Welcome to CH131 Introductory Chemistry for Engineering Sciences.
The course is given by Professor Dan Dill (dan@bu.edu).
Discussion is led by graduate teaching fellow Matthew Rotondaro (mattroto@bu.edu).
Details about the lab experience are provided in the separate lab syllabus.
All course questions are answered on the Piazza online discussion forum. Sign up for Piazza at
https://piazza.com/bu/summer2020/ch131summer12020/
All of us teaching the course follow this forum and so this is the way to get your questions about the course answered and to help your classmates answer theirs. If you have questions of a personal or private nature, send them to dan@bu.edu
Details about the lab experience are provided in the separate lab syllabus. There are no laboratory materials to purchase for Summer 2020 (remote labs). Note: All students must successfully complete and pass the lab portion to pass this course.
Summer 2020 courses at Boston University are being offered online, but are still meeting synchronously at the schedule times in Boston (GMT-4). All students are required and participate in all course meetings and to have following.
The course consists of three required components:
If you have not yet registered for all of the three components of the course, please do so right away. All grade records are based on the registrar information, so we require that you be officially registered and that you attend the lecture, discussion and lab.
In addition to the scheduled meeting times, the following online office hours will be held.
The online office hour links are available at https://learn.bu.edu.
Weekly quizzes: Beginning June 1, a quiz will be given each Monday beginning at 2 pm in place of lecture. Each quiz will cover (roughly) the material from the previous week (textbook, lecture, discussion, lab). The lowest quiz grade will be dropped automatically; this means that the only four best quizzes will count. Quizzes must be taken at the schedule time. There are no makeup quizzes. A missed quiz counts as 0.
The final exam will be given in place off the last lecture, on Wednesday, July 1 beginning at 9 am (GMT-4). It will cover all of the material in the course. There is no makeup final exam. A missed final exam counts as 0.
The course grade is based on your overall course score; we do not assign letter grades to quizzes, labs or the final exam. The components of the overall score are shown below.
| Component | Contribution |
|---|---|
| Quizzes (lowest score of the five quizzes dropped) | 45% |
| Final Exam | 20% |
| Lab | 20% |
| Lecture participation based on clicker responses | 10% |
| Discussion participation (includes problem solutions notebook) | 5% |
Lecture engagement will be measured using the TurningTechnologies mobile app; the lowest two lecture scores will be dropped. Discussion engagement will be assessed by the discussion teaching fellow.
Your scores for each part of the course will always be available to you on Blackboard, at https://learn.bu.edu.
Course grades are assigned based on the distribution overall scores at the end of the course. The following (tentative) grading scheme will be used to assign course grades based on your score in the course. Please note that we reserve the lower cutoff numbers (making achieving a grade easier) but we will not raise them. However, please do not count on them changing.
Starting with quiz 2, after each quiz we will provide the distribution of overall course scores so far, on a 1000-point scale, and your individual score so far. These overall scores so far will take into account the scores on the work completed so far (quizzes, labs, and participation). In this way, you will have a measure of how you are doing at that point in the course.
Your overall score so far will be available on Blackboard and the distribution of overall scores so far will be posted here.
Please note that the overall score so far will not take in account dropping of the lowest quiz score, the lowest lab, or the lowest two lecture engagement scores. This will be done only at the end of the semester.
No makeup quizzes will be given. A missed quiz counts as 0; the lowest quiz score will be dropped.
Any question concerning the grading of laboratory report must be brought to the attention of your laboratory teaching fellow during the next class session after it was returned to you; material will not be accepted for regrading afterwards. Indicate on the face of the laboratory report the questions you wish re-graded and your reasons for believing that they were mis-graded. The entire work will be re-graded.
Quizzes will be graded through GradeScope. In days leading up to the first quiz you will get an email from GradeScope. It will have you set a password so that you can access the quizzes that have been graded by the course staff.
Regrades on quizzes: To ensure fairness, all quizzes are graded with same rubric, so requests for additional credit for incorrect answers cannot be entertained. If you believe that you’ve answered a question on a quiz correctly, but credit was not awarded, please print your quiz and submit the relevant question to your graduate teaching fellow no later than the end of the discussion meeting the day following the quiz. Late regrade requests will not be accepted. Write your BU.edu email address on the top of your submitted request. All submitted regrade requests will be evaluated an the outcome communicated to you by email.
We have designed the course as an introduction to general chemistry that integrates laboratory explorations with the development of the analytical tools necessary to understand and guide those explorations. Some particular aspects that we will emphasize are
Our goal is to help you share in our excitement for and the wonder of science, to challenge you to excel, to give you a sense of empowerment about science, and to encourage you to continue study in science—and hopefully chemistry. We intend to focus especially on what are the core ideas of chemistry.
We will cover portions of the following chapters and related problems of Oxtoby et al.
Details about the lab experience are provided in the separate lab syllabus.
All students at Boston University are expected to maintain high standards of academic honesty and integrity. It is the responsibility of every student to be aware of the Academic Conduct Code’s contents and to abide by its provisions, as detailed at
http://www.bu.edu/academics/resources/academic-conduct-code/
Please note carefully that the University and its Faculty treat cheating with zero tolerance. Here, “cheating” refers to any violation of the academic conduct code. There are no small infractions. All instances of misconduct will be reported to the Dean’s office. It is the responsibility of every student to be aware of the Academic Conduct Code’s contents and to abide by its provisions.
Please note the following about lecture participation: Students must use only their own TurningPoint mobile app login. Answering for another student is a violation of the academic conduct code.
Attendance at all lectures, discussions, and labs is mandatory. Students must attend their assigned discussion section, and are expected to arrive on-time.
