Chemistry 150
General Chemistry
Spring, 2007
Lecture Instructor: Michael Schmidt
Office: 108 SCI. Phone: 750-4138
e-mail: schmidt@ csusm.edu
Office Hours: T,W, Th 12-1 pm SCI 111
Lab Support Tech: Lab Instructors:
Sally Jo Divis Ann Dickinson
Elena Gonzalez
Lectures: MWF 9:00-9:50, Kellogg 1111 for all sections.
Section CRN# Seminars Labs
1 21794 Online 13:00-15:45 M, SCI2 347
Dickinson
2 21209 Online 9:00-11:45 T, SCI2 347
Gonzales
3 41933 Online 13:00-15:45 T, SCI2 347
Dickinson
Course Description: Introduction to many of the basic qualitative models and principles in chemistry. The areas covered include: basic nuclear and atomic structure, the periodic table, covalent and ionic bonding, states of matter, intermolecular forces, energy changes, chemical equilibria, acid-base chemistry, stoichiometry, properties of gases, and chemical properties of the common elements. The laboratory experiments and projects are desinged to complement lecture material and provide real-life applications of chemistry in society.
Learning Objectives:
1. The student will master the fundamentals of modern chemistry such that further study in the sciences is possible. For details on what exactly this means, see the "Chemistry 150 Goals," which are attached to this syllabus.
2. The student will develop habits of looking at chemical structures and reactions in a way that promotes understanding and facility of manipulation according to the dominant paradigm of the chemical sciences.
General Education: Chemistry 150 satisfies the lower division physical sciences component of general education.
Prerequisites: Satisfaction of Entry-Level Mathematics requirement by examination or completion of Math 050. Highly Recommended: High school chemistry or introductory chemistry at the college level.
Textbooks:
McMurray and Fay, Chemistry: Fourth Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004.
P. Jasien, M. Schmidt, J. Trischman and S. Divis, Chem 150 Laboratory Manual.
Course Requirements and Grading:
Homework Diary 45 points 7.3%
Monday Quizzes: 110 points 17.7%
Midterm Examination: 100 points 16.1%
Final Examination: 200 points 32.3%
Labs: 165 points 26.6%
Total: 620 points 100.0%
Reading Assignments: The reading assignments will be most useful to you if you read them (at least) twice: once before we cover the topic in class, and once after. The reading assignments are prerequisites to doing the homework, the group work in the seminar sections, the quizzes and the examinations.
Homework: You will be given a list of problems for each week of the class. These homework problems will not be handed in. However, they are a very good way of testing your understanding and practicing the skills you need to succeed in group work, quizzes and tests.
The "Homework Diary" is worth 3 points per week. In this diary I want you to reflect on what you found easy, what you found difficult, and what you did to work through the difficulties. State whether you whether you worked with others on your homework.
Seminar/Group Work: The seminars for this course are officially "online;" this refers to the prelab quizzes which you must take online. However, a less formal seminar also exists; it consists of you getting together with other students to work on homework problems you can't solve by yourself, and coming to me in my office hours to get help with what you can't work out in your group. I will assist you in setting up groups with people who have compatible schedules. Notice that my office hours for this course are during University Hour.
You may think that if you can get through the homework ok, there is no advantage to working with a group. You would be wrong! Many, many advanced undergraduates and graduate students will tell you that they didn't really learn their first-year chemistry well until they had to teach it. If you go to a group and explain your understandings to others, you will have reinforced your understandings and will be that much better prepared to do well on a quiz or exam. Also, you may find that someone else has a better or easier way to do the homework problems!
Quizzes: There will be a quiz during the last 15 minutes of each Friday lecture. This quiz will cover material from the previous Wednesday, Friday and Monday lectures and readings. The first quiz is February 2. Please notice that these quizzes do not account for too much of the overall grade for the course; their primary purpose is to give you and your instructors a sense of how well you are learning the material, so that adjustments may be made in our teaching and learning strategies. The two lowest scores (including zeros for missed quizzes) will be dropped. Because of this policy, there will be no make-up quizzes.
Examinations: The quizzes should be considered to be practices for the midterm and final examinations. The examinations will give you a chance to teach me what you have learned in the entire course, from start to finish. Make-up exams will only be given if the student has a valid excuse (severe illness, death, etc.) and makes arrangements prior to the exam time (except in emergencies).
Labs: You will be required to purchase a laboratory manual which has space for you to enter your data and observations. These data and observations will be turned in at the end of each laboratory. You must read through and think about the lab before coming to lab. There will be a pre-laboratory quiz to make sure you are prepared for the lab; this will count as 5 of the 15 points of your laboratory grade. This quiz must be taken online prior to your laboratory period.
