Syllabus for General Chemistry 1100/1110 Fall 2010

Course Lecturers Prof. Gerald Korenowski 2W14 Science Center, ext. 8480 koreng@rpi.edu Dr. Sara Alvaro 228 Cogswell Lab., ext. 3930 mcints@rpi.edu Prof. Wilfredo Coln 2235 Biotech, ext. 2515 colonw@rpi.edu Laboratory Manager Dr. Elizabeth Sprague 6101 Walker Lab., ext. 2115 sprage@rpi.edu ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ To provide the introductory chemistry student with a basic chemical

Your Section # Professor Office Hours Course Goal: literacy.

Expected Student Outcomes: 1. Students will demonstrate a development of knowledge and skills that allow them to progress on to advanced courses in the various subject areas of chemistry. These advanced subject areas include analytical, inorganic, organic, physical and biochemistry. 2. Students will be able to communicate ideas and questions about chemistry in an effective and intelligent way to professional chemists. 3. Students will show competence with basic chemical laboratory techniques including mass measurements, volume measurements, solution preparation, dilution, titration, and elementary separation and synthesis methods. 4. Students will show competence at the handling and processing of laboratory (experimental) data. 5. Students will be able to search for answers about chemistry or chemical systems in the chemical literature.

Text: Chemistry: The Molecular Nature of Matter and Change, 5th ed. by Martin Silberberg, McGraw Hill Publishing. Course Calculator: You will not be allowed to use programmable and graphing calculators during the exams. The bookstore has a selection of simple, inexpensive, scientific calculators that are acceptable for exam use. Also the course calculator is not an expensive loss if destroyed in the lab or lost during the semester. RF Transmitter (iClicker): (IMPORTANT) You will be required to bring your RF transmitter to all lectures and interactive (discussion/lab) sessions for in-class quizzes and lecture questions. Please label your transmitter with your name and email address as soon as possible so if it is lost you can recover it. Academic Integrity: The relationship between students and faculty is based upon trust and the continued maintenance of this trust is necessary for education to be successful. Students need to trust faculty to make appropriate judgments about the content and structure of the course. Faculty members need to trust that the work turned in by students represents their own effort. Violation of this trust undermines the educational process. In addition, as professionals, you may be designing products (aircraft, the computers that run them or the runways they land on) upon which lives depend. As a result, there is no tolerance for breach of academic integrity such as cheating, plagiarizing, or inappropriate sharing of laboratories or quizzes. Using someone elses RF Transmitter is considered cheating. Anyone caught cheating or plagiarizing will receive an F in the course. Cheating can include sharing answers, as well as stealing answers. Plagiarism means copying words from someones work, even if you change the sentence a bit. If you share your laboratory report you are as guilty as the person copying it. If you do use material from an appropriate source, make sure you reference it properly in your reports. The Rensselaer Student Handbook and the Dean of Students Office Webpage (http://doso.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=676) defines various forms of academic dishonesty. Please familiarize yourself with these and ask us if you have questions about what constitutes academic dishonesty. Reading Assignments: There will be reading assignments associated with each class session. It is very important for you to read the assignment before coming to class. Class Participation: Class participation is an essential part of this course and is measured primarily by class attendance. The participation portion of your grade will be assessed by your class attendance, participation in discussions and laboratories and by your participation in class room polling. Proper classroom behavior is also very important. Reading newspapers, listening to music with headphones, reading your email, playing computer games while in the classroom and any similarly rude behavior is distracting and unacceptable. If you do not attend class on the day of a laboratory, you

