Prevent learning
overload
RSC ChemNet Events
Dates for
your diary
M
aterials Chemistry
Division schools' lecture:
your solar-powered future
5 February 2013 09:30–10:30
Edinburgh
This interactive lecture examines
the inevitable rise of the sun as a
key power source for the future.
http://rsc.li/Wm0DiI
Francesca Burgoyne from RSC ChemNet helps you
prepare for the year with tips to boost your memory
and make the most of your learning
The new year means a chance to start afresh and resolve
to do better in the coming year. I’m sure many of you
will have made resolutions to get fit, take up a hobby,
volunteer for a charity (mine will be to eat less cake…). As
we’re interested in chemistry – and any good chemical
process should be efficient – how about resolving to learn
more efficiently by getting the best out of your memory?
After all, learning is essentially a result of chemical
processes in your brain forming memories and making
connections between them.
Lafarge Cement works tour
14 February 2013 09:00–12:00
Aberthaw, Rhoose
Come and take a tour to see
how cement it made – you’ll be
surprised how much chemistry
is involved!
http://rsc.li/Wm0Cva
Information overload
Last term you will have been introduced to lots of
unfamiliar concepts, and probably feel a bit overwhelmed
with new information. But don’t worry, once you’ve got
the hang of the basics the trickier stuff gets easier. This is
because space available to process new information in
your short-term memory depends on whether you already
know a bit about the subject and how complicated it is.
So once you have the basics, more of your short-term
memory is freed up to unravel complicated ideas, as you
just have to remember the basic facts and not
learn them.
What's in your drink?
28 February 2013
10:00–13:00
Chelmsford
Tour a Britvic lab to discover
how they measure the colour,
aroma and flavouring in your
soft drinks.
http://rsc.li/Wm0AU1
L ook what chemistry has
done for me
7 March 2013 13:00–15:00
London
Bring your teacher and
classmates along to The Royal
Veterinary College to find out
more about careers in chemistry.
http://rsc.li/Wm0zQ9
Log out, switch on
Your brain is remarkable but it can only hold a certain
amount of information in short-term memory. So what
happens when we get distracted? To go back to the
computer analogy, think about RAM (computer short
term memory which keeps track of all the current
processing). Your computer can only run so many
processes at a time. If it is turned off unexpectedly, any
data in this temporary storage system is lost. You need
to save your work to make sure it is stored safely.
Your memory works in a similar way – if you are
distracted (a bit like switching off suddenly), it is easy
to forget what you were thinking about, and you need
to start that process again. So it’s a good idea to log
out of Facebook, Twitter and Skype to prevent any
distractions when you’re trying to learn
something new – or that eureka moment
could disappear faster than a tag on an
unflattering photo.
Let’s connect
jupiter images
Quotient site visit
19 June 2013 12:30–15:30
Cardiff
A chance to visit the world’s
largest radiochemical facility
and find out how radiolabels
are used in drug discovery.
http://rsc.li/Wm0sE4
6 | The Mole | January 2013
You can think of this a bit like using cookies from a
website – when you visit a website for the first time
that website knows nothing about you but it can collect
small packets of data during your visit, eg your name or
email address. The next time you visit that website your
information is retrieved and the website works smoother
and faster for you.
So how do you move information from
short-term memory when you first learn
it to long-term memory so that you
can recall it for your exams? Repeating
something over and over will eventually
lodge it in your brain, but you can take
a shortcut by making connections
between memories. You will find it easier
to remember a new idea if it is linked
to something you know really well. Try
making up rhymes, acronyms or drawing
pictures. I’ve never forgotten OIL RIG
– Oxidation Is Loss, Reduction Is Gain.
Two words, one fundamental chemical
principle I’m never going to forget.
www.rsc.org/TheMole
Dr ChemNet
says
Preparation is everything
The friendly folk at the RSC want you to love chemistry
It may be stating the obvious, but you can do a lot to help as much as we do, so there are lots of resources to
help you with your studies.
yourself, if you are organised:
Know the basics. Ask your teacher to clarify any ideas
that you are not comfortable with, before you tackle
tougher theories.
Do your homework (no, really). It’s there to reinforce
what you learnt in a lesson, not torture you. The more
familiar you are with a concept the easier you will find it
to build on next time.
Do set reading before a lesson. Face time with
teachers is incredibly valuable because you can ask
questions (I only discovered this at university, where
contact time is precious!). If you’ve done the reading
you can focus on the bits that you don’t get, rather than
having to be taught everything from scratch.
Learning is a personal thing
Everyone is different, which is great – but it means that
we all have different ways to learn things too. One of our
Dr ChemNets gives his words of chemical wisdom:
'I decided to have a pocket book with me at all times
so that I could jot down the ‘how to do it’ information
that wasn’t being given in the official notes from my
teachers. This, of course, is not exactly cutting-edge.
What really made the difference was, each day, to look
at all the jottings I had made and to write them into
the ‘official’ notes. This had a number of benefits: I
had to look at the official notes again and the result
was my own work rather than my teacher’s. More than
this was the minor glow of satisfaction that I had not
let anything pass me by as I drew a line through the
jottings in my pocket book.
Learning is encouraged by repetition and by personal
reward. This study method provided both.'
RSC ChemNet
RSC ChemNet is the Royal Society of
Chemistry’s student network. It’s free to join at
http://my.rsc.org/chemnet and gives you access to
loads of great stuff including:
Learning how to study is
a very personal thing.
You don’t know what
works for you until you
have tried and, perhaps,
failed to make a
technique effective.
Your notebook is
probably electronic but
the principle is the same.
You’re a budding chemist
– don’t be afraid to
experiment with learning
methods!
Dr ChemNet – our experts are here to answer all
your chemical queries and practical problems
The Mole – the magazine for anyone inspired to dig
deeper into chemistry
Events – find out what being a chemist is really like
with lectures, lab tours and hands-on sessions
Careers advice – the next steps can be daunting but
we have lots of information on the different options
available and how to get there
Learn Chemistry is the RSC’s home for
everything relating to chemistry education. You
can find these resources, and much more at
http://rsc.li/learn-chemistry.
Visual Elements Periodic Table – an interactive
display of facts, atomic data, videos and podcasts.
All you could ever want to know about the elements
Spectraschool – for budding analytical chemists
Did you
know?
ChemNet is free to join for
anyone aged 14–18. Tell
your friends!
http://my.rsc.org/chemnet
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T: 01223 43
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Mechanism Inspector – explore and revise organic
reaction mechanisms
Shutterstock
Gridlocks – dozens of puzzles to test your chemistry
Chemistry in Your Cupboard – find out about the
chemistry of everyday products
www.rsc.org/TheMole
January 2013 | The Mole | 7