Syllabus
CH102 General Chemistry
Spring 2007
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http://quantum.bu.edu/courses/ch102/syllabus.html
Updated Wednesday, February 21, 2007 10:17 AM

Copyright © 2007 Dan Dill (dan@bu.edu)
Department of Chemistry, Boston University, Boston MA 02215

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Contents

Welcome to CH102/104 General Chemistry. This is the second semester of a year-long course intended primarily for science majors, pre-medical students, engineering students who require a one-year course, and other interested students. This syllabus is designed to answer many questions you may have. Please read it over and then keep it handy to use throughout the semester. If you have questions about the material or the course, we encourage you to email them to ch102-questions@chem.bu.edu. All of the CH102 staff receive email to this address and so this is typically the fastest way to get your questions answered.

Staff

The course is given by Professors

Professor Alexander Golger (SCI/484A, 617-353-2124, golger@bu.edu) is the course coordinator and is in charge of the laboratory part of CH102.

Discussion sections are led by Postdoctoral Faculty Fellows Suzie Byun (byun@bu.edu) and Swapan Jain (swapan@bu.edu). Lecturer Natalya Bassina (SCI/484B, 617-353-4716, nbassina@bu.edu), and graduate teaching fellows. Natalya Bassina also is in charge of class scheduling and other administrative aspects of the course.

Meeting times

The course consists of five required components:

  • lecture,
  • discussion,
  • lab lecture,
  • lab (CH104 does not have a lab component), and
  • test sessions, Mondays 5–6:30 pm

There are three hours of lecture meetings each week, and these lecture meetings are held in SCI/107 at three alternative times:

  • Professor Coker: Tuesday and Thursday, 6:30–7:50 pm
  • Professor Dill: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 11–11:50 am
  • Professor Tullius: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9–9:50 am

You are required to attend your assigned lecture meeting. You may attend one or more of the other lecture meetings if you unavoidably miss a lecture meeting or if you would like to experience a different presentation of the material.

There is a one-hour discussion each week, on Thursday or Friday. Discussions meet starting Thursday, January 18. There is one three-hour laboratory each week. Laboratory sessions are held in SCI/268 on Monday–Friday. The first laboratory session is on Monday, January 29 . Some weeks there will also be a laboratory lecture; these laboratory lectures are: Tuesday 1–2 pm SCI/107 or Wednesday 2–3pm COM/101. The first laboratory lecture is on Tuesday, January 23.

The Monday 5–6:30 pm sessions are used for lecture exams.

If you have not yet registered for all of the four (two for CH104) 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 corresponding lecture, discussion and lab.

Texts and tools

The primary exposition of the course is lectures, based on the materials below, and supported by supplementary notes. The required materials for the course are available at the Boston University Bookstore:

  1. American Chemical Society, Chemistry, (W.H. Freeman and Company, 2005), molecular model kit, and Dill, Notes on General Chemistry, 2e, available as a package (ISBN 1-4292-0083-9). The textbook is supported by web-based resources at http://bcs.whfreeman.com/acsgenchem. To use these resources, you need to go the the web address and register as a student. The various resources available are discussed in the preface to the textbook. These resources are an essential, required part of this course.
  2. Golger, General Chemistry Laboratory Manual, Hayden McNeil Publishing, ISBN 978-0-738-1998-7.
  3. eInstruction interactive RF Higher Ed respond pad, ISBN 978-188-148-3717.
  4. laboratory notebook, Hayden McNeil Publishing, ISBN 1-930882-23-8.
  5. approved safety goggles and laboratory coat.

The instructions for you to register your eInstruction response pad are available as a two page PDF document at the links below. Use the link corresponding to your lecture section:

There is a $15 registration charge. Please register your response pad immediately and bring it with you to each lecture meeting.

You are also required to have your own calculator for this course. It should display scientific (exponential) notation and have logarithm functions. Be sure to bring it to discussions and laboratory sessions. Note, however, calculators may not be used during exams and quizzes.

Exams and quizzes

Answer keys for exams and quizzes will be posted on the bulletin board at SCI/484.

There will be three lecture exams, a lab exam and a course final exam as follows:

  • Lecture exams: Mondays, February 12, March 19, and April 9; all exams are 5–6:30 pm in locations to be announced beforehand.
  • Lab exam: Monday, April 23, 5–6 pm in locations to be announced beforehand.
  • Final exam: Monday, May 7, 5–7 pm in locations to be announced beforehand.

The final exam will not be given at any other time and failure to take the exam will result in an I (incomplete) grade for the course, so please make end-of-semester travel plans accordingly.