will receive a zero for that laboratory (unless a course instructor has excused you from the laboratory). Homework: There will be homework assignments associated with each chapter we cover in lecture. Homework will be performed on ARIS (an online homework system) and turned in electronically according to the posted due date. You will need to correctly complete at least 80% of each individual homework assignment to receive full credit. Late homework or homework submitted on paper will not be accepted. Lectures (Attendance is Mandatory): Each Tuesday and Friday you will have an 80 minute lecture delivered by your course professor. The material presented in the lecture will cover and expand on the material in the required weekly reading. Excused absences from lecture should be cleared through your course instructor. Each student is allowed two unexcused lecture absences more than two unexcused lecture absences will result in a deduction of points from your lecture attendance grade. Discussion/Laboratory Sessions (Attendance is Mandatory): Chemistry is an experimental science. This three hour period will focus primarily on applying your lecture gained knowledge to a laboratory experience. You will initially report to the discussion room where you will discuss the application of recently acquired knowledge to an experimental problem. At the beginning of the discussion, you will have a short quiz based on lecture material, homework, or laboratory material so bring your RF Transmitter. (Quizzes will not be given on weeks you have an hourly exam scheduled) You will then proceed to the laboratory to conduct an experiment. After finishing the experiment, you will return to the discussion room to discuss the workup of the data, any necessary calculations, and the laboratory summary report. Experimental data is not to be shared the data you record for your experiment is the data you work with for your laboratory report. A laboratory notebook must be kept, pre-labs are due the day of your lab, and the summary report is due one week after the laboratory session (unless announced otherwise). Attendance in laboratory is mandatory to receive credit for the post laboratory report. Unexcused absences for three or more laboratory experiments will result in a zero for the entire laboratory portion of your grade. All excused laboratory absences must be cleared through Dr. Sprague. High School Knowledge Exam: There will be a high school knowledge exam in the second week of class given during the Wednesday morning testing block. The exam will cover material that we expect you to have learned in high school. You will be given a study sheet that details the content of the exam and the corresponding chapters in your text book. The exam will count for 5% of your course grade and will consist of multiple choice questions. Course Material Exams: There will be 3 50-minute exams given on selected Wednesdays during the semester. (There will not be a Wednesday session on those Wednesdays when there is no exam scheduled.) The syllabus outlines that material which will be covered for each exam. Exams may include material covered in lecture, discussion, reading, homework, or laboratory. All exams will be multiple choice and each student will be required to bring a number 2 pencil to complete the exam answer

sheet. No makeup exams will be given. If a student misses an exam for an unavoidable and compelling reason, the student may be excused from the exam at the instructors discretion provided that the student presents a suitable written excuse. The written excuse is required from the Student Experience Office, a doctor, or a coach. Students who are excused from exams will have their excused exam grade calculated as follows: The excused exam grade will be the average of the two other exam grades or the grade on the final exam, whichever is higher. Final Examination: There will be a comprehensive final examination given during final exam week. The examination will not be given early to any student because of previously made travel arrangements. Please do not plan to leave school until the end of exam week. Do not make travel arrangements until after the final exam schedule has been announced. Final Grades: The final grade for the course will be determined as follows: CHEM 1100 Total Points Available Homework 10 Lecture Attendance 5 Quizzes 5 Laboratory Reports 20 High School Knowledge Exam 5 Exams (3) 30 Final Examination 25 CHEM 1110 Total Points Available* Homework 10 Lecture Attendance 5 Quizzes 5 Laboratory Reports 25 High School Knowledge Exam 5 Exams (3) 30 Final Examination 25 *For the final grade assignment, the total points accumulated will be scaled to 100%. Grade Assignments: 90-100%: A, 87-89%: B+, 80-86%: B, 77-79%: C+, 65-76%: C, 63-64%: D+, 50-62%: D, <50%: F These grade assignments are subject to change at instructor discretion, but, if changed, would only change in the students favor. Internet Site: The syllabus, labs, exam answers, lecture notes and notices will be posted on the RPI LMS Blackboard site throughout the entire semester.

CHEM 1100/1110 Lecture/Exam Schedule (Silberberg 5th ed. Text) FALL 2010 Week/Dates # of Chapters Exams/Material Quiz in Lectures to Cover (Wednesdays, discussion? 8am) (YES/NO) 1 8/30-9/3 2 Chapter 7 NO 2 9/6-9/10 2 Chapter 7/8 High School NO Knowledge Exam (9/8) 3 9/13-9/17 2 Chapter 8/9 YES 4 9/20-9/24 2 Chapter YES 9/10 5 9/27-10/1 2 Chapter 10 Exam 1 (9/29) NO (Chapters 7,8,9) 6 10/4-10/8 2 Chapter 11 YES 7 10/111 Chapter 11 YES 10/15 (NO CLASS 10/12 Follow Monday Schedule) 8 10/182 Chapter 4 YES 10/22 9 10/252 Chapter 4 NO Exam 2 (10/27) 10/29 (Chapters 10,11) 10 11/1-11/5 2 Chapter 4/6 YES 11 11/82 Chapter 6 YES 11/12 12 11/152 Chapter 5 YES 11/19 13 11/221 Chapter 5 NO 11/26 (No Class 11/26) 14 11/292 Chapter 15 Exam 3 (12/1) NO 12/3 (Chapters 4,5,6) 15 12/62 Chapter 15 YES 12/10 Study Days: 12/13 and 12/14, Final Exams: 12/15-12/17 and 12/20-12/21