Syllabus

Instructor:	Dr. Robert F. Whitehead
Office:	CMS-1324
Office Hours:	TBA
Office Phone:	962-2356
Lecture:	M, T, W, R, F at 8:00 in DO-202
Lab:	Consult your schedule for your lab meeting time.

Course Description:
CHM-102 (4 cr. hr.): General Chemistry is the second semester of a two-semester sequence that surveys important topics in chemistry.  It is designed to provide an overview of the subject and is a prerequisite or corequisite for all upper-level chemistry courses.   Along with the lecture, there is a laboratory that meets for three hours three times each week.  The laboratory provides hands-on experience with chemical concepts and demonstrates important laboratory techniques used by chemists.

 

Although attendance will not be regularly taken in lecture, it is expected that you will attend all lectures, take all exams, and complete all other assignments. Students who miss lecture should consult with other class members to obtain notes, or review the material posted on the Web.

 

You must attend your scheduled lab meetings each week. There are no make-up labs.  If you miss a lab, you will receive a score of 0 for that day. At the end of the summer session, your lowest lab grade will be dropped.  Students who miss more than four laboratory sessions will receive a grade of "F" for CHM-102.  No one will be admitted to lab after the first 10 minutes or without a lab manual or safety glasses.  If you arrive more than 10 minutes late, or you do not have both your lab manual and safety glasses, you will be counted absent for that day.

 

Grading Policy:
Your grade in this course is based on your performance on the following items:

 

Hourly exams (there will be three of them): 50%
Final exam: 20%
Laboratory work (including two lab practical exams): 15%
Quizzes (four quizzes given in lab): 15%

Mastering Chemistry (online homework, see below)

 

There are no make-up labs or make-up quizzes. Your lowest lab score (not including the lab practical exams) and your lowest quiz score will be dropped. At the end of the semester, if your Mastering Chemistry score is higher than your lowest score on the three remaining quizzes, your Mastering Chemistry score will be substituted for your lowest quiz score. At the instructor's discretion, additional graded material may be assigned during the semester.

 

Performance on exams and quizzes is measured through the use of T-scores which are based on the mean and standard deviation for each exam and, in the case of quizzes, on the sum of your raw quiz scores.  T-scores are computed according to the formula shown below.

Labs are graded on a percentage basis.  At the end of the semester, your overall lab average will be converted to a T-score equivalent based on the following table.

The final exam will be cumulative, consisting of four 18-question sections. Questions from the material covered after Exam 3 (questions 1-18) will count as 1/2 the final exam grade. Questions from the material covered in previous exams will count for the remainder of the final exam grade. The last three 18-question sections will represent material covered on the previous hourly exams (questions 19-36, Exam 1; questions 37-54, Exam 2; questions 55-72, Exam 3). If your T-scores for any of these sections are higher than the T-scores you earned on the corresponding hourly exams during the semester, your previous T-scores will be replaced with the higher ones. (We refer to this as exam replacement.) This gives you the opportunity to improve any low scores you made on any of the three hourly exams.However, exam replacement is only allowed if your overall T-score for the final exam is 42 or greater. If one or more hourly exams are missed during the semester, the T-score earned on the corresponding section of the final exam will be used for that grade.  You must inform your instructor by e-mail if you will have to miss a test.

 

Your final letter grade in this course will be assigned on the following basis: