CHEM 1410

I would highly recommend if you are taking CHEM 1410 and then CHEM 1420 in the spring to take them with Professor Welch. Welch is one of the nicest professors you will come across at UVA! Although his lectures can sometimes be long-winded, he really cares about his students understanding of the concepts that are explored in CHEM 1410 and 1420. Not only is he very approachable, but he also really cares about the overall well-being of his students outside of the classroom. I have seen multiple occasions where he has given students extensions for being sick or just because they had a really stressful week.

I liked Welch - he was goofy, hoped that you had a life outside of chemistry, and was open to questions. these lectures are big but there are office hours literally every day but Saturday (or something like that!) so there is always a way for u to get help. Find a TA you like and do the textbook homework with them when you can. Welch and his TAs held review sessions which were super helpful and he would also write an outline for exams which other profs didn't do but I found super helpful. If u don't have Welch, I would still recommend getting in contact with him for questions/outlines/advice/etc. I had morkowchuk for lab and I thought she was really nice and great at lab supervision (not our actual teacher, that was a pHD student) but I'm not sure she provided as many study resources for her lecture students. I do think this class as a whole couldve done better helping students become interested...bc I loved applying what I learned and chemistry in general and I wanted to want to continue but it was super in depth super quick and the textbook was fine it was just that everything was at an atomic/quantum level from the start. I thought I would hate the way exams are structured but it actually ended up helping my grade in the end bc part of the exams were group exams. I'm glad I stuck with this class.

Take intro chem with Welch. If you're trying to figure out whether to take Welch or Morkowchuk, go for Welch. If you take 1411, you'll have Morkowchuk as your lab professor, and you will find that she talks really slowly. Welch goes at a relatively fast pace and doesn't necessarily cover everything from the textbook reading. Readings are due before the Mon/Tues class depending on your section, so he knows you all have at least a vague idea of what he will cover. In lecture, he will reintroduce what you've read over the weekend and help through practice examples and problems, especially ones that a lot of students struggled with on the homework. He records the lecture, so rewatch those before exams, or at least parts that you need to brush up on. For Expos, some days you will be able to leave early if your group works fast enough, and other days may feel like a race against the clock. If there is a section on the LBLA on what to do to prepare for Expo, do them and bring them in. It will save time, as long as you double check with your group that you have similar answers. It's also a good idea to them anyway and assume the others in your group won't do it. For exams, try reworking the LBLA problems (especially for math problems) and review concepts. Sometimes the textbook goes into far more detail than what will be on the exams. Exams are three parts, all open-note and open-source. I recommend making a study guide of textbook figures (especially tables) and equations on a Word Doc instead of flipping through the chapters during the exam. The second and third parts of the exam are challenging, but partial credit is offered (on the third part) for correct explanations even if your answer is wrong. Don't be fooled by the small amount of questions, they are hard, and you cannot do the second part last minute. Even if you guess, you will have to debate with your group on why you think your answer is correct. While taking the second part of the exam, write down explanations and your reasoning because if your logic is correct, it will earn you points back on the third part. Also, this man likes to color-code his lecture demos. It might be easy if you have many colored pens or something and follow along.

Everyone talks about how bad this class is, but really it is pretty manageable if you are willing to put in the time and effort. If you are going to take chemistry, then I would highly suggest taking it with Welch. He is very easy to work with and generally has higher scores than other professors who teach the course. The course format is pretty different from any other course I have taken. You have one lecture and one expo meeting a week. Expo is where you work in a group setting to solve more interesting and complex questions. Getting a good group is kinda important if you want to do well in the course, as you will see. The course assignments are as follows: weekly chapter readings, two small weekly assignments, expo work, 3 exams, a portfolio, a final project, and a final exam. The exams are structured differently from traditional exams. There are 3 parts: individual, group, and attempting the group questions individually. The way they are weighted for your overall exam score changes with exam, placing more emphasis on the individual portion. The group questions are VERY hard. When you are answering them be sure to write down why you think your answer is right because you will have to write an explanation for each answer your group selects on the exam. Everyone coming in prepared makes the exam go easier and quicker. My group mates never prepared and it always took us right up until time to finish. This course does take a fair amount of time commitment, but once everything starts clicking and coming together the work does start to come easier.

