Chemistry 1120 Lecture Syllabus
Spring Semester, 2006

TEXT: General Chemistry 7^th edition, Whitten, Davis, Peck, and Stanley

LAB MANUAL: A Laboratory Manual for General Chemistry, by T.A. Furtsch, E.C. Lisic, and S.H. Northrup, published by Hayden-McNeil, Spring 2006 Edition.

Chemistry 1120 is the second of two semesters of General Chemistry, a general education course designed primarily for those who intend to pursue a scientific, medical, or engineering course of study. No prior experience in chemistry is required, but a general knowledge of mathematics through algebra is essential. Through classroom lectures and assigned reading from the text, the student will be expected to develop the ability to interpret and reason with chemical concepts, laws, and theories. Mathematical relationships will be introduced and will be used to solve problems that are commonly encountered in scientific and engineering endeavors. Using the scientific method, the student will be introduced to the formulation of chemical laws and theories from facts presented in the course, and these theories will be used to further understanding of our environment. Our goals are primarily twofold:

1) To gain considerable factual knowledge about the terminology and language of chemistry. In other words you will learn to "speak" chemistry. It has been said, and rightly so, that there are as many new terms to learn in the first year of chemistry as there are in the first course in a foreign language.

2) To learn to interpret and reason using basic chemical concepts, law, and theories. Mathematical relationships will be introduced and will be used to solve problems which are commonly encountered in scientific and engineering endeavors.

Topics Covered

LECTURE QUIZZES: Several (depending on the instructor) announced quizzes will be given during the lecture period. The lowest of these quiz scores will be dropped. If you miss a quiz for any reason, the zero on that quiz will be the grade that is dropped. A written excuse is necessary for any other form of makeup. In addition, several very short unannounced quizzes may be given by your instructor. THERE IS NO EXTRA CREDIT OF ANY KIND AVAILABLE IN CHEMISTRY 1120.

HOMEWORK: You will continue using OWL Homework as we did last semester. Your registration access code you purchased in the Fall should still work for you.

LECTURE AVERAGE: Your lecture instructor will combine together scores on lecture quizzes (both announced and unannounced) and homework, and these combined will constitute 30% of the total course grade. (See below for calculation of total course grade).

HOUR EXAMS AND THE FINAL: You will have two one-hour exams, both of which will be given to all sections of CHEM 1120 simultaneously at 8:00 p.m. on a Tuesday or Thursday evening. Each hour exam will have a single, scheduled makeup exam ONLY for students with a valid excuse for missing the regular exam. Studying for other exams and poor preparation are NOT valid excuses. If you know you will miss an hour exam due to a legitimate conflict and desire to take a Makeup Exam, obtain a permission form, complete it, and have it signed by your prof well in advance of the hour exam. The final will be given Wednesday, May 3, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. THERE IS NO MAKEUP FOR THE FINAL EXAM.

CALCULATORS: In the class a simple calculator with the basic functions and exponential notation is sufficient. Choose a calculator you are comfortable with, not one that has a confusing array of buttons. CALCULATORS MAY NOT BE SHARED DURING TESTS AND QUIZZES.

THE LABORATORY: Every student enrolled in CHEM1120 lecture is required to concurrently be enrolled in one of the laboratory sections. The only exception are those students repeating the course who got an 85% or better on the previous lab. A separate website in WebCT is dedicated to the laboratory portion of the course and is maintained and administrated by our laboratory coordinator, which is Northrup this time. At that location the official and most recently-revised lab schedule is maintained. Every student will be required to read the experiment and to take and record a PreTest over the current week's experiment before carrying out the experiment and before going to lab lecture. TA's will check to see that each student does this before admitting you to the lab. PreTests for each week will be available beginning Wednesday of the week before an experiment is to be done and must be completed by Monday Noon of that week of lab. DO NOT PUT THIS OFF UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE! Most laboratory exercises will be graded, and quizzes will be given in the laboratory period periodically over experiments completed in previous weeks. You MUST HAVE A WRITTEN EXCUSE TO MAKE UP A MISSED LAB OR QUIZ. The grade MUST be made up within one week under the supervision of your laboratory instructor. The laboratory instructor has the right to refuse a makeup if the makeup request is unduly late.

LAB SAFETY: Goggles must be worn in the laboratory. Ordinary glasses, even those with special glass, do not fulfill the requirements of the Tennessee Safety Law. Students are responsible for having goggles for every laboratory. Goggles may be purchased on the first day of laboratory from the ACS Student Affiliates who will come to your lab the first day. Goggles may also be purchased at the University Bookstore. GOGGLES WILL NOT BE LOANED--ANY STUDENT WITHOUT GOGGLES WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO WORK IN THE LABORATORY, AND WILL RECEIVE A ZERO FOR THAT EXPERIMENT. If you wear short pants, and apron must be worn for protection from corrosive materials. The standard laboratory assignments are the only experiments permitted.

REPEATING THE COURSE: If you are repeating Chemistry 1120, you may be able to use the laboratory grade from your previous attempt if you made at least an 85% in your previous attempt. In order to use an old lab score, go to the main chemistry office FH219 and obtain a form for using an old lab grade. You may not decide to use an old lab score after the first week the lab meets.

COURSE GRADE: Your course grade will be computed as follows:

Lecture Grade      30%  (computed by your lecture instructor from quizzes and homework)
Laboratory Average 25%  (assigned by the lab coordinator)
Hour Exams (2)     25%  (determined by jointly administered exams)
Final Exam         20%  (determined by jointly administered final)

GRADE NORMALIZATION BETWEEN SECTIONS: Because the different lecture instructors may write lecture quizzes of different degrees of difficulty, the Lecture Grade (30% grade) for each section will be normalized between sections to be fair to all students no matter what lecture section you take. The same is true of the laboratory sections. Some lab instructors write harder quizzes than others. A normalization factor will be applied to bring these grades into conformity.

Your letter grade will be determined according to the following scale:

    A: 90-100%     B: 80- 90%     C: 70-80%     D: 60-70%     F: < 60%

DO NOT anticipate a "curve" to be applied.