Course Policies
Absence Policy
Attendance at all lectures, discussions, pre-lab lectures, and labs is mandatory.
Students must attend their assigned sections, and are expected to arrive on-time.
Your lecture engagement score will be based on your engagement, prompt attendance, and contributions in lecture. It is completely understandable that some students may miss a lecture, lab lecture, or discussion due to unforeseen circumstances. Moreover, given the circumstances in Spring 2021 (and the potential for illnesses or internet connectivity issues), we will make the following adjustments for all students in CH112: any student with more than 85% engagement and participation in lecture will receive full credit for lecture participation. In this way, all students will be able to succeed in the course. Missed classes due to religious observances will never affect your score adversely.
Academic Conduct
All students at Boston University are expected to maintain high standards of academic honesty and integrity. The Chemistry Department treats cheating with zero tolerance. Here, cheating refers to any violation of the student academic conduct code. There are no small infractions. All instances of misconduct will be reported to the Dean's office. It is the responsibility of every student to be aware of the Academic Conduct Code's contents and to abide by its provisions, as detailed here.
Work Together or Work Alone? In light of our strict observance of the Academic Conduct Code, you may be wondering when it is or is not OK for you to receive help from a classmate or another student on an assignment. The simple answer is: if the assignment is for credit (i.e., quiz or exam), then the final written work product must reflect only your own understanding of the material. In work that is not graded for credit, for example when doing problems from the textbook, we encourage you to discuss them with your classmates and within study groups as much as possible, as this is an important mechanism by which you can come to understand the material better. Therefore:
- It is OK (and strongly encouraged) to help each other with textbook problems.
- It is OK (and encouraged) to discuss with another student how to approach a certain type of problem that you encounter in lecture or in lab.
- It is OK (and encouraged) to help each other to study for quizzes and exams.
- It is NOT OK to communicate or collaborate with anyone (other than the proctor) in any way during a quiz or exam
- It is NOT OK to submit any work in this course that is not 100% your own effort (please see detailed guidelines for lab conduct that are provided in the lab syllabus and lab manual) - i.e., containing anything that you did not write entirely by yourself.
- It is NOT OK to share any part of your course materials with another student or post materials online
- It is NOT OK to use any resources or materials (notes, books, etc.) when taking quizzes or exams (unless the quiz is specifically designated as open-book)
Remote exam guidlines and proctoring: exams in Spring 2021 will be taken and proctored remotely. Student will be expected to remain on Zoom at all times during exams, until the exam is submitted. Please make sure that you follow these guidelines:
- Students are expected to arrive on Zoom at least 5 minutes before the start of the exam and to remain on Zoom until the proctor confirms that their PDF has been received.
- Students are expected to leave their microphones and webcams on during the exam. The webcam should be pointed at the space that you will use to take the test, tilted slightly so that you can still read the exam on the screen but so that your workspace is clearly visible.
- Cell phones must be visible and face down in the work area throughout the exam
- Since all of the microphones will be on (unmuted), we recommend keeping the volume on your device down (after the proctor starts the exam) so that you are not distracted by ambient sounds.
- The exams will be 75 minutes in length, and then you will have an extra 15 minutes for logistics (scanning and emailing the scan). All work must be received by 12:30pm and you are expected to remain on the Zoom until your proctor has received your PDF.
- Use "Chat with Host" (before the exam begins) to tell me now if you are going to use the PRINT/SCAN (printed template that is scanned) or TABLET (work from tablet) method. If you are printing the template, make sure to print it well in-advance of the exam.
- Proctors will understand that you will be looking at the screen to see the exam, but the will expect that your hands will not linger near the keyboard (only moving to scroll periodically).
- When you are done with the exam, inform your proctor (via chat) that you when you are done and increase your volume. Your proctor will give you the go-ahead to scan your work and email your PDF directly to them. You must stay on Zoom until they confirm that they've received your scan
Appropriate use of online resources
Students at Boston University are required to abide by all of regulations regarding academic integrity and conduct, including the proper use of technology and digital resources. Course materials are provided by faculty for your personal use in the course only. Any other use of these materials including, but not limited to, posting of materials online in forums or websites, is a copyright violation and a violation of the academic conduct code. Additionally, materials submitted for course credit (papers, exams, etc.) are similarly not permitted to be used or posted.