There will be no opportunity to make up missed laboratories. If you anticipate missing a laboratory due to an unavoidable conflict, you may try to attend another laboratory session on that week with approval of the professor of the course and the lab instructor for the lab you intend to join.
The lowest lab score will be dropped; however, you may not drop the score for the lab practical exam on the week of December 9. You must submit a written excuse to your lab instructor for every lab absence. This excuse must be approved by your instructor if you want the lab you are absent for to count as your lowest lab score. In other words, students just deciding not to show up because they already have 11 "ok" lab grades will have one of their good grades dropped and the zero averaged into their lab grade. Acceptable excuses are things like illness and family emergencies; a test in another class the next day is not an acceptable excuse.
You are required to have safety glasses and a drawer lock for laboratory by the week of September 12. We advise you to buy a cheap lock; it need only protect against casual theft by other students, and may have to be removed by force if you lose your key.
University Writing Requirement: The University Writing Requirement will be satisfied by completion of observation sections of the laboratory reports, by the homework diary, and by quiz and test questions requiring written answers.
Academic Honesty: Students will be expected to adhere to standards of academic honesty and integrity, as outlined in the Student Academic Honesty Policy. All written work and oral presentation assignments must be original work. All ideas/material that are borrowed from other sources must have appropriate references to the original sources. Any quoted material should give credit to the source and be punctuated with quotation marks.
Students are responsible for honest completion of their work including examinations. There will be no tolerance for infractions. If you believe there has been an infraction by someone in the class, please bring it to the instructor’s attention. The instructor reserves the right to discipline any student for academic dishonesty, in accordance with the general rules and regulations of the university. Disciplinary action may include the lowering of grades and/or the assignment of a failing grade for an exam, assignment, or the class as a whole.
Incidents of Academic Dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Students. Sanctions at the University level may include suspension or expulsion from the University.
ADA statement: Students with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations must be approved for services by providing appropriate and recent documentation to the Office of Disabled Student Services (DSS). This office is located in Craven Hall 5205, and can be contacted by phone at (760) 750-4905, or TTY (760) 750-4909. Students authorized by DSS to receive reasonable accommodations should meet with me during my office hours or in a more private setting in order to ensure confidentiality.
Chemistry 150 Goals
The following lists have been designed to help you stay on track in Chemistry 150, and to serve as a sort of “checklist” to help you monitor your progress in learning chemistry.
The goals I have outlined below are divided into four basic categories. As with many categorization schemes, there is some overlap and the boundaries are not always sharp and clear. Nevertheless, these categorizations should help you monitor your progress in understanding chemistry.
The most basic level is Level 0, which involves a basic understanding of what science is, what a model is, how representations relate to reality, and the provisional nature of much of what we learn in Chemistry.
Beyond that are the basic skills needed to use basic chemical symbols, concepts and calculations. These skills constitute the "working knowledge" you need to advance in your scientific studies, but constitute the lowest level of understanding, as one only needs to follow some rules in order to master them. One might call them “algorithmic;” one could program a computer to do these. We will call this category Level 1.
The third category of goals is related to chemical models and theories; these are the explanations chemists use to explain why and how things are the way they are. Mastery of this level requires you to be able to express in words or pictures the essence of a scientific model or theory. We will call this category Level 2.
The final category consists of uses of the theories and models to predict how particular experiments or natural situations would turn out. If a scientific model or theory is any good, it should have some “predictive power;” since we intend to teach you good theories and models, you should be able to use them to predict outcomes in the real world. You should therefore also be able to design ways to get nature to behave the way in which you want it to behave. We will call this category Level 3.
The lists on the following pages should give you some idea of what you should learn in this course. The Level 0 understandings you must have before you even attempt the other levels. Level 1 list is prescriptive; you will definitely be asked to do these things on quizzes and tests! The lists for Level 2 and Level 3 are more exemplary; they may not include all the possible things you will be asked to do on tests and quizzes, but they are definitely the kinds of things you will be asked to do.
Level 0. To master this level, you should be able to:
1. Understand the relationship between observations, hypotheses, experiments, laws, theories and models.
2. Understand that we cannot directly see atoms and molecules, and that the pictures which we draw of molecules and atoms are representations based on the models and theories we use to understand, interpret, and predict the behavior of chemical substances.
3. Understand that all of our pictures, representations and models are based on general rules, which are derived from observations and experimental results. These general rules may on occasion be violated. (Example: there are stable molecules which violate the octet rule.)
Level 1. To master this level, you should be able to:
1. Describe the differences between solids, liquids and gases, and between pure substances, mixtures, elements and compounds.
