General Chemistry: Syllabus

Mr. Harvell (or Mr. H)

Academic Year: Fall 2017-Spring 2018
General Chemistry is a yearlong, high school level course that is focused on the
establishment of knowledge in the fundamentals of chemistry. The course covers the necessary
skills and understandings needed to explain and justify general chemistry concepts and
applications. This course will consist of a lecture and laboratory component, both equally
important and essential to master the knowledge that will be presented throughout this course.
Meeting times: Every other school day, 1:00pm-1:45pm in Room 363
Office Hours: Daily 6:30am-7:30am, during lunch, and 3:30-4:30pm
Email: jarvell@rams.colostate.edu
Text: Chemistry Wilbraham/Staley/Matta/Waterman (10th ed), Prentice Hall Company

Course Outline
First Semester:
Chapter 1: Introduction to Chemistry
a. Thinking Like a Scientist
1. Scientific Methods
i. Setting up Scientific Notebooks
Chapter 2: Matter and Change
a. Properties of Matter
1. Phases of Matter
i. Extensive Properties of Matter
ii. Intensive Properties of Matter
2. Physical Changes

b. Mixtures
1. Homogenous/Heterogeneous Mixtures
i. Mixture Separation Techniques

c. Elements and Compounds

1. Chemical Changes
2. Substances vs. Mixtures
3. Symbols and Formulas
4. Laws of Conservation of Mass and Energy
Chapter 13: States of Matter
 a. The Nature of Gases
b. The Nature of Liquids
c. The Nature of Solids
d. Describing the Changes of States of Matter
1. Solid to Liquid
2. Liquid to Gas
3. Solid to Gas
4. Introduction of Plasma
Chapter 4-5: Atomic Theory and Structure
a. Atomic Models
1. Daltons Atomic Theory of Matter
2. The evolution of the Atomic Model
i. The Bohr Model
3. Structure of a Nuclear Atom (sub-atomic structure)
i. Rutherfords Gold Foil Experiment and Atomic Model
4. Quantum Mechanical Model
i. Quantized Energy and Photons
ii. Atomic Orbitals
b. Electron Configurations
1. Atomic Orbital Diagrams
2. Pauli Exclusion Principle
3. Aufbau Principle
4. Hunds Rule
c. Light
1. Light Duality
2. Atomic Spectra
i. Ground and Excited Electronic States
ii. Influence of Photons
iii. Photoelectric Effect
Chapter 6: Periodic Trends
a. Atomic Number and Mass
1. Mass Numbers
2. Isotopes
3. Atomic Mass vs. Molar Mass
b. Effective Nuclear Charge
1. Shielding Effect
2. Electronegativity
3. Electron Affinity
c. Atomic Size
1. Principle Energy Levels
i. Association with Atomic Orbitals
2. Ionization Energy
i. Formation of Ions
3. Atomic radii
i. Radius Trends
 ii. Radii of Ions
1. Groups and Periods
1. Valence Shells
2. Oxidation States
Chapter 9: Nomenclature
a. Non-metal / Non-metal naming and formula writing
b. Metal /Non-metal naming and formula writing
c. Acid/Base naming and formula writing
Chapter 7-8: Bonding
a. Covalent Bonding
1. Octet Rule
2. Lewis Structures
3. Single, Double, and Triple Bonds
4. Polar and Non-polar bonds
b. Ionic Bonding
1. Single Ions vs. Polyatomic Ions
2. Ionic bonds and Ionic Compounds,
3. Bonding in Metals
c. Bonding Theories
1. Molecular Orbital Theory
2. VESPR Theory
3. Hybridized Orbitals
Chapter 16: Solubility
a. Solubility Rules
1. Cation vs. Anions
2. Solubility Rule Exceptions
b. Factors Affecting Solubility
1. Henrys Law
c. Saturation vs. Super Saturation
d. Precipitation
Chapter 3: Scientific Measurement
a. Scientific Notation and Significant Figures
1. Propagation of Error and Uncertainty
2. Accuracy and Precision
b. Units of Measurement
1. Conversion Factor Labeling
2. Dimensional Analysis

