Syllabus for Chem100.002 Fall
2004
Office: Chemistry Tutoring Center, SM538 Web page: www.towson.edu/~ladon
Office Hours: By Appointment
Textbook: Chemistry for Changing Times, Hill, John W., Kolb, Doris K., 10th ed., Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 2004. ISBN 0-13-140246-3
Study Guide/Solutions Manuals for textbook. Don’t buy these unless you use them!
Attendance at the lectures is not mandatory. However, I strongly suggest that you attend, as the material that will be emphasized on the exams will be emphasized in the lecture. If you are late or miss a class session, it is your responsibility to acquire information given out during lecture.
Make-up exams will not be given. In the event an exam is missed, each exam will be worth 25% of your grade instead of 20%. You may not miss more than one exam! Also, if you are happy with your course grade after the first four exams, you are not required to take the final exam. After completion of the fourth exam, I will provide you a “report” detailing your course average to date, the score needed on the final exam to retain the grade you have and the score needed to bring up your letter grade.
When in class, please do not use class as a “social hour.” If I find you disrupting lecture, I will ask you to leave. Also, please turn off cell phones and beepers! Thank your for your cooperation and consideration for others around you.
4 lecture tests 80 %
1 final exam 20 %
Your course grade
will be based on the percentage of points earned. As you can see, a good course grade is achieved by performance in
all aspects of the course. Don’t count
on any one section of the course to either pass or fail you. Course grades will be assigned as follows:
93
–100 A 77 – 79.9… C+ <60 F
90 –
92.9... A- 73 – 76.9… C
87 – 89.9… B+ 70
– 72.9… C-
83 – 86.9… B 67
– 69.9… D+
80 – 82.9… B- 60
– 66.9… D
In over 20 years of teaching, I have never had to curve exams. If you prepare for the exam from the study guide I provide, you should easily do well!
I “take no prisoners” when it comes to people cheating. Any cheating on exams (copying from other students work, copying from materials brought in, substitute examinees, changing answers after the tests have been returned, stealing tests etc.) will result in a grade of F for the course.
Tutoring is available, free of charge at the Chemistry Tutoring Center located in SM538. An appointment is not needed to access the service. The general hours of operation will be: M - R 8:00am - 11:30am, 1:00pm - 6:00pm, F 8:00am - 11:30am. Check the schedule located on the door for specific times—there may be a few “gaps” in the times specified above. Since I am in charge of the tutoring for math and sciences—please feel free to seek me out in the tutoring center, or one of the student tutors. I encourage you to avail yourselves to this service—we have helped many students do well in chemistry courses. Also available as a resource is the tutoring center’s home page: http://www.towson.edu/~ladon. There are well over 150 pages of study aids there for your use.
1) Don’t procrastinate—a lab report isn’t going to magically appear on your monitor in the 45 minutes before it is due, nor is 3 weeks worth of lecture material going to download into your brain in 3 hours before the exam. This is not high school! You need to do more than one hour of homework per night! Not sure how to study? Ask!!
2) Work as many problems from the textbook as you can. If you can only correctly answer 50% of the problems, then you have a good idea of your potential test score—GET HELP!
I often use problems in the textbook as a source for exam problems, so if you work as many problems as you can, you have seen the exam! Get together in groups and study together!
3) Let the information build—the subject gets easier, not harder, if you do this. There are only 24 hours to a day. If you have to relearn what you forget, at some point there won’t be enough time to do all the work needed to review the old material and learn the new material. Do whatever it takes you to put information into long-term memory. (Association, repetition, reinforcement—using flashcards you can make, working problems, thinking about the concept, talking or explaining the concept to someone else, rewriting notes, mnemonic devices.)
4) A fellow teacher (John N. Cooper at Bucknell University) has some very good advice that I would like to pass on, as well:
“When I understand something, I can reconstruct what I don't recall. When I understand something, I can construct what I never saw before. With understanding, I can, if I engage my thinking apparatus, construct new, better, deeper understandings, part of a generative process that goes way beyond the been-there-done-that mode.”
5) When taking an exam, all you can ask of yourself is the best you can do—so don’t stress.
Date Topics covered
8/30 Introduction,
Chapter 1: Chemistry: A Science for All Seasons
Sec 1.1 - 1.4
9/1 Chapter 1 continued
Sec. 1.5 - 1.9
9/3 Chapter 1 continued
Sec 1.10 – 1.13
9/6 Chapter 2: Atoms: Are They For Real?
