Musings of an Old Chemist

A Chemist's Perspective on the Habits and Skills STEM Students Need For Success

Tag: STEM toolbox

  • The STEM Toolbox: Tools 1 & 2: The Golden Ratios

    The STEM Toolbox: Tools 1 & 2: The Golden Ratios

    Introduction

    In our metaphorical STEM toolbox, there are two main compartments: the analytical skills compartment and the personality traits compartment, i.e., compassion, humility, resilience, and perseverance.

    We have already discussed one of the analytical skills, translative communication. The next two tools we must sharpen aren’t gadgets or pieces of hardware; they are our own mental processes and insight. I bring these to your attention because I learned of their importance through my personal experiences during my first and second years of college.

    For example:

    Imagine you’re sitting in a chemistry class, and your teacher asks you to calculate the mass of  100mLs100 \;mLs of water, and you spend several minutes carefully punching numbers into your calculator, only to proudly raise your hand and announce to the class that a 100mL100\;mL volume of water weighs 10kilogramsor10,000grams.10\;kilograms\;or\;10,000\;grams.

    You don’t question your result. You don’t pause to consider that you’ve just described a volume that has the same mass as 10 1-liter bottles of water or 20 pounds of sugar. Sometimes we trust the “black box” in our hands more than our own common sense. This is the danger of the $130 Calculator: when the battery dies, or a decimal point is misplaced, we’re lost, we’re left without a good answer. How easy it is to forget that the best calculator we have is the one between our ears.

    Personal Commentary

    I attended high school during the early 1970s, and at the time, calculators did not play the same role in the classroom as they do today. As a matter of fact, throughout my high school years, I never owned one. I either wrote out the calculations on paper or used a slide rule. There was no such thing as a graphing calculator in my high school or college years, so all our graphs were hand-drawn. This gave me a tremendous advantage not only on my ACT exam but also throughout my career.

    It was not until my freshman and sophomore chemistry courses that I learned the importance of the following tools for my STEM toolbox. These tools may seem simple, but I guarantee they will save you time and prevent numerous mistakes in your calculations.

    Sidebar: Mass vs Weight

    In your middle and high school science classes (especially Chemistry and Physics), you spend a lot of time learning that mass and weight are different. It can be confusing because when you place an object on an analytical balance, the result, what we traditionally designate as “weight” of the object, reads in grams or kilograms, the units of mass.

    Remember –

    Mass is Matter: Mass is the measurement of how many atoms are packed into an object. It is an intrinsic property. If you take a 10-gram sample of copper to the Moon, Mars, or the center of the galaxy, it still has a mass of 10 grams because the “amount of copper” hasn’t changed.

    Weight is a Force: Weight is a measure of the gravitational tug-of-war between the Earth and your sample. Because gravity isn’t the same everywhere (it’s slightly weaker on top of a mountain than at sea level), your “weight” actually changes depending on where you are.

    How Does an Analytical Balance Work?

    An analytical balance is a complex instrument that converts the “weight” of an object, which has the units of Newton’s in the MKS system, to the units of “mass”, grams or kilograms, based upon the strength of the Earth’s gravitational field at that location.

    The Golden Ratios

    Golden Ratio #1: The Chemist’s “Compass”: “The “1-1-1” Rule.

    Before you touch the keypad of your calculator, you should memorize the “The 1:1:1 Rule.” For liquid water at standard conditions, there is a perfect, elegant relationship that serves as a universal “Fact Check”:

    1mL(capacity)=1gram(mass)=1cm3(volume)1\;mL\;(capacity)=1\;gram\;(mass)=1\;cm^3\;(volume)

    If you can visualize this concept, you can calculate with certainty. 1mL1\;mL of water is roughly the size of a standard sugar cube (1cm3)(1\;cm^3). If you hold that “cube” of water in your hand, it has a mass of exactly 1gram1\;gram. does the 1:1:1 Rule apply to your work? In the lab, the 1-1-1 Rule confirms that your math is correct. 

    Example 1:

    If you calculate that 50mLs50\;mLs of a dilute aqueous solution is equivalent to 5000grams5000\;grams, you can refer back to this rule. “If 1mLis1gram1\;mL \;is \;1\;gram, how can 50mLsbe5,000grams\;50\;mLs\;be\;5,000\;grams? You’ve just described a liquid denser than lead. 

    Example 2:

    If you calculate that 250mLs250\;mLs of distilled water has a mass of 5,000grams5,000\;grams, the 1-1-1 Rule screams at you: “Wait! 250mL250\;mL should be about 250grams250\;grams. Something is wrong by a factor of twenty!”

    This is more than simply math; it’s spatial reasoning. The 1:1:1 Rule turns abstract numbers back into physical objects. It bridges the gap between the metric prefixes that trip so many students up.

    It is the ultimate “Reality Check.”

