CHEM 120: Chemical Principles I
Abridged Syllabus
Fall 2009

Last Update: August 21, 2009

Instructor Information

James McCormick

Office: Magruder 3110

Phone: 785-4315

Web Page: http://www2.truman.edu/~jmccormi/

Office Hours

As posted, by appointment or whenever my door is open.

 

Lecture

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 14:30 – 15:20, Magruder Hall 1000

 

Laboratory

Wednesday, 14:30 – 17:20, Magruder Hall 1029 Thursday, 08:30 – 11:20, Magruder Hall 1029

 

Laboratory will not formally meet until the week of September 14. At this time there will be a short laboratory orientation, followed by drawer check-in and completion of the first laboratory exercise (Determination of Density). However, we will meet in the laboratory during the week of September 7 for a more in-depth discussion of statistics in chemistry and discuss how to prepare your laboratory notebook.

 

The laboratory paperwork (the policy contract, the safety contract, and the safety quiz) must be completed on Blackboard and your completed health form must also be turned into our stockroom manager in MG 1076 by 5:00 PM Thursday, September 3. Failure to complete your paperwork on time will result in a 5 point deduction from your final laboratory grade per calendar day. If the paperwork is not completed before the first laboratory meeting, you will be barred from the laboratory, and thereby receive a grade of zero for each laboratory exercise missed until the paperwork is completed.

 

Consult the class schedule (at the end of this syllabus and on the class web page) for information on what exercises will be done and on what days.

 

Textbook Petrucci, R. H.; Harwood, W. S.; Herring, F. G. and Madura, J. D. General Chemistry: Principles and Modern Applications, 4^th Ed.; Pearson Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ; 2007. The optional study guide and solutions manual are recommended. A media-pak is also available if you wish additional computer-based questions and to access the publisher’s on-line material.

 

Laboratory Manual The laboratory manual for CHEM 120 is available on-line at ChemLab.trruman.edu. You may print out any of the pages that you wish. However, you will not be allowed to bring a copy of the Experimental Procedure with you to lab or retrieve the experiment's web page during lab. You must have the procedure written in your notebook (vide infra).

 

Laboratory Notebook A bound laboratory notebook capable of creating duplicate pages is required of all students. Regular spiral-bound notebooks are unacceptable as laboratory notebooks, but the bookstore carries special spiral-bound notebooks, which are acceptable. See the Laboratory Notebook page on ChemLab.truman.edu for more information on the laboratory notebook. Note that for this course you do not need to prepare a Background section for each exercise.

 

Safety Equipment All students must purchase safety goggles that meet the ANSI Z87 or Z87.1 safety standard. Safety goggles and proper attire are to be worn at all times in the laboratory; inappropriately attired people will not be allowed in lab. See Chemistry’s Laboratory Safety page for more information on safety in the chemical laboratory.

 

Calculator A hand-held scientific calculator, which can perform logarithms, scientific notation and exponentials, is required. Any electronic device that is capable of storing or sending large amounts of text may not be used. If you are in doubt, ask.

 

Be sure that you can enter numbers in scientific notation, raise numbers to powers (not the same as scientific notation), take roots, and take the logarithms and the antilogarithms (both base 10 and natural) of numbers. Review these topics by reading Appendix A in the text. Ask me if you have any questions.

 

Bring your calculator to all class meetings. No loaner calculators will be available!

 

Computers You are expected to have general computer skills with a working knowledge of a web browser and a word processing package. The use of spreadsheet programs will be introduced during the semester.

 

A course web page is available (not on Blackboard). There you will find all class information and useful links.

 

Course Objectives

To provide a foundation in the fundamental models and concepts of chemistry for further study in chemistry, biology, agriculture, health sciences and other fields.

 

To begin to establish good laboratory technique, observational skills and laboratory record keeping.

 

To familiarize the student with the language of chemistry as it is spoken by practicing professionals in the field and relate this to “real-world” problems, whenever possible.

 

Course Requirements

The information given below is specific to this course. Please see my general syllabus for information on my policies regarding: Students with Disabilities, Attendance, Make-Ups, Promptness, Late Penalties, Extra Credit, FERPA, Academic Honesty  and Unnecessary Equipment. You will also find there more information on my Grading Scale and the answer to the question “Is It Going to be on the Test?”

 

Chapters Covered in the Text

You are expected to gain an understanding of, and be able to apply, the basic chemical principles and models covered in Chapters 1 through 7, 14, 15 and 19 of the text. Note that we will not be covering them in order! We will also be covering information in appendices A through C. Please see the CHEM 120 Outcome Statements for more specific information on what is expected in CHEM 120. 

 

Exams

There are three exams. Each exam consists of two parts: a take-home portion and an in-class portion. As the take-home questions are part of the exam, you may not work together on these questions or ask anyone other than me for help on specific questions. The take-home portion of an exam is due at the start of class on the day of the in-class exam. The in-class portion of an exam will usually consist of short answer questions and longer word problems. See my general syllabus for more information on the structure of these exams.