Chapter 10: Chemical Quantities (Pre-Stoich)

a. The Chemical Mole
1. Mole Size Concept
 2. Mole-Mass-Volume-Particle Relationships
i. Avogadros Number
ii. Standard Conditions
3. Empirical Formulas and Percent Compositions
i. Empirical Formulas vs. Molecular Formulas
Second Semester:
Chapter 11-12: Chemical Reactions and Stoichiometry
a. Basic Chemical Reactions
1. Decomposition
2. Single and Double Replacement Reactions
3. Combustion Reactions
4. Light Reactions
5. Catalytic Reactions
b. Balancing Chemical Equations
1. Non-aqueous reactions
2. Aqueous reactions
i. Net-Ionic Equations
ii. Solubility Rules
c. Stoichiometry
1. Mole to Mole Calculations
2. Mass to Mass Calculations
3. Limiting Reagents and Percent Yield
Chapter 16: Solutions
a. Factor that Affect Solubility
b. Concentration and Molarity
1. Dilutions
2. Percent Solutions
c. Colligative Properties of Solutions
1. Freezing Point Depression
2. Boiling Point Elevation
d. Titrations
Chapter 14: Gases
a. Properties of Gases
1. Influences of Temperature and Pressure
b. Gas Laws
1. Charles Law
2. Boyles Law
3. Gay-Lussacs Law
4. Combined Gas Law
c. Ideal Gases
1. Ideal Gas Law
2. Applications of Ideal Gases
3. Ideal Gases vs. Real Gases
 d. Gas Mixtures
1. Daltons Law
2. Partial Pressure Systems
3. Grahams Law
Chapter 15: Aqueous Solutions
a. Solvents and Solutes
b. Aqueous Solubility
1. Water Crystallization
2. Surface Tension
c. Electrolytes
1. Weak Electrolytes
2. Strong Electrolytes
3. Hydrates
d. Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Aqueous Systems

Rules and Expectations:

Prerequisites: Students must have taken and passed Algebra II or any class equivalent;
therefore, I expect you to be able to do the following:
1. Solve linear and quadratic equations for presented variables at given values
2. Solve a system of linear equations with multiple variables using multiple
points
3. Be able to accurate draw scatter plot graphs of data with appropriate trend
lines and scaling.
4. Manipulate equations as necessary to create relationships between two or
more equation via commonalties.
Required Materials:
1. 100 paged, bounded Quad Ruled Composition Notebook (will be used as a
laboratory notebook to be kept in class)
2. Notebook paper to take notes and perform various activities.
3. Scientific Calculator (TI-82, TI-83, or above)
4. Writing utensils (pens, pencils, erasers, etc)
5. 2 3-Ring Binder (to store notes and graded assignments)
6. Access to Internet and Computer (if you cannot obtain this, come see me!)
7. A good attitude and superb work ethic
Attendance: You will be assigned seating during the time that you are in my class, but my
attendance will not be based on assigned seating alone. I will be taking attendance by receiving
exit tickets every day before you leave the classroom; if I do not receive an exit ticket from you,
I am will assume that you are not present during that particular class period. If you are absent, it
is your responsibility to obtain class notes, handouts and assignments from either myself or
your fellow classmates!
 In regards to tardiness, I address students being tardy in the following ways:
1. Excused Tardies: Each student is allowed two freebees throughout each
semester, or can be excused with a signed note from a teacher or
administrator.
2. 1st unexcused tardy: Lose participation points for the day
3. 2nd unexcused tardy: Lose available points on a quiz
4. 3rd unexcused tardy: Lunch Detention
5. 4 or more unexcused tardy: Trip to an administrators office with me.
In regards to absences, I address students absence in the following ways:
1. Excused Absences: No penalty; however, I expect you to still have
assignments still turned in on time, either physically or electronically.