Policy on Religious Observances
Absences for documented religious observances will be excused according to the specifications of the University Policy on Religious Observance. Please make sure to communicate about religious observances as far in advance as possible (and no later than one week before the observance, per university policy) so that accommodations can be made.
Copyright laws and Protection
The syllabus, course descriptions, lab manual, and all handouts created for this course, and all class lectures, are copyrighted by the course instructors. The materials and lectures may not be reproduced in any form or otherwise copied, displayed or distributed, nor should works derived from them be reproduced, copied, displayed or distributed without the written permission of the instructors. Infringement of the copyright in these materials, including any sale or commercial use of notes, summaries, outlines or other reproductions of lectures, constitutes a violation of the copyright laws and is prohibited. Please note in particular that distributing, receiving, selling, or buying class notes, lecture notes or summaries, lab reports or related materials, or similar materials both violates copyright and interferes with the academic mission of the College, and is therefore prohibited in this class and will be considered a violation of the student code of responsibility that is subject to academic sanctions.
Office of Disability and Access Services
The Office of Disability and Access Services (25 Buick street, Suite 300) is responsible for assisting students with disabilities. If you have a disability, you are strongly encouraged to register with this office. Lecture hall and discussion rooms are accessible and ADA compliant.
Learning and testing accommodations: Boston University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. If you are a student who needs academic accommodations because of a documented disability, you must present your letter of accommodation from the Office of Disability and Access Services directly to your professor as soon as possible. If you have questions about documenting a disability or requesting academic accommodations, contact the Office of Disability and Access Services. Letters of accommodations should be presented as soon as possible to ensure that student needs are addressed from the start of the course. Instructors are not able to provide accommodations without documentation from Boston University's Office of Disability and Access Services.
COVID-19 Responsibilities and Regulations
We are all in this together, and we are committed to offering the best learning experience possible given the need for safety. To do this, we need your help. We must all be responsible and respectful. Faculty, staff, and teaching fellows will wear masks during class and other meetings to protect you and themselves; and we expect you to do the same. If you show up without a mask, you will be asked to leave. If you refuse, the class or meeting will be dismissed in order to protect everyone. We also require that you follow the safety practices recommended by the CDC outside the classroom, including all state and university guidelines regarding sheltering in place while feeling ill, testing, quarantining, social contacts, and gatherings. If you cannot follow these guidelines, be responsible and respectful: do not show up for in-person learning. Do not put your classmates, staff, and instructors in danger. Do your learning remotely to make it possible for us to safely offer in-person learning to others.
Getting the most out of this course
Learning quantitative sciences requires persistence, diligence, and hard work. You should plan to spend a significant number hours per week on this course (over and above the scheduled contact hours). In general, students spend between 2 and 3 hours per lecture hour on out-of-class study (mostly problem-solving). If you are willing to devote the time, and you spend it wisely and effectively, you will be able to perform your best in this course. Here are some specific suggestions that students have found helpful.
Lecture Preparation
You will get the most out of lecture if you have worked through the textbook beforehand. This includes reading the text, working through the worked-examples in the text, and working through the exercises in the chapter. This will give you a good jumping-off-point for the lectures. Detailed guidance about what sections to prepare for each lecture will be posted in the schedule. Top Hat questions will also be posted to help guide your preparation.
Lecture Follow-up
After each lecture, you should work through your lecture notes to be sure you understand everything that was covered. The next step is to do a lot of problems.
Working Problems
Chemistry is a quantitative science and understanding of its concepts is cemented by solving problems. The text offers many problems for you to attempt. For success you should do as many of these as you can. If you run into trouble with the problems (which is completely normal), you should come to office hours to get support.
Each chapter will have a minimum number of assigned problems. Completing these is a top priority in order to make sure that you've learned the material. A good portion of the test questions will come directly from the assigned homework problems.
A note about using the optional solutions manual: Having access to the full solutions for problems can be helpful if used properly, but if used improperly these solutions can have the opposite of the desired effect. It is important to remember that the solutions should be used as a last resort only. If you struggle to work through a problem, we recommend that you do not go directly to the solutions. Instead, we suggest that you do the following: First, re-read the corresponding section of the book; then look at similar worked examples in the text; collaborate with your study group and attend an office hours; and, finally, take a look at the solutions manual, if necessary. If you find that you are regularly needing to read solutions to problems in the solutions please come speak with an instructor during an office hour.
