up answers for midterms and assignments.

Course: Is taught on TopHat, which is in my opinion the worst online textbook I have ever seen. Multiple typos, etc. Consists of a lecture and an expo, where a class project is worked through in groups. It is nice not having the traditional M-W-F chem class but Mastering Chemistry seems to be a much more reputable source than Top Hat.
Professor: Linda may try her best but doesn't really teach anything. We are expected to read in preparation for the lecture (pretty common) but in her lecture she doesn't really clarify anything. I could have easily skipped every single lecture and received the same grade minus the participation grade. I've heard her office hours are better but 300 people can't go to office hours. The expo was a good way of figuring stuff out on your own, but she can't expect us to learn everything on our own when we're paying tuition.

Columbus is really nice and wants her students to do well; however, she is not the best lecturer. I went to lectures to get participation points and did other homework while there. As long as you pay attention to the at home readings and assignments, you will understand the material enough to do well on the take home exams.

Great course! I highly recommend this professor since she created the actual textbook that joins the assignments. Do not feel pressured to perform here, rather attend office hours and learn the material. You will do great!

COLUMBUS IS THE BEST PROFESSOR EVER!!!!! TAKE THIS COURSE WITH HER!!!!! She really cares about her students and makes the course material fun. The content is taught at a good pace that is not too fast or too slow. Overall it's not too hard to get an A as long as you consistently go to office hours.