2. Unexcused absences: You will not be able to make up any assignments with
an unexcused absence, and you are responsible to obtain any information
or documentation from either myself or your fellow classmates to
complete assignments by their due dates. If your number of unexcused
absences begin to tally up, please expect either one-on-one conversation
between you and me, as well as a phone call home or other disciplinary action
given by administration.
If for some reason you are not able to obtain a signed note or have certain circumstances
for being tardy, please talk to me either after class or during my office hours to address what
further action will need to be performed. Dont let something outside of your control affect
your grade!
Grades: Evaluation of each student will be both on an individual and group basis. Instruments of
these evaluations will rely on homework assignments, quizzes, exams, participation, in-class
activities, laboratory write-ups, and projects. The following demonstrates how the class will be
weighted in regards to each assessment:
Participation: 10% (Individual and Group Basis)
In-class activities: 15% (Individual and Group Basis)
Quizzes: 15% (Individual Basis)
Laboratory Write-Ups: 15 % (Individual Basis)
Homework: 15 % (Individual Basis)
Exams: 30 %_______ (Individual Basis)_________
Total: 100%
 Final grades will be scaled to the following: 100-90% = A, 89.99 -80% = B, 79.99-70% =
C, 69.99-60% = D, 59.99 or lower = F. There will be no rounding or curving of grades what
so ever. Your effort defines your grade!
Make-Up and Late Work Policy: In my eyes, chemistry is the greatest science to study due to
its versatility in other sciences and real-world applications; however, with being the central
science, it will take time to practice and master all that chemistry has to offer. You should expect
to spend at least an 1-2 hours outside of every 1 hour of class practicing and doing what is
necessary to master the concepts of chemistry, this includes homework, lecture videos, projects,
lab write-ups, etc. In knowing this, I expect that your personal time management will be
appropriate to accommodate such time for my class, thus I will not accept any late work! If
you have certain circumstances that are outside of your control, come talk to me during my
office hours and we can discuss a further plan of action to provide extensions and make up work
opportunities; so, again, dont let something outside of your control affect your grade!
Participation: Participation will be based on the students cooperation during class as a whole,
as well as complete necessary activities during class to the fullest of their abilities. If either of
these things are not satisfactory, then participation points will be deducted as necessary. On a
more obvious note, if you are tardy or have an unexcused absence, then you will either lose
partial to all participation points for that day of class.
Homework: Homework problem sets will be assigned once to a couple of times per week of
class. You may work on the problem sets in groups, but you are responsible to turn in your own
work individually, not as a group. As you come into class on the day homework is due, you will
place your homework into the turn-in basket of your assigned class period before the bell
rings; thus, if you have used up your freebee tardies, your homework will be considered
late and will not be accepted if turned in after the bell has rang. If you know you are going to
be gone on the day homework is due, either turn it into me physically early or send it to me via
email before the start of class on the day that the homework is due.
Quizzes: Quizzes will be given throughout the semester, both announced and unannounced.
Typically, quizzes will be given the class period after a lecture video is assigned. These quizzes
will assess if you even watch the video and your understandings of the concepts presented in the
lecture video before diving into application activities of those same concepts.
Exams: Exams will be given after every unit or few chapters of material. There will
approximately be 3 exams per semester (2 midterm and 1 final exam). The final exams will be
cumulative, and students are expected to re-visit material that they have studied on previous
midterm exams. Exams will consist of the following type of questions: multiple choice, free
response, and calculations.
Labs: Labs will typically be performed once every unit or few chapters of material. These labs
are designed to help elevate your knowledge of material that has been taught throughout a
particular unit through hands-on application. Students will keep a formal lab notebook of their
data and practices for all lab performed in the academic year, to which I will assess at the end of
each semester. The students will use their lab notebooks to provide information needed to write
formal lab write-ups of each lab that they perform. The total 15% weighted grade of labs will be
split into lab notebook (5%) and lab write-ups (10%). Lab write ups and notebooks are to be
created and submitted individually from each student, and there will be no toleration of
plagiarism in my classroom.

Formal Laboratory Write-Up Guidelines

As a prep for you before graduating high school and going out into the real world,
whether it be to high education or diving into the work force, you will be expected in my class to
perform given laboratory instructions, accumulated various pieces of data utilizing various
scientific instruments, and report the results of your findings in a formally written document. It is
essential that you write down all of your observations, calculations and personal questions that
you have during each lab that you perform; for it is through good documentation that makes a
great scientist. You will use your scientific notebook to help write each report, and each report
will have ALL of the following sections IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER:
Title:
All laboratory reports need a title; you are more than welcome to just the name of the lab
performed, but I encourage you to come up with your own catchy title as well (it make is more
fun that way!).
Abstract/Introduction:
This section should be only a paragraph or two. It should highlight some background
knowledge on the subject of the lab and emphasize on the problem that you are exploring in this
lab. Towards the end, summarize your results of the lab using calculated, FINAL percentages
and propagations of error (all in-between calculations and data will be presented in the Results
section).
Experimental Procedure and Materials:
This section should also only be a paragraph or two long. In your writing, describe the
procedure that you performed, any modifications that you may have made in the procedure, and
the materials/instruments that you used to perform the experiments. Make sure to write your
procedures in PAST TENSE and provide as much information about the chemicals and
instruments that used as you can (i.e CAS numbers, model numbers, distributors, etc).
Results:
This section can be as long as you need it to be depending on the amount of data you
wish to present via tables, graphs, charts, balanced chemical equations, calculations, etc. Be sure
to label and provide simple descriptions of your data as you develop this section, so that you may
have an easier time referring to certain pieces of data in your Discussion section of the lab write-
up. It is imperative that you only list the data that you have obtained; DO NOT EXPLAIN
YOUR DATA UNTIL THE DISCUSSION SECTION!
Discussion:
This section may be a few paragraphs long in length. In this section, you will focus on
analyzing certain data trends, propagations of procedural/instrumental error, as well as coming to
final, synthesized conclusions of you lab findings. So questions to consider are:
1. Did the experiment data fit the hypothesis? If not, why?
2. Was there any abnormal observations made during the lab that you did
not expect? Can you explain possibly how these observation occurred?
3. Was the goal of the experiment achieved? Why or why not?
4. What would be the next experiment to perform to help validate your
conclusions?
5. Are there any modifications that you would make to the lab upon the
second attempt? Explain.
______________________________________________________________________________

