Chem 208 ‑ Syllabus
Fall ‑ 2006
Prof. David Henderson
Office Cl 129 Labs Cl 128 and 122
e-Mail (David.Henderson) is the best way to leave messages - all students must get an account, even if you do not have a computer of your own. e-mail is the only sanctioned method for requesting extensions and informing me of special problems. Check your email regularly as this will be used to communicate changes and useful information. You are responsible for all email messages sent. If you have an off campus email which you wish to use instead of the trincoll.edu account, inform the professor by email from the account you wish to use for primary communications. (make sure your email return address is firstname.lastname. I will not reply if it is not. Ask for help if you need it fixed)
Phone 2514 (If no answer use e-mail or leave message. When I get really busy I do not always check my voice mail but I check my e-mail. DO NOT CALL HOME NUMBER)
Office Hours: M,W 2-3, TR 9:30-11:30, many other times by appointment
Required Materials:
TEXT: Quantitative Chemical Analysis, 6th Ed. Daniel C. Harris, WH Freeman New York 2003
Lab Notebook: Bound with duplicate pages (carbon or carbonless)
Lab Manual: Obtain from Chemistry Office $5.00
Lecture Notes Handout –handout of all PowerPoint slides with space for taking notes. – optional
Calculator capable of least squares calculations and solving quadratic equations (TI 82/83 or comparable. Note TI-86 is easier to use than the 83 due to not having to press two keys to insert exponents)
Safety Glasses - Obtain from Chemistry office if you don't have them from a previous course.
Plagiarism is a serious offense in both the academic and the scientific community. The faculty in this course reserve the right to maintain an archive of submitted lab reports, papers, and other student work and to compare all student work received against that archive, both manually and electronically to identify improper use of the work of others. This includes the use of Turnitin.com, Google, and Google Desktop to compare papers. The inclusion of works in this archive and the comparison to a database does not imply any suspicion of improper behavior on the part of any specific student but is done to discourage such behavior by making it highly risky both to those who submit the work of others as their own and for those who allow uncontrolled access to their past work.
Introduction to Course
Analytical chemistry may be the most important chemistry course you will take. The techniques and attention to detail you will learn will be vital both in other courses and also in any employment you undertake in the sciences. The skeptical approach to the literature and to data interpretation will also be used in every aspect of your future study of science. Careful reading and attention to detail are the single most important features of this course. You are expected to read carefully everything in this syllabus and the detailed syllabus. You are responsible for all assignments and deadlines it contains.
Please read the assigned material before you come to class. Each chapter contains examples and marginal material and you should not consider that you have “read” the chapter until you have worked through all of these. BRING YOUR TEXT TO CLASS EVERY DAY.
A number of problems at the end of each chapter are assigned. You have not mastered the material until you can do these problems. You should attempt these problems before the class for which they are assigned and use that class to ask questions about problems you cannot do. Some classes will be devoted to solving these problems and similar problems in a group setting to aid in the learning process. Assigned problems will not be handed in for grading. However, short class quizzes may be given using the assigned problems as their basis. Thus, if you have worked the problems, you will quickly do the parts of them selected for the quiz. If you have not previously done the problems, you will find that not enough time is allocated for the quizzes to allow you to figure them out from scratch.
It is not possible to synchronize the lecture and lab portion of the course completely. However, all of the lecture material is directly related to the lab experiments. Furthermore, formal lab reports are generally not due until the relevant material has been covered in lecture. It is assumed that you will be reading material from the text relevant to the lab as needed before it is assigned in this syllabus. Lab policies are covered in the Lab handouts.
Problem Seminars- Several classes will be devoted to problem seminars. During the problem seminar, students will be selected at random to present the solution to the Seminar problems to the class. The Seminar Problems will be announced in advance so that you may prepare. You are encouraged to work in groups or obtain help to master these problems. Seminar participation will be evaluated and will constitute a part of the grade. (Absent = 0, Present but unwilling to attempt a problem=5, Attempt a problem but are totally unprepared or do it wrong = 7.5, Do the problem with minor errors or need help = 8.8, Do the problem correctly = 10)
Project Lab- One of the most interesting and useful aspects of the course is the Project Lab. This is an opportunity to put all of the course material together and do an analysis project from the initial definition of the problem to the final public presentation of results. A separate document has been prepared with details of the project lab which will walk you through the various stages of the project from start to finish. Projects may be of several types. Some students will have the opportunity to do Community Service Projects for various neighborhood groups. Other students may have their own ideas for an analysis that they are particularly interested in. Early in the semester we will discuss the projects available and make assignments.
Grading - Tentative assignment of credit for course evaluation
Quizes, class activities, problem seminars, etc 10
Exams (3 hour exams and final) 45
Lab and Project 45
No makeup quizzes or exams will be given. One or two of the class activity –quiz category grades will be dropped to allow for reasonable absences. Low exam grade will be dropped.
Students who have an exam average > 95 after the 3rd hour exam are exempt form the final exam.
All Labs must be done and reports submitted to obtain a passing grade for this course.