    The Golden Ratio #2: Finding the “Micro” in the “Milli”

    To truly understand and master the concept of scale, we have to go smaller, from milliliters down to microliters (1/1000 of a milliliter). The second “Golden Ratio” to understand and then memorize  is the Drop:

    1drop=˙50microliters(1/1000milliliter)1\;drop\.=\;50\;microliters\;(1/1000\;milliliter)

    This ratio should help you realize that 1mL1\;mL isn’t just a number; it’s about 20 drops from a pipette. When you see 500microliters500\;microliters in a lab procedure or on an exam, you should immediately think “10 drops,” not just a string of zeros. This mental translation turns a cold calculation into a physical action.

    Conclusion

    The next time you are working in the lab and are asked to determine the mass of water needed to fill a container, try this: first, look at the volume of your container. Estimate the required mass of water using the 1-1-1 Rule. Then, and only then, use the calculator.

    If the calculator disagrees with your gut, don’t assume your gut is wrong. Check your decimal points. 

  • Mastering Study Habits: 3 Steps to Improve Grades

    Mastering Study Habits: 3 Steps to Improve Grades

    Do you feel like you’re putting in your maximum effort, spending an extraordinary amount of time studying, yet your grades on exams don’t reflect your efforts? It’s a common frustration, but the issue often isn’t your effort – it’s your strategy. To succeed in tough subjects like math and science, you need to control the parameters that truly impact your learning. This post outlines a simple, three-step system for better study habits: start with the environment where you study, then perfect your note-taking technique, and finally apply a consistent daily review to retain information in your long-term memory.

    Step One

    When I’m tutoring a student who is struggling in math or science, the first thing I discuss – with both the student and their parents – isn’t usually the actual schoolwork. Instead, it’s about a simple idea: how well you study totally depends on where you’re doing it.

    A lot of students think “studying” just means having their textbook open. But if they’re sitting in their bedroom, surrounded by video games, the TV, music, and their bed, they’re basically inviting distractions. The bedroom isn’t a focused setting; it’s set up for relaxing, not for the serious mental effort it takes to really learn difficult material.

    Personal Commentary

    Students like to study together, and while I enthusiastically endorse study groups, I find they work best in a controlled, supervised environment such as a library or at a kitchen table with the assistance of a parent or a qualified tutor.

    Compare it to a science experiment. The first step to a successful one is controlling all the components. In the same way, you can’t truly figure out if you understand a subject if your attention keeps getting broken by your surroundings.

    The quickest and most effective way to see better grades is to move to a spot with fewer distractions. Places like the dining room table or a kitchen island are neutral, structured areas. That physical move actually signals to your brain that it’s time to focus on work. This change lets you pay critical attention and concentrate for genuine understanding.

    Step Two

    After you’ve got your study space all set up, the next big thing for effective studying is how you actually write things down, your note-taking technique. Similarly, like a science project, you need clear, neat data collection so you can actually look at it later.

    Many students make the mistake of trying to write down everything the teacher says. However, just being a human tape recorder doesn’t mean you’re learning anything. Good note-taking needs to be an active, organized process.

    Using a structured layout, especially for math and science, is a major upgrade. One very successful method is to split your paper into separate columns, one for your main notes. Leaving one for when you are reviewing your notes, for key formulas, questions, or reminders, and for a summary – you force your brain to figure out and organize the concepts or formulas as they’re taught, instead of just mindlessly copying them.

    Taking notes is the second step in this process, but the real goal is actually to retain the information long-term. That’s exactly why you have to develop the habit of reviewing them every single day.

    Step Three

    Human memory is imperfect. If you write notes on Monday and then don’t look at them again until right before a Friday test, you’re going to lose a great deal of that information. At that point, you’re not actually reviewing – you’re basically starting over and relearning everything.

    To beat this whole “forgetting curve” thing, you need to use those great notes in a smart way. I once read an article recommending that for every hour you spend in the classroom, you devote two hours at home completing the assigned homework and reviewing/studying the notes from that day’s lesson. When you start, hit the main points and use your notes to quiz yourself. This small, consistent effort stops the forgetting process dead in its tracks. It’s the secret for locking complex ideas into your long-term memory, turning studying from a frantic, last-minute panic session into a calm, steady climb to mastery.

    Personal Commentary

    I had a student in an advanced math and science program, in which I taught, who, when reviewing her notes at home, spent time highlighting the key, crucial facts she needed to commit to memory. Her notes then became a major learning tool in her success in the classroom.

    Conclusion

    In summary, becoming less frustrated about your academic success isn’t solely about working harder – it’s about controlling the right variables. If you commit to this simple, three-step system, you can fundamentally change the way you learn. Start by mastering your environment to eliminate distractions and signal your brain it’s time to focus. Next, upgrade your note-taking technique from passive copying to active organization. Finally, defeat the “forgetting curve” by implementing a small, consistent daily review. These three strategic habits combined are the secret to mastering complex ideas, turning your time investment into genuine, measurable success.

    This blog post’s development was supported by Gemini (an AI from Google). I used AI to structure complex technical arguments and to synthesize current educational trends as of 2026. Every piece of AI-generated material was reviewed against recent educational research and adjusted to incorporate my own perspective.