Acknowledgement of Syllabus Reading and Understanding

(Turn back into Mr. Harvell ASAP)
I, _______________________, have completely read the syllabus provided by Mr. Harvell and
fully understand the rules, expectations, guidelines and misc. items present within the syllabus to
the fullest extent; I also acknowledge that I have the ability to contact Mr. Harvell at any time to
address any issues concerning my grades, performance, and the class as a whole appropriately as
I see fit.
_____________________________ ________________________
Signature Date

I,____________________________, the guardian of ___________________ have completely

read the syllabus provided by Mr. Harvell to my student and fully understand the rules,
expectations, guidelines, and misc. items that my student is to abide by while registered in Mr.
Harvells class. I also acknowledge that I or my student have the ability to contact Mr. Harvell at
any time to address any issues concerning my students grades, performance, and the class as a
whole appropriately as I see fit.
_____________________________ ________________________
Signature Date
 Laboratory Safety
The chemistry laboratory is a place of both education and excitement, and you will have
the opportunity to participate in chemistry laboratory activities throughout the course; however,
there are associated dangers within the chemistry laboratory and it is your responsibility to know
and fully obey the rules set by myself and the State of Colorado. Here are some of the basic rules
to be followed during laboratory class periods:
1. Colorado Law requires that eye protection (safety glasses/googles) be worn in
laboratories at all times. Prescription glasses are NOT adequate. Do not rub your eyes
as chemicals are easily transferred from your hands to your eye. If chemicals do get
into your eye, IMMEDIATELY run over the chemical eye wash in the room and
alert Mr. Harvell of the situation.

2. Read and listen to directions very carefully. Whenever in doubt, ask Mr. Harvell for
further clarification or instruction. DO NOT EVER PERFORM ANYTHING
UNAUTHORIZED BY MR. HARVELL!!

3. Know the location of the fire extinguisher, chemical eye wash, and chemical shower.
Know how and when to use each appropriately.

4. REPORT ANY INCIDENT, small or BIG, IMMEDIATELY TO MR.

HARVELL

5. Do not touch broken glass with your hands. Use the appropriate brush and pan in the
laboratory to accumulate the broken glass, and place it in the broken glass waste bin.

6. Rinse acids, bases, and other chemical burns IMMEDIATELY with large quantities
of cold water and baking soda. Notify Mr. Harvell of any skin irritation.

7. Do not handle heated glass with your hands and NEVER HEAT A CLOSED
SYSTEM!!

8. Consider all chemicals to be toxic and NEVER taste, consume, and directly smell
chemicals.

9. Keep all food and drink (even water) out of the classroom during laboratory class
periods or when there are chemicals being used in the classroom at any time.

10. Wash your hand thoroughly before leaving each lab period.
 11. Make sure to read all container labels THREE TIMES before use. If in doubt, ask
Mr. Harvell

12. Keep tables and desks away from laboratory working areas to provide space for
emergency exit if needed.

13. Wear protective clothing during all laboratory (i.e. no open toed shoes/sandals, no
shorts, no spaghetti straps, etc)

14. Tie back long hair when working with Bunsen burners or other heated equipment to
prevent further ignition.

15. After each laboratory, MAKE SURE YOUR WORK SPACE IS CLEAN AND
ALL MATERIALS ARE PLACED BACK INTO THEIR PROPER
LOCATION!!

__________________________________________________________________
Acknowledgement of Laboratory Safety
(Turn into Mr. Harvell ASAP!!)
I, __________________, acknowledge that Mr. Harvell has reviewed this document with me in
great detail. I completely understand the safety rules of Mr. Harvells classroom and why they
are in place. I understand that I will not be able to perform laboratory activities until this written
consent is received by Mr. Harvell with all appropriate signatures. I also understand that a single
violation of any of these rules is likely to lead to the immediate termination of my enrollment in
this class.
____________________ _____________________
Signature Date

I, __________________, acknowledge that my students has completely read and reviewed this
document with Mr. Harvell. I understand that my student completely understand the lab safety
rules and will abide by them 100% to the best of their ability. I understand that my child with not
be able to participate in laboratory activities until Mr. Harvell has received this written consent
form with all appropriate signatures. I understand that, if my student violates any of these rules,
then Mr. Harvell has the right to terminate my students inclusion in this class permanently.
_________________________ ________________________
Signature Date