In addition to the lecture exams, there will be a short quiz in discussion; the lowest two scores will be dropped. Unannounced lab quizzes may be given during lab lecture.

The course grade will be computed with weighting 20% lecture quizzes, 30% lecture exams, 30% lab, and 20% final exam.; CH104 students are assigned the average lab score.

Academic Conduct Code

All students entering Boston University are expected to maintain high standards of academic honesty and integrity. It is the responsibility of every student in this course to be aware of the Academic Conduct Code’s contents and to abide by its provisions, as detailed at

http://www.bu.edu/cas/undergraduate/conductcode.html

Course schedule

Here is the schedule of labs, lab lectures, lecture exams, and the laboratory and course final exams.

CH102/104 General Chemistry
Spring 2007 schedule of labs, lab lectures and exams
Week Dates Lab Lecture Lab Lecture Exam
1 1/16–19 [ none ] [ none ]  
2 1/22–26 1, part I [none ]  
3 1/29–2/2 1, part II 1: Calorimetry, part I  
4 2/5–9 2 1: Calorimetry, part II  
5 2/12–16 [ none ] 2: Colligative properties 1
6 2/19–23 3 [ none ]  
7 2/26–3/2 4 3: Gas laws  
8 3/5–9 5 4: Equilibrium  
9 3/12–16   Spring Recess 3/12–16, no class  
10 3/19–23 6, part I 5: Acid-base titration 2
11 3/26–30 6, part II 6: Electrochemistry, part I  
12 4/2–6 7 6: Electrochemistry, part II  
13 4/9–13 [ none ] 7: Kinetics 3
14 4/16–20 Lab review lectures & makeup labs.
Reports for makeup lab must be in the mailbox at SCI/299 on 4/23, before 4:30pm
15 4/23–27 Lab exam, Monday, 4/23, 5–6 pm
Final exam, Monday, May 7, 5–7 pm

Please note especially the date and time of the laboratory exam and the course final exam, and make your travel plans accordingly, since these exams are not given at any other time.

Course Web and Email

The course Web at

http://quantum.bu.edu/courses/ch102

and email are used extensively in this course. If you have questions about the material or the course, we encourage you to email them to

ch102-questions@chem.bu.edu

All of the CH102 staff receive email to this address and so this is typically the fastest way to get your questions answered.

Each student is required to have an email account on the Boston University computer network. It is easy to activate your account, if you have not already done so (there is no charge to use your account): Go to Information Technology, 111 Cummington Street, and they will set you up. Be sure to ask for their handouts on how to use the World Wide Web and email. Your email address will automatically be added to the course email address. Please note that use of university computing facilities is governed by the BU Conditions Use and Policy on Computing Ethics,

http://www.bu.edu/computing/ethics

Abuse can result in severe sanctions, including fines and academic probation or suspension.

Copyright

The syllabus, course descriptions, notes, handouts, and all class lectures, are copyrighted. Except with respect to enrolled students as set forth below, 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 copyright holder. 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.

Students enrolled in the course are allowed to share with other enrolled students course materials, notes, and other writings based on the course materials and lectures, but may not do so on a commercial basis or otherwise for payment of any kind. Please note in particular that selling or buying class notes, lecture notes or summaries, or similar materials both violates copyright and interferes with the academic mission of Boston University, 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.

What we will cover

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

  • mathematics as a tool for the exposition and manipulation of chemical concepts
  • the connection between microscopic models of matter and its macroscopic properties
  • the connections between applications from pure and applied research and from technology to chemistry

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.

Lecture

In the this second semester we cover the last six chapters of the course text Chemistry:

Each Monday-Wednesday-Friday class meeting will cover approximately two sections of the text; each Tuesday-Thursday class meeting will cover approximately three sections of the text. You should read the textbook sections and do the problems pertaining to those sections, found at the end of the chapter, before the lecture meeting on those sections.

Laboratory

The laboratory part of the course will let you see first-hand chemical principles and processes in action. It will also give you experience with some of the methods scientists use to do chemical research. Your laboratory will consist of seven experiments, which have been scheduled as nearly as possible with and supporting discussions in regular lectures.

