Instructor: Dr. Pamela J. Trotter

Office: SC-407 Lab: SC-219

Phone: 794-3469 Phone in Lab: 794-3414

Course Overview: Welcome to college chemistry!!! Most of the students in this class are not majoring in chemistry, yet the course is required. This is because knowing the language of chemistry and grasping its concepts is a vital foundation for biology, physics, geology, engineering as well as other fields. Chemistry is central to a tremendous diversity of questions. Some specific examples include; how automobile airbags inflate during a collision, how “neon” lights work, why aspirin decreases pain, how caffeine is removed from coffee and why deep-sea divers are susceptible to decompression sickness or “the bends”. I hope that this course will not only prepare you for future study in your chosen field, but will give you an appreciation of the role of chemistry in your own daily life.

Course Objectives: The student should…….

Know the rules of general chemical nomenclature.
Be able to determine, write and manipulate chemical formulas and chemical equations for reactions.
Understand the connections between thermodynamics and chemistry
Appreciate and be able to utilize the periodic table of the elements
Grasp the nature of atomic structure and the characteristics of chemical bonding
Be familiar with the basic chemistry and physics of gases

Course Content: This course will cover Chapters 1-10 of Chemistry: The Central Science, 9^th Edition by Brown, LeMay and Bursten

Public Folders: Announcements, lecture slides, study guides, solutions to problems and other materials will be posted in a public folder for the course. You can print the files in public folders immediately or you can save them to own disk for to print later. The path to access the folder is as follows:

· Open “Outlook” – that is your e-mail

· At the left side underneath your “inbox” find “Public Folders” and click

· Then, follow this path to the class folder: public folders/all public folders/academic/chemistry/pamela trotter/ch121-genchemI

· Please let me know if you have any difficulty accessing this information

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR BEING AWARE OF THE INFORMATION POSTED IN THE Announcements FOLDER!!!

Help Sessions: There will be a weekly help session from 5:30-6:30pm on Tuesdays. Extra Help is ALWAYS available on an individual basis.

Office Hours: The best times to catch me in my office are Monday 2:30-3:30 pm and Wednesday & Friday 10:30-11:30am and Wednesday 4:30-5:30pm. I can easily make arrangements to meet you at another time, if necessary. I am usually on campus from 7am-5:30pm, or so, and my door is open when I am available!

Grading Policy: Your final percentage of possible points earned in this course will be rounded to the nearest 1/10^th of a percent and then grades will be assigned as follows:

Grade	Overall %	Grade	Overall %
A+	100-99.0	C+	79.4-76.0
A	98.9-91.0	C	75.9-69.5
A-	90.9-89.5	C-	69.4-65.0
B+	89.4-87.0
B	86.9-81.0	D	64.9-50.0
B-	80.9-79.5	F	<50.0

PLEASE NOTE:

***I reserve the right to use a more lenient scale (but never a stricter one).***

Your grade will be determined based upon your performance on 3 in-class exams, 6 in-class quizzes (Q), in-class worksheets (W), on-line homework (H), the final exam and your laboratory work with the following distribution.

Exams 40%

Q+W+H 15%

Writing Assignment 5%

Final Exam 20%

Lab Work 20%

Exams: Three exams are scheduled for Sept. 27^th, Oct. 20^th and Nov. 5^th. The exams are intended to require about 45-50 min to finish. You will have up to 1 hour 20 min. The format of exam questions will most closely resemble those on the quizzes and worksheets, rather than the on-line homework. I reserve the right to ask you to use a departmental calculator during exams and quizzes.

Q+W+H:, This 15% of your overall grade will include three parts: 60% for quizzes, 20% for worksheets and 20% for on-line homework.

· Quizzes: In-class quizzes will be short exercises given at the end of class that you must do on your own. They are scheduled for Fridays during week 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 10.

· Worksheets: There will be in-class, open-book collaborative worksheets 2-3 times per week to be turned in at the end of class or by 5PM that day. These exercises will include problems such as those covered in the lecture that day so you can apply your new knowledge before leaving class.

· On-line Homework: Sets of on-line homework problems will account for the remainder of your Q+W+H grade. The assignments must be completed no later than 11:59PM on the due dates, which are shown on the class schedule. You will access and submit these assignments at http://webassign.net/student.html . You must purchase an access card at the bookstore. Instructions for using “WebAssign^TM” are provided in another handout.

Problems from the end of the chapter will also be assigned. I STRONGLY recommend that you complete all the assigned problems since they will aid you in learning how to do graded homework problems, and in preparing for quizzes and exams. Additionally, there is a companion web site for your textbook which provides additional exercises – see the introductory material in your book.

Writing Assignment: You will be asked to write a short paper relating chemistry to a societal issue. Part of the assignment will be due as a pre-writing assignment by 5 pm on the Friday of week 6 (October 15^th). The final paper is due by 5 pm on the Friday of week 8 (October 29^th). Detailed information on this assignment will be provided during week 2.

Final Exam: Every student is required to complete the final exam. The final will include new material covered after Exam #3, as well as more comprehensive/cumulative topics. The final is scheduled for 9-11am on Wednesday, Nov. 17^th.

Lab Work: A portion of class each Friday or Monday will include a discussion of the experiment to be done that week. However, I may or may not be your lab instructor. If you would like to know how you are doing in lab, contact your instructor. At the end of the term, your lab instructor will provide me a grade for you and this will account for 20% of your total class average.

Make-Ups and Late Work:

Exams:

· It is your responsibility to take exams at the time they are scheduled.

· General policy is that make-up exams are not permitted. However……

· If you must miss an exam and expect the option of a make-up exam – You must contact the instructor within 24 hours.

· Your request for a make-up exam will depend upon the validity of your reason for missing. The instructor has the final say in the matter.

· Make-up exams must be completed before exams are handed back to the rest of the class.

Q+W+H:

· There will be no make-ups for quizzes, worksheets or on-line homework, no matter the reason.

· The lowest one of the quiz grades and the lowest 20% of worksheet grades will be dropped. This includes those missed because of absences for any reason. If you must miss more than one quiz and 20% of the worksheets due to an extended illness or college-sponsored academic or athletic activities please see the instructor to make special arrangements.

· Late worksheets will be docked 10% per day and will not be accepted once they have been handed back to the class.

· None of the on-line homework grades will be dropped.

Writing Assignment: Late papers will be docked 10% of the grade per day.

Final Exam: The final exam time is set by the college, not the instructor. It cannot be changed without approval of the Dean’s office.

Lab Work: Talk with your lab instructor regarding policies.

Ethics: It is assumed that all students will practice academic honesty. The College’s policy on plagiarism and cheating is outlined on pages 50-52 in the student handbook, “Inside Augustana”.

Information Technology Services: Every student should become at least partially literate in the area of information technology, since it has become such an integral part of the education process. However, it is not always feasible to instruct students in information technology in conjunction with class material because of time constraints. Therefore, students requiring assistance with the use of information technology should take advantage of the resources available to them in the Olin Center. Besides student consultants who can provide aid in the computer labs, there are other opportunities for tutoring or training by the ITS department. For example, free one hour classes are offered to students in various subjects, such as Photoshop, Digital Video, and more. Watch for notices in your e-mail for dates and times of these classes. For additional information, go to http://its.augustana.edu/students.html .