Discussion sections
It is best to work as many problems as you can before discussion -- then, in discussion, you will be able to master more nuanced and difficult problems.
The discussion problem solving sessions will give you a chance to work in groups to solve problems, some of which are exam-caliber. These sessions are also a particularly good time to work through the problems that you haven't been able to solve.
Office hours (i.e., free tutoring and good conversations)
You are strongly encouraged to attend office hours - any of them, all of them. They are a great opportunity to work through problems in groups, get support from course instructors, and ask questions. Note: you do not need to have a question or an appointment to attend these open hours. Rather, come frequently and maximize your effort by getting support. The schedule of the office hours is posted here.
An important note about getting answers to your questions: e-mail and Discord are not a replacement for office hours. While instructors will certainly respond to personal, private, and urgent matters by email, they will not be regularly answering content-related questions by email. Discord, on the other hand, is primarily for students to collaborate together outside of office hours. To get answers from instructors, please attend any of the office hours. Instructors will not generally answer emails over the weekends.
Study Groups
Learning and doing science is a team sport - don't go at it alone! Students who have learned the most and performed the best in Chemistry have worked in study groups each week. We recommend that you almost never study alone, and that you form groups of 3-4 students to meet for a couple of hours at a time and work on problems. (The most successful students typically plan three (3) study groups lasting 2 hours each every week.)
What do you do in study groups? Solve problems individually. But wait, if we're going to work individually then why do it as a group? The answer is: so you have support when you get stuck. Everyone gets stuck on problems, especially the more elegant and nuanced ones. Your study group members are there to help point you in the right direction and act as a sounding board; they aren't there to show you the solution (then they're no better than a solutions manual), but they're there to answer your questions and help clarify concepts.
If you have concerns
If you are experiencing difficulty, please contact us without delay - we're here for you!
Incompletes: incomplete grades will be given only if you have not taken the final examination, but have taken all of the other required exams and laboratory exercises. You must also be in good standing academically in the class. To discharge an incomplete grade, you must make up the incomplete work only (you do not repeat the entire course). This must be done by a date agreed upon with your instructor. Students must have a satisfactory grade in both the lecture and lab portions of the course in order to pass.
If dropping the course appears to be in your best interest, we still would like to work through the decision with you. We are also happy to advise you on appropriate choices for your academic program. If you drop the course by
Monday, March 1, no record of it will appear on your transcript.
After that date, until the end of the day
Friday, April 2, you may drop the course but with a W grade (withdrawn).
Digital Suggestions Box
The Chemistry department has a Digital Suggestions Box. If you have suggestions, feedback, or concerns that are best addressed directly to the department, please go online and leave your anonymous feedback at: http://bit.ly/BUchemSuggest
Learning Outcomes
Our goal is to help you share in our excitement for and the wonder of chemistry, to encourage you to excel, to give you a sense of empowerment about science, and to encourage you to continue study in science -- and hopefully chemistry. We intend to focus especially on what are the core ideas of chemistry.
Completion of one or more courses in Chemistry, beginning with a course in General Chemistry, is a requirement for a wide range of undergraduate majors in the sciences and engineering. The subject matter is a prerequisite for postgraduate studies in almost any scientific discipline or in medicine and forms an important component of the MCAT. The reason for this is partly because it has become impossible to fully master any of these fields without a firm understanding of the molecular processes that underlie them. In addition, studying Chemistry requires many of the same intellectual skills required for success in these other demanding fields, and a student’s success in Chemistry is therefore considered a good indicator of their broader intellectual potential. The objectives of CH111/112 and CH181/182 therefore partly involve specific chemical knowledge and understanding you should aim to acquire, but also encompass broader educational goals and approaches to thinking and problem solving that transcend any single subject.
Subject-Specific Objectives:
- Understand how the laws of thermodynamics govern chemical and physical change.
- Learn to use thermodynamic principles to quantitatively account for the properties of matter.
- Understand reversible chemical processes and how to think about them.
- Learn how the reactivity of acids and bases derives from their molecular structure.
- Understand how kinetic behavior relates to molecular mechanism.