2. Know the symbols for the most commonly used elements: Al, As, Ba, B, Br, Cd, Ca, C, Cl, Cr, Co, Cu, F, Au, He, H, I, Fe, Pb, Li, Mg, Mn, Hg, Ni, N, O, P, K, Si, Ag, Na, S, Sn, U, Zn.
3. Properly name chemical compounds given their atomic formulae. 1. Correctly report measurements using the proper number of significant figures.
4. Calculate densities.
5. Balance chemical equations.
6. Correctly assign chemical formulas based on experimental evidence.
7. Identify limiting reagents and predict theoretical yield, i.e. how many grams of compound will be produced.
8. Calculate the mass of a reagent necessary to make a solution of a given molarity and volume.
9. Calculate the volume of solution necessary to provide a given number of moles of reagent.
10. Calculate volumes necessary for making solutions of a given molarity by dilution.
11. Calculate the volume of titrant necessary to neutralize a given solution of acid or base.
12. Write net ionic equations for precipitation reactions.
13. Predict what solids might precipitate from a mixture of two ionic aqueous solutions.
14. Label the conjugate acid-base pairs in an acid-base reaction.
15. Calculate the pH and pOH of solutions of known H+ and OH– concentration.
16. Assign oxidation numbers to atoms in molecules.
17. Identify which reactants are being oxidized and reduced in an oxidation-reduction reaction.
18. Predict the equilibrium for an oxidation-reduction reaction.
19. Balance the equation for an oxidation-reduction reaction.
20. Identify the number of protons, electrons and neutrons in an atom or ion of a given element.
21. Identify an element based on the number of protons.
22. Assign the charge of an atom based on the number of protons and electrons.
23. Draw or describe the shapes of atomic orbitals.
24. Assign the electron configuration for atoms and ions.
25. Predict the most stable ion for a given element, if that element commonly is found in ionic form.
26. Identify the correct formula for an ionic solid, given the charge on the ions involved.
27. Draw a Lewis Dot Structure for a given molecule.
28. Assign formal charges to atoms in Lewis Dot Structures, and assign overall charges to polyatomic ions.
29. Predict the geometry of a molecule using the Lewis dot structure and the valence shell electron pair repulsion theory.
30. Identify which atomic or hybrid atomic orbitals are involved in different kinds of covalent bonds.
31. Identify whether a covalent bond is polar, and in which direction the dipole lies.
32. Identify whether a covalently bound molecule is polar, and in which direction the dipole lies.
33. Identify reactions as endothermic or exothermic based on experimental observations.
34. Calculate the amount of heat liberated or absorbed for a specific amount of material, given the molar heat of reaction.
35. Predict the pressure, volume, amount, mass or temperature of a gas sample (or the change in these quantities) using the ideal gas law.
36. List the various influences on reaction rates.
37. Write the equilibrium constant expression for a given reaction, and calculate the equilibrium constant based on experimental concentrations.
38. Use LeChâtelier’s principle to predict the effect of a change in concentrations, pressure or temperature on the equilibrium of a reaction.
Level 2. To master this level, you should be able to do things like :
1. Explain why it is necessary, and what it means, to balance chemical equations.
2. Explain why some metals corrode while others do not.
3. Explain how batteries work.
4. Explain how the spectrum of an atom helps us to understand the structure of the atom.
5. Explain how the electron configuration of an atom determines the molecules or ions it tends to form.
6. Explain how the electron configuration of an atom tends to determine how it reacts with other atoms.
7. Explain why the periodic table is arranged the way it is, using both chemical examples and reasoning based on atomic structure.
8. Explain why it takes a certain amount of coal to provide a city with enough electricity to run their air conditioners.
9. Explain why the pressure and volume of a gas increase with increasing temperature, and explain why other changes predicted by the gas law occur.
10. Explain why some pure substances are liquid at room temperature, some are gases, and others are solids.
11. Explain why ionic solids often dissolve in water, and why non-polar molecules usually dissolve better in non-polar solvents.
12. Explain why acid solutions having the same concentration of different acids may have different pH values.
13. Explain why catalysts do not affect the equilibrium of a reaction.
Level 3: To master this level, you should be able to do things like :
1. Design a way of preventing the corrosion of an iron fence using another metal.
2. Predict the properties and reactions of an element based on where it is in the periodic table.
3. Predict the formula and properties of compounds that form when two elements are combined.
4. Predict the amount of fuel needed to supply a given amount of energy and predict the amount of carbon dioxide produced in extracting that energy.
5. Predict which substances will have the highest and lowest boiling points.
6. Design a method for getting a reaction to occur at a faster rate.
7. Design a method for increasing the amount of product in a reaction at equilibrium.