Sec. 2.1 – 2.4
9/8 Chapter 2: Atoms: Are They For Real?
Sec. 2.5 – 2.7
9/10 Chapter 3: Atomic Structure: Images of the Invisible
9/13 Chapter 3: Atomic Structure: Images of the Invisible
9/15 Chapter 4: Nuclear Chemistry: The Heart of the Matter
Sec. 4.1 – 4.7 (Don’t freak! Some of these sections are 1 or 2 paragraphs long.)
9/17 Chapter 4: Nuclear Chemistry: The Heart of the Matter
Sec. 4.7 – 4.15 (Don’t freak! Some of these sections are 1 or 2 paragraphs long.) *End of material for Exam 1
9/20 Chapter 5: Chemical Bonds: The Ties That Bind
Sec. 5.1 – 5.5
9/22 EXAM 1 (Covers Chapters 1 – 4)
9/24 Chapter 5 continued
Sec. 5.6 – 5.10
9/27 Chapter 5 continued
Sec. 5.11 – 5.15
9/29 Chapter 6 Chemical Accounting: Mass and Volume Relationships
Sec. 6.1 – 6.3 only!
10/1 Chapter 7: Acids and Bases: Please Pass the Protons
Sec. 7.1 – 7.4
10/4 Chapter 7: continued
Sec. 7.5 – 7.8
10/6 Chapter 8: Oxidation and Reduction: Burn and Unburn
Sec. 8.1 – 8.5
10/8 Chapter 8: Oxidation and Reduction: Burn and Unburn *End of Exam 2 material
Sec. 8.6 – 8.10
10/11 Chapter 11: Chemistry of Earth: Metals and Minerals
Sec. 11.1 – 11.5
10/13 EXAM
2 (Covers Chapters 5 – 8)
10/15 Chapter 11: Chemistry of Earth: Metals and Minerals
Sec. 11.6 – 11.10
10/18 Chapter 12: Air: The Breath of Life
Sec. 12.1 – 12.6
10/20 Chapter 12: Air: The Breath of Life
Sec. 12.6 – 12.11
10/22 Chapter 12: Air: The Breath of Life
Sec. 12.12 – 12.17
10/25 Chapter 13: Water: Rivers of Life; Seas of Sorrows
Sec. 13.1 – 13.6
10/27 Chapter 13: Water: Rivers of Life; Seas of Sorrows
Sec. 13.7 – 13.12
10/29 Chapter 14: Energy: A Fuels Paradise
Sec. 14.1 - 14.7
10/31 Chapter 14: Energy: A Fuels Paradise *End of Exam 3 material
Sec. 14.7 - 14.16
11/1 Chapter 9: Organic Chemistry: The Infinite Variety of Carbon Compounds
Sec. 9.1 - 9.5
11/3 EXAM 3 (Covers Chapters 11 – 14)
11/5 Chapter 9: Organic Chemistry: The Infinite Variety of Carbon Compounds
Sec. 9.6 - 9.10
11/8 Chapter 9: Organic Chemistry: The Infinite Variety of Carbon Compounds
Sec. 9.11- 9.15
11/10 Chapter 10: Polymers: Giants Among Molecules
11/12 Chapter 10: Polymers: Giants Among Molecules
Sec. 16.1 – 16.7
11/17 Chapter 16 continued *End of Exam 4 Material
Sec. 16.8 - 16.18
*End of Exam 4 Material
11/19 Chapter 17 Household Cleaners: Helps and Hazards
Sec. 17.1 – 17.6
11/22 EXAM 4 (Covers Chapters 9, 10, 15, and 16)
11/24 Chapter 17 Household Cleaners: Helps and Hazards
Sec. 17.7 – 17.12
11/26 J J RECOVERING FROM THANKSGIVING DAY J J
11/29 Chapter 17 Household Cleaners: Helps and Hazards
Sec. 17.12 – 17.17
12/1 Chapter 18: Fitness and Health: Some Chemical Connections
Skip Sec. 18.1 – 18.3, Covering Sec 18.4 – 18.11
12/3 Chapter 19: Drugs: Chemical Cures, Comforts and Cautions
Sec. 19.1 –19.5
12/6 Chapter 19 Continued
Sec. 19.5 – 19.11
12/8 Chapter 19 continued
Sec. 19.12 – 19.16
12/10 Chapter 19: Drugs: Chemical Cures, Comforts and Cautions
Sec. 19.17 – 19.20
12/13 FINAL EXAM
@ 10:15am – 12:15pm in SM556 -- Exam will begin 10:15am