- Look at electromotive force as a driver of chemical and biological processes
Broader Educational Objectives:
- Learn how to assimilate a large body of information by studying representative examples and
truly understanding how the behavior in these cases derives from the fundamental principles
at work.
- Learn how to evaluate complex hypotheses based on application of the underlying principles.
- Learn the application and limitations of abstract models of complex phenomena.
- Learn to think and write clearly about technical and scientific ideas, and to reason
quantitatively.
- Particle-in-a-box: this seems like a universal objective all on its own, right? Seriously though, if you're still reading the syllabus at this point, please drop me a line on Discord to say hi!
Lecture topics
In this course we will cover most sections of the following chapters in Oxtoby ("Principles of Modern Chemistry") 8e:
- Chapter 13: review Entropy and Free energy
- Chapter 11: Solutions and colligative properties
- Chapter 14: Chemical equilibrium
- Chapter 15: Acids and bases
- Chapter 16: Solubility and precipitation
- Chapter 17: Electrochemistry
- Chapter 18: Chemical Kinetics
- Chapter 19: Nuclear chemistry
Laboratory
A detailed schedule of the laboratory portion of the course is provided in the lab syllabus.
The laboratory portion of this course will let you see first-hand chemical principles and processes in action, and delve into analytical principles. Lab will also give you experience with some of the methods scientists use to do chemical research and technical writing. Your laboratory will consist experiments that have been scheduled as near as possible with the topics in lecture.
BU Hub Learning Outcomes
Scientific Inquiry II (one unit). Throughout the semester, students will identify and utilize fundamental concepts regarding the electronic structure of molecules and their intermolecular interactions to understand the basis of chemical thermodynamics and kinetics. This foundation, which builds on the Laws of Thermodynamics developed during first term, will enable students to qualitatively and quantitatively account for the chemical reactions and physical state changes that occur in areas such as chemistry, biology, medicine, neuroscience, solid-state materials, and the earth sciences. Student learning outcomes will include the ability to:
- Correlate electronic/chemical structure with observable physical properties.
- Understand the theoretical basis for chemical equilibria from first principles (Laws of Thermodynamics) and how such an understanding can lead be productively used to drive
target chemistry.
- Define the intimate steps of chemical reactions (mechanisms, kinetics) and to
identify/differentiate processes that can modulate the chemistry based on molecular
structures or reaction conditions from experimental data.
- Examine the thermodynamic properties of acid/base chemistry and how it is utilized in the
natural world.
- Develop a theoretical and practical understanding of electron transfer reactions and how
such processes drive biological and non-biological chemistry.
- Use this information in a laboratory setting to develop hypotheses and differentiate
between possible mechanisms of target chemical reactions based on experimental observables.
Students will further learn to use the laws of thermodynamics to develop mathematical expressions that quantify fundamental properties from experimental data that can then be used to differentiate between feasible pathways/mechanisms or eliminate unreasonable hypotheses. These efforts are integrated throughout the course, as each new topic requires the development of new theoretical expressions from the common laws of chemistry. Student learning outcomes will include the ability to:
- Develop and apply the appropriate theoretical description of a chemical situation (single to multi-step reactions) to obtain quantitative information
- Differentiate between possible chemical pathways (or not) based on quantitative predictions of what should happen versus what is experimentally observed.
- Communicate quantitative information symbolically, visually, numerically and verbally.
- Identify the boundary conditions of a chemical situation and how these alter the reaction from the expected value calculated from theoretical expressions derived for "ideal situations". This naturally leads to second-generation expressions that correct for non- ideal chemistry owing to non-trivial intermolecular interactions (welcome to the real world).
