1 00:00:09,900 --> 00:00:11,760 CATHERINE DRENNAN: So at MIT, there 2 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:13,850 are several options of chemistry courses. 3 00:00:13,850 --> 00:00:18,410 Everyone has to place out of chemistry or take one semester, 4 00:00:18,410 --> 00:00:20,620 and even if you're going to be an economics major, 5 00:00:20,620 --> 00:00:23,310 you need that semester of chemistry, 6 00:00:23,310 --> 00:00:24,690 and there are several options. 7 00:00:24,690 --> 00:00:27,540 And this particular course is designed 8 00:00:27,540 --> 00:00:30,550 that if you don't have a very strong background in chemistry 9 00:00:30,550 --> 00:00:34,400 or maybe if you do but maybe it's not your favorite subject, 10 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:37,640 that this is one you can come in and take even if you haven't 11 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:39,930 taken chemistry before. 12 00:00:39,930 --> 00:00:44,990 And the backgrounds are actually quite diverse. 13 00:00:44,990 --> 00:00:48,410 There are absolutely students who have never taken it before. 14 00:00:48,410 --> 00:00:51,160 There are other students who have taken two years who 15 00:00:51,160 --> 00:00:54,086 probably could have taken a more advanced class, 16 00:00:54,086 --> 00:00:55,460 but they thought this one sounded 17 00:00:55,460 --> 00:00:56,950 like it would be more fun. 18 00:00:56,950 --> 00:01:00,010 So there's quite a bit of mixture in terms of background. 19 00:01:00,010 --> 00:01:02,190 A lot of people coming in are not 20 00:01:02,190 --> 00:01:04,459 that excited about chemistry, and this 21 00:01:04,459 --> 00:01:06,990 was one of my tremendous surprises when I taught here. 22 00:01:06,990 --> 00:01:11,130 I realized in high school not everybody is jumping at the bit 23 00:01:11,130 --> 00:01:14,530 to take the chemistry class, but at MIT, these 24 00:01:14,530 --> 00:01:15,790 are scientists and engineers. 25 00:01:15,790 --> 00:01:17,570 Everyone walking through the door 26 00:01:17,570 --> 00:01:19,230 should be in love with chemistry, 27 00:01:19,230 --> 00:01:22,500 and I discovered that absolutely was not the case 28 00:01:22,500 --> 00:01:26,040 and that it was my job to help convince them, 29 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:28,400 these people who were generally interested in science 30 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,190 and engineering, that chemistry was important. 31 00:01:31,190 --> 00:01:33,360 And I just thought it was obvious, 32 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:35,780 but then I had to remember back to my experience, 33 00:01:35,780 --> 00:01:38,600 and it wasn't obvious to me the value of chemistry 34 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:41,100 the first time I stepped in a chemistry course. 35 00:01:41,100 --> 00:01:44,060 So on the first day of class, I like 36 00:01:44,060 --> 00:01:47,810 to show a picture from my college yearbook, 37 00:01:47,810 --> 00:01:51,510 a picture of myself and college yearbook picture of one 38 00:01:51,510 --> 00:01:54,130 of my classmates who is Lisa Kudrow, who 39 00:01:54,130 --> 00:01:57,030 is Phoebe on Friends, and I put both of our pictures up. 40 00:01:57,030 --> 00:02:01,160 We were in the same class, and I asked them to guess who we are. 41 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:03,430 They usually get it. 42 00:02:03,430 --> 00:02:05,870 And then I ask them to guess what 43 00:02:05,870 --> 00:02:07,820 I went to college to study. 44 00:02:07,820 --> 00:02:08,810 They guessed chemistry. 45 00:02:08,810 --> 00:02:10,090 I tell them drama. 46 00:02:10,090 --> 00:02:15,100 I ask them to guess about Lisa Kudrow, and they guessed drama, 47 00:02:15,100 --> 00:02:17,280 but it was actually biology, and she 48 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:19,370 was a biology major at Vassar. 49 00:02:19,370 --> 00:02:22,400 And so then I said, how did this happen? 50 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:25,760 How did I become a chemist and she become an actress? 51 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:30,370 And I let them know this because I said, 52 00:02:30,370 --> 00:02:33,050 you may have come to MIT to study something, 53 00:02:33,050 --> 00:02:35,150 but that might not be what you end up studying. 54 00:02:35,150 --> 00:02:37,630 You might be taking this class because it's required, 55 00:02:37,630 --> 00:02:39,340 but that's just because you have not 56 00:02:39,340 --> 00:02:43,850 found your passion for chemistry yet, and you will find it. 57 00:02:43,850 --> 00:02:46,040 Maybe you'll find it this semester. 58 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:48,650 Maybe it will be next year at MIT. 59 00:02:48,650 --> 00:02:51,821 Maybe it won't be for years until you're 60 00:02:51,821 --> 00:02:54,320 an engineer and all of a sudden you're working with chemists 61 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:56,900 and you're like, oh, man, I really 62 00:02:56,900 --> 00:03:00,160 need to understand chemistry to do my engineering job better, 63 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:02,790 and then that's when you fully appreciate 64 00:03:02,790 --> 00:03:04,230 the value of chemistry. 65 00:03:04,230 --> 00:03:08,110 But I hope that if you haven't found your passion yet, 66 00:03:08,110 --> 00:03:10,970 you will find it this semester, and I'm 67 00:03:10,970 --> 00:03:14,190 going to try to help you understand why chemistry 68 00:03:14,190 --> 00:03:17,600 is so amazing and how it can affect 69 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:19,700 all sorts of different disciplines. 70 00:03:19,700 --> 00:03:22,240 And so if you really embrace it and look at it, 71 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:24,940 you realize there's just wealth of information 72 00:03:24,940 --> 00:03:26,080 that is in there. 73 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:28,644 And if you get these main tools that we're 74 00:03:28,644 --> 00:03:30,560 going to cover-- I'm going to teach you really 75 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:34,060 all the basics that you need to know-- if you can get those, 76 00:03:34,060 --> 00:03:37,010 you can go on and do all sorts of things with that chemistry. 77 00:03:37,010 --> 00:03:39,230 And I have a 7-year-old daughter, 78 00:03:39,230 --> 00:03:42,060 and the world is a pretty scary place right now. 79 00:03:42,060 --> 00:03:44,610 There are a lot of problems associated with it, 80 00:03:44,610 --> 00:03:47,670 and we need people who understand chemistry 81 00:03:47,670 --> 00:03:50,010 to make the world better and to make the world better 82 00:03:50,010 --> 00:03:50,790 for my daughter. 83 00:03:50,790 --> 00:03:57,290 So this is a very personal exercise for me. 84 00:03:57,290 --> 00:04:00,140 I want everyone to come out of the class with this background 85 00:04:00,140 --> 00:04:02,890 in chemistry that they can save the world, 86 00:04:02,890 --> 00:04:05,760 because the world needs saving and my daughter is really cute, 87 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:09,190 and I'd like to show a picture of her and say, make this world 88 00:04:09,190 --> 00:04:11,460 a better place for her.