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CATHERINE DRENNAN: I of
course want my students

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to be as excited about
chemistry as I am.

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And, you know, I feel like MIT
is a relatively serious place.

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But the MIT students
are really fun people.

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And they're willing to
make fun of themselves

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and be a little geeky.

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And I love that.

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And so whenever I can kind
of encourage something

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like that in class, I always
try to take advantage of it.

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And one of the
things I like to ask

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them is sort of if one geek
is going to propose marriage

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to another geek, do you
really give them a diamond?

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Or maybe graphite.

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Because, you know, one is more
kinetically stable and one's

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more thermodynamically stable.

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And what's the best gift?

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And that often-- then they
can discuss which they think.

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And then I'm like,
actually, neither

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because what you should give
them is the Green Lantern ring.

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And then someone can say, what
about Lord of the Rings ring,

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you know.

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And so you have-- you can sort
of bring in these [? funs, ?]

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but, you know, your
arguments are kind of

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based on chemical principles
rather than other things.

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So if you can really bring
in sort of the fun humor

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that MIT students enjoy, and
they're always with me on that,

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and I love that part.

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So I'm always looking for
ways to kind of have something

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be a little bit more
fun, especially in some

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of-- and some of the units, I
feel, really lend themselves

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to these fun examples.

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And other ones are a
bit more challenging.

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But I want to make sure that
everyone has something in.

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And if I find something
online or whatever,

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I really try to use
that in my class.

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And I found these videos
of dogs teaching chemistry,

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which at least some
of the students love.

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There's always a few MIT
students who are like,

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I wish you would just
stick to the facts

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and straight derivations.

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But for the most part,
I think, attendance

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would suggest that students
come and that they're engaged

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and that they're seeing
these little things.

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And I've discovered
that it really

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helps people remember, when
you do something a little bit

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different.

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One of my favorite things to do
is when I teach about buffers,

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I don't know why,
so many students

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have trouble with the concept
of buffering, acid base

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titrations.

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It's just really hard
for a number of people.

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So I thought over
the years of ways

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that I can really get them
to remember certain things.

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And some of it, I can make fun.

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Others is have to figure
out how to just make

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them memorize certain things.

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And really just get them there
where they can just do this

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off the top of their head.

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And so when I talk
about a buffer,

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I always want to make
the point that you

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need in your
[INAUDIBLE] buffer, you

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need something
that's a weak acid,

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and the conjugate of that
is a conjugate weak base.

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And you can't just have an
acid, or just have a base.

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That won't buffer.

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Because you need something.

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If you add acid,
you need something

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that will buffer it to
keep the pH constant.

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If you add base,
you need something

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that will-- so it
has to go both ways.

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So I like to dress up.

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And I have the abbreviation
for a weak acid

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taped on the front of my shirt.

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And the abbreviation
for the weak base

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taped on the back of my shirt.

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And I said, I am a buffer.

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And I'm an acid, and then
I turn around, I'm a base,

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and I turn around again.

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I'm an acid.

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And I just twirl
around the classroom.

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And I said, I want this
engraved in your brain

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that a buffer has to have both
a weak acid and a weak base.

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And if I keep
twirling like this,

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you will try to
purge this memory

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from your brain of
Professor Drennan twirling

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around the classroom
as an acid and a base,

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but you won't be able to.

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It'll be with you for
the rest of your life.

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You'll be on your
deathbed going please,

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can the image of
Professor Drennan

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twirling around in
that silly t-shirt

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that she made with lab tape,
please, can it leave my brain

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now?

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But no, no.

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It will be with you forever.

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And when I do that,
the students do better

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on the acid base problems.

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So I am OK with really
embarrassing myself.

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Whatever it takes, I
go that extra distance

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because I want them
to remember that.