 

The best students will find the exams challenging; unprepared students will find the exams impossible. The key to doing well is threefold: 1) work problems, 2) ask questions and 3) don’t get behind.

 

Final Exam

The final will be given on Thursday, December, 17 in Magruder 1000 from 13:30-15:20. The same final exam will be given to all CHEM 120 sections and it will include a multiple-choice section, a short-answer section and a worked-problem section.

 

Quizzes

A 10-point quiz will be given in the last 15 minutes of lecture on Friday, except when there is an exam or class does not meet. The first quiz will be September 11.

The quiz problems will be taken primarily from the chapter under discussion, but they may include older material and they may not require a numerical solution. The cutoff for material on a quiz will be the lecture of the Friday before a quiz. Therefore, the first quiz will include material covered through the lecture on September 4. Each Friday I may give you a number of questions for you to focus on; at least one of which will appear on the quiz.

 

Laboratory

The laboratory grade will be based on your laboratory notebook, laboratory quizzes and a laboratory report (for the Vitamin C exercise). The grading scheme for the laboratory is on the class web page. However, it is impossible to receive a passing grade in this course by completing less than 80% of the scheduled exercises, or by only completing the exercises, and not doing, or doing poorly on, the notebook and/or the laboratory quizzes. See the CHEM 120/121 Laboratory Outcome Statements for details on the skills that we expect students to attain at the introductory level.

At the start of each laboratory session you are required to show me your notebook with that week’s exercise prepared as described on the What You need to do Before Coming to Laboratory page. Remember that for CHEM 120 you do not need to prepare a Background section for your laboratory exercises. I will be looking for and quickly assessing your Statement of Purpose, Procedural Outline, and your notebook’s formatting. I will then sign and date your notebook. I will also sign and date your notebook upon your departure once I am convinced that your lab station is acceptably clean.

Several times during the semester you will be asked to turn in all of the duplicate notebook pages for the last completed exercise for grading.

If you are not asked for the notebook pages, then there will be a ten-minute open-notebook quiz at the start of laboratory over the last completed exercise. A lab quiz will ask for information that you should have written in your notebook (such as the result of a calculation, a graph, or the color of a solution), or for parts of your notebook. It will not require any calculations or a great deal of writing. A well-kept notebook is essential to performing well on the lab quizzes.

Whether the notebook will be turned in, or a quiz will be given, will not be announced beforehand. The instructor reserves the right to give a quiz to one laboratory section and grade the notebook of another. No make-up laboratory quizzes will be given and no extra time will be allowed to complete a quiz.

For the Vitamin C exercise you and your lab partner (or your lab bench) will develop a testable hypothesis that you will then experimentally determine the validity of. You must submit a short written proposal describing your hypothesis, your method to validate your hypothesis and how your method will allow you to measure what you want to measure. You will also prepare a short formal report on the results of your experiment. More information on the proposal and report will be given later in the semester. The due dates for the proposal and the report on given in the course schedule. Because more work will be required for the Vitamin C exercise, it will count more toward your final grade. Note that the Vitamin C exercise is designed to be used as part of your portfolio, and you should keep a copy of the report.

 

Homework

It is expected that you will work a sufficient number of problems on your own to gain mastery of the material. Unless otherwise announced you are to do all of the purple-numbered problems in each chapter (answers are in appendices G and H, and in the study guide). These problems will not be collected or graded, unless there is a preponderance of evidence that the majority of the class is not working the problems.

The quizzes and exams will draw heavily from the exercises and each exam will include at least one question similar to the Feature Problems or the Integrative and Advanced Exercises. You must be able to do any of the regular exercises in five minutes, or less, without looking back in the text for help, while you should be able to complete an Integrative and Advanced Exercise in about ten minutes, or less. See the class web page for more assistance on making the most of your homework and for extra practice problems.

 

Grading

The three exams are 150 points each and count directly toward the "Exams" portion of your grade.

The “Final Exam” portion of your grade will be determined by adding 100 to your percentile score on the final.

There are ten quizzes scheduled of which the lowest quiz grade will be dropped. The retained quiz scores will be averaged and multiplied by 15 to give the "Quizzes" portion of your grade.

The "Laboratory" portion will be calculated by normalizing your average score for the laboratory (lab quizzes, notebook and the Vitamin C report) to 200.

 

Assuming an average of 700 points and a standard deviation (s) of 100, the grading scheme shown below will be used to determine the final letter grade for the course. If the actual average is significantly different than 700, the grading scale may be adjusted at the instructor’s discretion. Historically, the average for this course has been in the 780-820 range, and most students earn a B or C.

A student whose grade is below a cut-off by 20 points or less will be considered for the next higher grade. The criteria for promotion include final exam score, a student’s class participation, a general increase in quiz and/or exam grades over the semester, laboratory citizenship, and attitude (in that order).

 

Class Schedule

Click here to view the class schedule in PDF format.

 

Student Information and FERPA Statement

Click here to download the Student Information form and FERPA Statement page (PDF format).