Here’s the deal, Welch is great but he doesn’t go into enough detail in lectures nor does he use power points. He is a great guy and emphasizes that your work shouldn’t fully revolve around Chem (which is a breath of fresh air compared to other teachers) but I didn’t learn well from him in class. I ended up going to Staines lectures and liked her style better. It seems like Welch’s tests are easier though so pick your poison I guess. I ended up with an A- but that was due to an amazing EXPO group and luck. This class is a requirement for a lot of programs, so do your best and whatever the end result be proud for getting through it!

For a college chemistry course, which is inherently going to be difficult, I thought that this one was well-designed and well-instructed. Each weekend, you will read a chapter from the online textbook and answer practice questions (takes about 3-4 hours if you take notes). This is mostly graded on completion. Then, you will meet for lecture at the beginning of the week and listen to Professor Welch talk about what you just learned. He's a good lecturer and a very understanding instructor (pretty much always willing to give out extensions), but the only reason I didn't give him a 5/5 is that oftentimes during the lectures he'll only go over the very basic material in the chapter and not go into the more complicated content that more people are confused about. I usually had to go to TA help hours to really understand the harder topics. After lecture, you have a couple of days to do the LBLA, which is just a few questions about the content you just learned as well as questions that will prepare you for the second class of the week, the expo session. During expo, you will meet with your group of 4-6 people and work through online activities together. After expo, you have a day to complete the BIT, which is a short activity that sums up everything that you've learned. You also answer questions to put into a portfolio that you turn in before each exam. Not including studying for exams, all of the work for this course comes out to about 6 hours per week, but you quickly find a groove as to when you complete everything. Each exam, including the final, is open note, so they aren't too bad as long as you ensure you understand everything that you do during class. Excluding the final, two parts of each exam are individual and one is done with your expo group. There is also a final project at the end of the course, done with your expo group, but that was cancelled for my class because of the Nov. 13th shooting. All in all, I would recommend Professor Welch to anyone needing to take this course. #tCFfall22

I personally didn't like the way he taught the course. I don't think he spent enough time on the most difficult topics. But a lot of people really liked him.

Welch is the best!! He breaks complex chemistry concepts down into ways that are easy to understand. I highly recommend going to his office hours if you're ever confused in the class or just want to talk to him. He's super nice and always understanding towards the fact this is just an intro chem course so he doesn't expect too much out of you #tCFF23

If you thought intro chem is a boring weed-out class, think again. The course itself is pretty low-stress if you are able to keep up with the chapter readings and understand the topics solidly with enough practice. I really enjoyed having Professor Welch for lecture because he actively explains concepts in an easy-to-break-down manner. I just wish he could delegate more time near the end of lecture for the last (and usually most difficult) topic(s) of the chapter.

In addition, the course is structured really well with a hybrid teaching method that makes it really easy for students to reinforce chem topics:

1. Attend lecture with THE Prof. Welch himself after reading a pre-assigned chapter
2. Go to expo and collaborate in small groups to practice and discover important concepts (usually very interactive)
3. Bring it together at the end of the week with a small, personal review assignment

The online textbook is easy to digest and the assignments aren't designed to be hard (TAs and office hours are always available). The few exams over the semester are comprehensive and easy if you've been following along; since it's open notes, make sure your reference sheet is good to go and that you've practiced enough questions. Professor Welch cares a lot about his students and is very approachable, so if you ever have a reasonable problem, he and is team of TAs will be there for you. Intro chem is a delightful road to understanding the world around us, so buckle up and you'll do fine :) #tCFF23

I found the topics of this course extremely interesting. I took this class in my first semester because I was originally pre-med, but I'm still glad I took it because the content covered changed some of my perspectives on everyday life, things that were not taught in AP Chemistry. However, Professor Welch is not a good professor. Yes he is super nice, but the only way you learn is through reading the textbook (your weekly reading is online and has 25-40 homework questions attached). Personally I don't learn very well through a textbook, but when I would go to lecture he wouldn't even discuss the topic of that weeks reading, Welch would talk about something completely different and I would walk out even more confused. There is a lot of work for this class, you have 3 weekly assignments: Readings, LBLA, and BIT, all done on the same website.