World Teachers' Day

How would you describe your Chemistry teacher? Inspirational? Boring? Caring? A bully? Compassionate? Dedicated? Disinterested?
How would your Chemistry teacher describe you?
In common with all your other teachers, your Chemistry teacher's greatest desire is to inspire you and to help you achieve success in your studies. (Yes, I am serious!)
Your Chemistry teacher will be disappointed when you don't attempt your homework, hand in your lab reports and assessments on time, and when you are distracted in class or lack concentration. Your teacher will try to help you, sometimes this might feel like a teacher "picking on you", harassing you or bullying you, but your teacher just wants to get you focused and trying to do the work required to the best of your ability.
Teachers get frustrated when capable students don't submit work that reflects their abilities, and when students try to "look up" or "find" the answer rather than think through a problem and arrive at a solution through their own efforts. Teachers get excited when students "get it", when they achieve results better than expected, when they display interest, and when they try to solve problems through their own efforts (especially when the student finds the work difficult).
Teachers will make allowances for student "mis"-behaviour when they know you are not feeling well or are feeling stressed, when assessments are due, during exams, etc. But do you make similar allowances for your teacher's "mis"-behaviour ... yes... teachers get sick and stressed too (they are only human after all)! Assessments and exams to mark, reports to write, lessons to plan, whole teaching programs to revise and/or write, not to mention thinking about new ways to present concepts to students who have failed to understand them.
You are probably at school because you "need to be", you view it as a stepping-stone to your career goal or future aspirations. Have you ever wondered why your teacher is at school?
Your Chemistry teacher is at school because they want to share their love of Chemistry with you and to help you understand Chemistry so that you will also enjoy it and achieve the best results you can.

On International Teachers' Day, take a moment to think about how your Chemistry teacher might see you as a student, and, think about how you might help your teacher to help you.

International "World Teachers' Day" is held annually on the 5^th October .... unless you are in Australia where this date usually falls in the school holidays, so the Australian version of "Teachers' Day" is held on the last Friday in October (25^th October 2019).

Naming Nitriles

How do you name a molecule like H-C≡N?
If you are an inorganic chemist you might call it:

• hydrogen cyanide (hydrogen name)
• hydridonitridocarbon (additive name)
• methylidyneazane (substitutive name)

If you are an organic chemist you might call it:

• hydrogen cyanide (functional class name)
• formonitrile (preferred IUPAC name)
• methanenitrile (substitutive name) 

The CN functional group at the end of a hydrocarbon chain results in a molecule that belongs to a class of organic compounds called nitriles. All nitriles contain a terminal CN group known as the cyano functional group.
AUS-e-TUTE has a new tutorial, game and test to help our members understand and apply IUPAC naming rules to nitriles. Members should log-in to use these new resources.

If you are not a member of AUS-e-TUTE you can access a "free-to-view" tutorial on naming nitriles at https://www.ausetute.com.au/namnitrile.html

Hydrogen Emission Spectrum

How many lines are in the emission spectrum of hydrogen?
Where do these lines come from?
What are the Lyman, Balmer, Paschen, Brackett, Pfund and Humphreys Series?
Find the answers to these questions and more in AUS-e-TUTE's new hydrogen emission spectrum resources.
AUS-e-TUTE Members should log-in to access the new tutorial, game, test and exam (with worked solutions of course!)
If you are not an AUS-e-TUTE member you can access a "free-to-view" Hydrogen Emission Spectrum tutorial at https://www.ausetute.com.au/hspectrum.html