Our class schedule is once/week for 3 hours. Based on the syllabus, I have a chapter of information to cover on the first day in order to keep the rest of the class days on track. Is this a good idea, or would the students appreciate a "teaching-free" first day to get oriented with each other, the class room, the syllabus, etc...?

I've recently started teaching a new group through the first science-based class of their course. As I haven't had much experience teaching this particular class, I adapted a syllabus from a previous instructor. What I did not realize when planning the class is the time between quizzes. We meet weekly, and the first two quizzes have been on the 2nd and 4th class period (2 weeks in between). Most of the students have struggled through these 2 quizzes. My question is: what is the best timeframe for quizzing students? Am I expecting too much from them with every-other-week quizzes? E. Young