Writing, Research, and Inquiry (one unit). The Boston University Chemistry Writing Program (CH WRITES) is a collaboration between the Chemistry Department, Departmental Writing Fellows, and the CAS Writing Program. The goal of CH WRITES is to teach students in Intensive Freshmen Chemistry the process of research-based writing as it happens in chemistry. The major writing goal of CH111/112 (CH181/182) is to introduce and develop the approach used by experts when engaging in scientific communication, from collection of data to communicating the outcomes. As with all of the other aspects of the course (analytical techniques, data processing and statistics, chemical concepts), the writing skills will be introduced slowly throughout the yearlong course. We will start with all of the necessary pre-writing skills a scientist needs, before turning our attention to the writing style that will be of most use to a scientist: the journal article. Inextricable from the process of scientific writing is also a mature understanding of how other results and published studies relate to the current state of scientific knowledge. Through our work in this program, students will develop the tools to effectively perform research using journals, reviews, and online databases. Finally, in the second semester of the course (CH112/CH182), we will investigate other genres/themes of chemistry writing, collaborative writing, and multimedia communication. By the end of the CH111/112 (CH181/182) course sequence, students completing the CH WRITES program will have achieved the following outcomes:
- Students will understand the importance of good writing in the sciences, and they will be able to plan, organize, and then form well-structured written arguments relating to their experimental observations.
- Students will be able to bring backing and support for their arguments based on careful reading of prior scientific works and seminal papers in the field. They will be able to identify strong sources for their arguments and differentiate them from weaker sources.
- Students will investigate and understand how different writing styles and genres apply to different communication goals in science (publishing papers, writing research proposals, and making conference presentations).
- Students will be able to integrate graphic and multimedia elements into their scientific writing, as appropriate. Exhibits (Figures, tables, equations, and images are some of the cornerstones of the grounds upon which scientific communication are based. Learning how to craft, engage, and deploy these exhibits is something that each student will be able to do by the end of the program.
- Students will be to perform research in the scientific literature in order to better understand their projects, and engage in the discourse in the field. To that end, they will be able to ethically engage with prior scientific studies and works with comprehension and critical discernment, including the ability to use proper tools and approaches to identify materials.
- Students will understand the role of mentoring in the process of scientific inquiry and communication, including the role of peer-review and responding to the feedback of mentors.
- An important component of CH112/CH182 is the capstone project, in which students will work collaboratively on a group research project. This will be the culmination of this program, and students will demonstrate that they have a good understanding of the overall research process and its component parts. This process will include gathering and analyzing information, and critiquing, interpreting, and communicating their findings.
Intellectual Toolkit (Research and Information Literacy) (one unit). Students in CH112/182 work closely and meet individually on a weekly basis with writing fellows who mentor them in their research-based writing skills (this is in addition to the instruction from chemistry teaching fellows regarding the science aspects of their studies). Writing fellows guide and assess the students’ engagement with the scientific literature in their writing, and work with the students to hone those research skills. In addition to chemical understanding and analysis, papers writing in CH112/182 are evaluated for their level of engagement with primary and secondary sources. These efforts represent a continued expectation from analogous efforts that started during the CH111/181 term. As part of the lab and writing curriculum described in detail in their respective syllabi, students will learn throughout the yearlong CH111/112 (CH181/182) sequence to:
- Select and use chemistry-specific information search methodologies to obtain information for use in addressing their research problems of interest, and
- Develop an understanding of the research process and all necessary component parts. The Capstone Project groups are required to have multiple meetings with instructional staff during which each group discusses its literature review efforts, experimental design, and data interpretation. After the initial two-week experimental window, data analysis will be presented to the instructional staff, at which point a review of experimental approach and interpretation will occur. You will then perform additional experiments correcting errors and expanding your initial efforts. Final assessment will be made in part through review of the required (i) written capstone paper, as well as (ii) group PowerPoint presentation of the project that will be graded by faculty members present during the talks.
Intellectual Toolkit (Critical Thinking) (one unit). Key Elements of Critical Thinking: The essence of General Chemistry is the development of theoretical concepts that capture the behavior of our world at the molecular level. Those theories consist of sets of "rules" that may be expressed mathematically or symbolically. Those rules are then applied to address questions related to the behavior of chemical systems. Our course introduces fundamental theories of molecular science, including the atomic theory of matter, the quantum theory of matter, the theory of molecular structure and bonding, and the theory of thermodynamics. Students will be able to identify key elements of critical thinking, recognizing common logical fallacies that contradict the rules of a theory, translating ordinary language into the mathematical or symbolic language of chemical theories, and assessing the accuracy and precision of a measurement in order to determine its significance.
In preparing their analyses and reports for the lab-portion of CH112, students will reflect on previous works, chemical principles, and their collected data in order to logically argue claims about the outcomes of their experiments. Students will learn the difference between deductive and inductive proofs, and the limits of the applicability of their results.