CHEMISTRY 120 (Distance Education-Internet course)

FALL 2004 Course Information Page

 

Dr. Joseph Ledbetter   

Office: PS- 128 F 8 am- noon beginning the last six weeks of semester

Phone/msg:   235-7800  ext. 4365 or 4271

E-mail:  jledbetter@contracosta.edu

Web site: www.contracosta.cc.ca.us/chemistry/CHEMDEPT.HTM

(mirrored at geocities.com/josephledbetter/)

This course is an "Distance Education" course which meets on seven required Saturday sessions 8 am - noon and 1-6 pm 8/21, 10, 30, 11/06, 11/20, 12/04, 12/11, 12/18 in PS-6. Missing two or more of these Saturdays will result in course failure. This syllabus is posted at the Chemistry Department web site whose URL is given above. Correspondence with the instructor is primarily via email. You must submit an email to the instructor by August 16 to ensure enrollment in the course. Note that assignments are due by Friday at the end of each week submitted via email.

PREREQUISITES/ADVISORIES :

This course is equivalent to Chemistry 1A at UC Berkeley. Mathematics 120 or its equivalent is a mandatory prerequisite. You are expected to have algebraic facility, not just familiarity.   We use algebra regularly in chemistry, in fact we sometimes use calculus, but that is not a prerequisite.   Some chemistry such as Chem 119 or high school chemistry is advised; ideally you should have had high school courses or introductory college courses in chemistry, biology and physics, especially if you intend to be a science major.  English language proficiency at the "1A" level is recommended; you are expected to read and compose complex essays (journal articles) in this class.  This is primarily a self-study course using CD technology. This course assumes that you learn well on your own and that you are self-motivated to keep up with the class through occaisional e-mail or phone contact with the instructor. You will be required to use the World Wide Web ("the web") as well as Word and Excel.  You need to have computer expertise to be successful in this course. Computers are available in the lab, PS107, PS109 and a few other campus locations if you do not have access from home.  

CDs and TEXTS:

1. Maha Ashour-Abdealla and Raymond Chang, CyberChem ,  A Multimedia Program for General Chemistry (ISBN 0-07-847769-7)

2. Preparing for Your ACS Examination in General Chemistry "The Official Guide" (ISBN 0-9708042-0-2)

3. Postma, Hollenberg and Roberts,  Chemistry in the Laboratory ,  6th ed. (ISBN 0-7167-3547-4)

These three required "texts" are sold in the bookstore.  You're encouraged, but not required, to purchase any standard freshman chemistry text as a resource.  Older editions by Kotz, or Silberberg or Atkins or McQuarrie or Chang or Brown are fine and much less expensive than current ones.  Check out the used book stores along Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley for bargains.  Some texts are also available for use in PS 109.  The other Chem 120 sections are using  Chemistry & Chemical Reactivity , 4th ed. by Kotz and Treichel as the required text which is available in the bookstore. The study guide & solution's manual for this text are on reserve in the library; the Kotz text CD is installed on the computers in PS107.  Outside reading in chemistry  in particular and science in general is encouraged. There are Internet resouces and exercises for each experiment in the laboratory manual found on the instructor's home page which provide additional course materials.

 

Concepts, Movies, Cyberlabs, Quizzes and Problems:

The CyberChem program is arranged in "Drawers" which contain videoclip "movies", laboratory simulations "cyberlabs", quizzes and problem sets for each concept. You are to turn in via email each week the following assignments. The email must have a time stamp no later than midnight of Friday to receive credit. Late assignments receive no credit.

 

Movies- You are to write a one paragraph summary of the video succinctly stating the chemical principles involved. You will be graded on clarity and scientific accuracy.

 

Cyberlabs- You are to complete the laboratory exercises and calculations showing units. You will be graded for completeness and effort.

 

Quizzes- You are to take the quiz and self-report the score. You will be graded for effort only.

 

Problems- You are to attempt all of the problems for each concept and show your reasoning and logic. Partial credit will be generously given for reasonable attempts.

 

Saturday Laboratory Experiments at CCC in PS 5 or 6:

Saturday sessions will involve laboratory experiments from the Postma lab manual. You will be required to turn in a prelaboratory paper describing the experiement in your own words and an accompanying flow chart showing what needs to be accomplished in the proper order. Late work will not be accepted. Reports will be submitted before leaving each day. These reports are in the lab manual and they include questions and problems and "Consider This" questions as well which may be covered during the lab.

EXAMINATIONS and JOURNAL ARTICLES:

A midterm covering all of the "Drawers" in Cyberchem will be given in the second Saturday session. An American Chemical Society (ACS) comprehensive final exam will be given on the last Saturday. The ACS exam guide gives details about the format and content of the exam. Specifically, the final will cover the sections on Atomic Structure, Molecular Structure and Bonding, States of Matter/Solutions, Stoichiometry, and some of the Energetics sections in the ACS exam guide. You are allowed to use only a distributed periodic table  and a calculator during midterm but not the final exam as it has an included periodic table as described in the ACS booklet. 

GRADING:

The overall course grade will be based on total points. At least 900 points will be required for an A, 800 for a B,  700 for a C, and 600 for a D.

COMMENTS:

Texts and a (scientific notation) calculator should be brought to the Saturday sessions.  You may need to use your lab manual for observations or reference during exams.

NEW STUDENTS:

Numerous success strategies, tips for learning in college, studying, test taking and writing and reading skills can be found at:

http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/studyguides/

Back to Instructor's Homepage

CHEMISTRY 120 DISTANCE EDUCATION- Fall 2004 TENTATIVE  LABORATORY SCHEDULE

Dr. Joseph Ledbetter - Contra Costa College

Class meetings begin on Saturday, AUGUST 21

TENTATIVE LABORATORY SCHEDULE (EXPERIMENTS FROM POSTMA)