  1. Chemical thermodynamics: Calorimetry (two lab periods). An experimental method called "calorimetry" will be used to study heat effects, which accompany physical changes and chemical reactions.
  2. Colligative properties. In this experiment you will discover how to control the freezing temperature of any liquid. The more chemicals will be added to the liquid, the lower its freezing temperature.
  3. Gas laws. You will establish the relationship between the volume, pressure, temperature and the number of moles of a gas sample. Combining them together, you will derive from your experimental data the Ideal Gas Law and the value of the molar gas constant. Besides, you will find in this experiment the lowest possible temperature, which can be reached in nature: −273.15 0C!
  4. Equilibrium formation of ferric thiocyanate complex. What happens in a reaction depends not only on the reactants, but also on the conditions under which they are combined. This gives us some control over the outcome of chemical reactions. In this experiment you will investigate the sensitivity of the reaction equilibrium to the ratio of reactants and to the temperature of the reaction mixture.
  5. Acid-Base titration. How can you tell when a reaction is finished? This question is very important in all areas of chemistry. You will evaluate several titration methods for determining when an acid-base reaction is finished.
  6. Electrochemistry: Electrochemical cells (two lab periods). You will study some practical applications of electron transfer reactions constructing various voltaic cells and investigating different approaches for reaching the highest possible cell voltage. The second part of the lab is the open project, which gives you a chance to apply all your lab experience gained in the course of General Chemistry.
  7. Kinetics: Iodine Clock Reaction. You will explore how fast chemical reactions proceed, what factors influence reaction rate, and by what molecular mechanism a reaction occur.

Grading

Each lecture exam will be graded out of 100 points. No makeup exams will be given. The lecture exams count for 30% of your course grade.

Each discussion quiz will count equally and the two lowest quiz scores will be dropped. These quizzes are meant to assess your understanding of topics covered in previous lectures and homework. If you are absent, the missed quiz counts as zero. No makeup quizzes will be given. The discussion quizzes count for a total of 20% of your course grade.

For CH102 students, the lab score counts for 30% of your course grade. The various components of the lab will be graded as follows: The lab experiments (30 points for each lab period), lab quizzes (10 points each), lab lecture quizzes (5 points each), and the lab exam (60 points). Lab quizzes are given at the beginning of each lab to check your familiarity with the basic features of the lab to be done. CH104 students will be assigned the average lab score.

A missed lab counts as 0. If, due to unusual circumstances, such as prolonged illness, you miss more than one lab, please contact Dr. Golger (golger@bu.edu) as soon as possible so that special arrangements can be made to catch up with your work. The lowest lab score for labs 1–7 will be dropped.

Questions about grading

Any question concerning the grading of a lecture exam, lecture quiz, or laboratory report must be brought to the attention of your discussion or laboratory teaching fellow during the class session in which it is returned to you; material will not be accepted for regrading afterwards.

Indicate on the face of the exam, quiz or 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. Be sure you have made no alterations in your work. We occasionally photocopy your graded work as a check. Please note that the penalties for academic misconduct are severe, as detailed in Boston University's Academic Conduct Code, available from CAS Academic Advising, Room 105.

Course grade

The course grade will be determined as follows:

Contributions to overall course grade
CH102
Lecture exams 30%
Discussion quizzes 20%
Laboratory 30%
Final exam 20%

We do not assign letter grades to exams, labs, or quizzes. Your overall course letter grade is assigned based on your total score for the course. There are no fixed percentages of A grades, B grades, etc. Rather, we assign course letter grades based on our assessment of how someone should have performed to receive an A, B, etc.

Suggestions for success

Learning chemistry requires persistence, diligence and hard work. We suggest that you plan to spend 16–20 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.

Lecture preparation

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.

Lecture follow up

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.

Homework

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.

Discussions

You should be registered for a 1 hour required discussion section per week. This 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.

Exams will be returned and discussed during these discussions. Any questions about exams or problem sets should be addressed to your discussion TF during this time.

Office hours

Your professor and each teaching fellow will hold office hours each week. We will announce the times and locations of these office hours after the first week of class.

Additional help

In addition to email, office hours and discussion, Chemia, the undergraduate chemistry student association, offers free tutoring each week; see the schedule outside the Chemia tutoring room, SCI/264, for details. Finally if you think you still need help you can get a free individual tutor (in any subject!) through the University Resource Center (Contact them at 1 University Road, Suite 150, or phone 353-7077 for details)

If you are experiencing difficulty, please come to see your lecture instructor or Dr. Golger 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 Friday, February 16, no record of it will appear on your transcript. After that date, until the end of the day Friday, March 17, you may drop the course but with a W grade (withdrawn). If you must drop the course, note that CH102 will be given during the Summer I and Fall sessions of 2007.

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http://quantum.bu.edu/courses/ch102/syllabus.html
Update Wednesday, February 21, 2007 10:17 AM
Dan Dill (dan@bu.edu)