Your participation grade will be based on your performance, prompt attendance, and contributions in lecture and discussion. It is completely understandable that some students may miss a lecture or discussion due to unforeseen circumstances. At the end of the semester the lowest two lecture participation scores and the lowest discussion participation score will be dropped. Missed classes due to religious observances will not affect your performance score.
Absences for documented religious observances will be excused according to the specifications of the University Policy on Religious Observance Please make sure to communicate about religious observances as far in advance as possible (and no later than one week before the observance, per university policy) so that accommodations can be made.
The Office of Disability and Access Services (25 Buick Street, Suite 300) is responsible for assisting students with disabilities. If you have a disability, you are strongly encouraged to register with this office. Lecture hall and discussion rooms are accessible and ADA compliant.
Learning and testing accommodation: Boston University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. If you are a student who needs academic accommodations because of a documented disability, you must present your letter of accommodation from the Office of Disability and Access Services directly to Professor Golger as soon as possible. If you have questions about documenting a disability or requesting academic accommodations, contact the Office of Disability and Access Services. Letters of accommodations should be presented as soon as possible to ensure that student needs are addressed from the start of the course. Instructors are not able to provide accommodations without documentation from Boston University's Office of Disability and Access Services.
Learning chemistry requires persistence, diligence and hard work. We suggest that you plan to spend about 30 hours per week on this course over and above the scheduled contact hours. If you are willing to devote this time, and you spend it wisely and effectively, you will be able to perform your best in this course. Here are some specific suggestions that we have found helpful.
You will get the most out of lecture if you have studied the textbook readings, related web exercises and assigned problems beforehand.
A particularly effective way to do this is to first read through several pages of the material in the course texts. Next, when you think you have understood what you have read, set the texts aside and then make a written summary of what you have understood. It is important to carry out this step without looking at the texts. Finally, compare what you have written with the material in the texts, to identify those parts that are unclear or where your understanding is incomplete.
If you follow this procedure, you will have a quite detailed idea of what will be covered in each lecture, and, most important, you can be particularly alert to those parts that are unclear for you and, if the lecture still doesn't clarify things, you will be able to ask questions right in lecture. You may even want to collect your summaries in a journal that you can then update and refine throughout the semester. and so make an excellent set of notes for review prior to the final exam.
After each lecture, you should work through your lecture notes to be sure you understand everything that was covered. You may even want to rewrite your notes. That way, as you do so, you can test your understanding. If material is still unclear, then be sure to ask for specific help with it, in email, office hours or discussion.
Chemistry is a quantitative science and understanding of its concepts is obtained by solving problems. The text and supplementary materials offer many problems. For success you should do as many of these as you can and if you run into difficulties ask your teaching fellow or professor, in email, office hours or discussion. You will get the most out of lectures if you have worked through problems related to material to be covered before lecture.
Discussion is a particularly good time to bring up problems you haven't been able to solve. Chances are others are experiencing similar difficulties and you will be able to learn from their questions too. It is essential that you have worked on your own to solve your problems, because then you will be most able to understand their solution.
Quizzes will be returned and discussed during these discussions. Any questions about quizzes or problem sets should be addressed to your discussion TF during this time.
If you are experiencing difficulty, please come to see your lecture professor without delay. Often, students in this course perceive that they are doing poorer work than they actually are. Particularly for first-year students, we recognize that it may be difficult for you to judge your academic standing in the course, since we do not use the same type of grading scheme with which you may be familiar from high school. That is why it is important for you to speak to us before making any major decision, such as dropping the course.
If dropping the course appears to be in your best interest, we still would like to work through the decision with you. We are also happy to advise you on appropriate choices for your academic program. If you drop the course by Wednesday, May 27, no record of it will appear on your transcript. After that date, until the end of the day Friday, June 12, you may drop the course but with a W grade (withdrawn). If you must drop the course, note that CH131 will be given Fall 2020, and Summer 1 2021.
Students will identify and apply major concepts used in the natural sciences to explain and quantify the workings of the physical world. These concepts include the following: matter is composed of atoms; elements form \families"; bonds form between atoms by sharing electron pairs; shape is of the utmost importance; molecules interact with one another; energy is conserved; energy and matter tend to disperse; there are barriers to reaction; and light and matter can exchange energy. Students will learn about the process by which scientific theories are developed, refined, refuted, and confirmed.
Students will demonstrate their understanding of core conceptual and theoretical tools used in quantitative reasoning, particularly mathematics, as a tool for the exposition and manipulation of chemical concepts and for formulating a connection between microscopic models of matter and its macroscopic properties.
Students will interpret quantitative models of how energy and light interact with atoms or molecules and understand a variety of methods of communicating these, such as graphs, including spectra, tables, formulae, and chemical symbols.
Students will communicate quantitative information about chemical and physical objects and their properties us- ing chemical symbols, visually with sketches, numerically with estimated or computed values, and verbally using appropriate chemical nomenclature.
Students will recognize and articulate the capacity and limitations of quantitative methods such as dimensional analysis and the risks of using it improperly.
The syllabus, course descriptions, lab manual, and all handouts created for this course, and all class lectures, are copyrighted by the course instructors.
The materials and lectures may not be reproduced in any form or otherwise copied, displayed or distributed, nor should works derived from them be reproduced, copied, displayed or distributed without the written permission of the instructors.
Infringement of the copyright in these materials, including any sale or commercial use of notes, summaries, outlines or other reproductions of lectures, constitutes a violation of the copyright laws and is prohibited.
Please note in particular that distributing, receiving, selling, or buying class notes, lecture notes or summaries, lab reports or related materials, or similar materials both violates copyright and interferes with the academic mission of the College, and is therefore prohibited in this class and will be considered a violation of the student code of responsibility that is subject to academic sanctions.
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