Instructions for students

Course Goals and objectives

Student Handout:

Students with Disabilities

Any student with a documented disability, (i.e. physical, learning, psychiatric, visual, hearing, etc) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the disability services office at the respective college at the beginning of each semester. Faculty are authorized to provide only the accommodations requested by the disability services office. The counselor for Southeast College can be reached at 713 718-7218.

International Students: Receiving a W in a course may affect the status of your student Visa. Once a W is given for the course, it will not be changed to an F because of the visa consideration. Since January 1, 2003, International Students are restricted in the number of distance education courses that they may take during each semester. ONLY ONE online/distance education class may be counted towards the enrollment requirement for International Students per semester. Please contact the International Student Office at 713-718-8520 if you have any questions about your visa status and other transfer issues.

Student Course Reinstatement Policy: Students have a responsibility to arrange payment for their classes when they register, either through cash, credit card, financial aid, or the installment plan. Faculty members have a responsibility to check their class rolls regularly, especially during the early weeks of a term, and reconcile the official class roll to ensure that no one is attending class whose name does not appear on the rolls. Students who are dropped from their courses for non-payment of tuition and fees, who request reinstatement after the official date of record (OE date), can be reinstated by making payment in full and paying an additional $75 per course reinstatement fee. A student requesting reinstatement should present the registrar with a completed Enrollment Authorization Form with the signature of the instructor, the department chair, or the dean, who should verify that the student has been regularly attending class. Students who are reinstated are responsible for all course policies and procedures, including attendance requirements. A dean may waive the reinstatement fee upon determination that the student was dropped because of a college error. The dean should note the nature of the error in a memo to the registrar with the appropriate documentation.

Course Goals

By The end of this course students should be able to:

Employ the appropriate methods, technologies, and chemical concepts to solve dimensional analysis, naming chemical formulas, calculating atomic wt, formula wt, mass #, At #, empirical formula, balancing chemical equations, writing molecular and ionic equations, solutions concepts, thermochemistry, quantum numbers, writing electronic configuration, know the periodic table in general as well as individual groups, different trends in each group and periods, writing Lewis electron dot structure, octet rules, resonance structure, formal charge, exceptions to the octet rules, valence shell electron pair repulsion theory, molecular orbital theory, sigma and pi bonds, hybridization, Ionic and covalent bonds, gas laws, ideal gas equation, intermolecular forces and oxidation numbers.

To fulfill these goals, you will have an opportunity to participate

Course Format and Description of class Activities:

The teaching and learning philosophy I bring to this course emphasizes critical thinking and analysis of important chemical concepts.

Students are expected to come to the class having completed textbook reading assignments. A good rule to follow is that for every one hour of class time, student should spend 2 hours outside class preparing for lecture. The instructor at the beginning of each class will present lecture over the material in the book.

Students will be assigned 10-15 problems taken from each chapter of the textbook.

Instructor will also provide students with work problem from outside of the textbook. Some of these problems require analysis, planning and critical thinking. Students should also work on these problems in the class. I am always there if you need any help. You have to keep these solved problems in a folder.

Student should take due care reading each assigned chapter before attempting to do assigned work on the chapter problem. It is more important to read and learn and read for understanding than to try to memorize lot of information..

Students may be asked to solve the problems on the class blackboard.

It is very important to bring textbook on the lecture days and lab manual on every lab day. The instructor closely follows textbook to maintain a link between class and book. The instructor will often point the material in the textbook. It is very important for students

to listen attentively and take notes daily.

Instructor will make available some ancillary materials such as: How to Study Chemistry, Math Principles for Chemistry, Internet and Chemistry. These will be placed in library. It is recommended that students consult these additional sources.

Solution of problems as well as question related to any chapter taught previously would be discussed at the next scheduled class meeting, if needed.

Students will access on-line* Internet based tutorial and practice exams offered by the publisher. This tutorial contains lot of critical thinking problems. Please complete every assignment for each chapter put it in a folder and give it to me. These will be submitted to the instructor after 5 days of the completion of the chapter (twice in a week in summer).

To enhance classroom or lab instructions, instructor may present videos and movies related to some textbook material covered in the class. The instructor may also make use of the transparency on an overhead projector.

Each Student will be assigned a project to work on. You can use Internet, library or any other resources to complete that project. Once completed, you (preferably using power point or a poster) in the class.

This is a “web-enhanced” course, meaning we will make significant use of Internet throughout the semester. All students have access to the Internet in the computer labs available to any HCCS location; just show your student ID.

Internet Tutorial Practice Exercises and exams are mandatory and are part of the course.

Students are expected to read lab procedure before coming to each Lab class and write the summary of that lab procedure. They are expected to listen to the lab briefing attentively before starting the lab

Each class will begin on time. We will take 15 minute break halfway through the class.

Each exam will cover 2-3 chapters in the book. The exam will consists of both multiple choice and essay questions. The final exam will be system-wide comprehensive final. The components of the exams will measure your ability to think about and apply important chemical concepts that you have become acquainted with during your course of study. The questions will encourage higher order thinking skills, which are based on your understanding of the material rather than simple memorization of facts.

Copies of some of the tables which instructor thinks are necessary (e.g. periodic table, conversion chart) will be provided during exam.In exam, instructor will ask students to sit in a specific arrangement.

This Course format satisfies Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Critical thinking, Computer Literacy. These are all the

Six “ CORE CURRICULUM COMPETENCIES”

All chemistry courses offered at HCCS have been designated as core curriculum courses. The chemistry discipline Committee has adopted common methods of assessment for core intellectual competencies. The following is the detailed description of competencies fulfilled by all chemistry courses.

READING: Study of textbook reading assignments and lecture notes in the preparation for homework, examinations, Internet tutorial, and lab experiments.

WRITING: All students are supposed to write lab summary and lab reports, which includes objective, procedure, results and interpretation of data. They also have to write a written report on an assigned chemistry project. SPEAKING: Students are required to do the presentation of their project in front of the whole class preferably using power point or poster. Group discussion involves both speaking and listening. This is especially true for the preparation of lab experiments.

LISTENING: Students have to listen attentively and take the notes. They have to listen to the Lab briefing attentively before starting the lab.

CRITICAL THINKING: All chemistry courses are based on ”Critical Thinking”. These lab-based courses require thought processes, which includes thinking, mutual discussion, and consensus of opinion, before an experiment can be conducted or before doing the problems. COMPUTER LITERACY: Students are required to work on the online* Internet based tutorial and practice exams offered by the publisher. They have to submit this work for grading. This tutorial contains lots of critical thinking problems.

Prerequisites:

If you have not completed 1 year of high school chemistry and MATH 1314 or equivalent (College Algebra), you have not met the prerequisites for this course. If this is so, you should withdraw and enroll in a lower level chemistry course (CHEM1405), remedy any deficiency in both chemistry and math. Please remember this course is about chemistry and, not math. Many math concepts are utilized in the course and this is solely your responsibility to have proper math background, instructor cannot cover math concepts. In addition, students in this course must have passed reading and math sections of TASP.

Course Objectives:

This is a college freshman/sophomore level course in general chemistry. It should transfer to every State-supported College or university in Texas. If this is your purpose, please make sure with the other institutions about the transferability of this course.

Advice and Expectations:

Time Management: Procrastination is the enemy! The great temptation for the student is to delay the work as long as possible. I cannot stress enough that this is a recipe for failure. Staying current with your work is essential to get success in this course.

Study Skills: Good study skills are essential for college study. Reading all assigned material is key to your success. Do not deceive yourself into believing that you can do well in this course if you do not read the assigned material. Please ask me any questions you might have as you work through the subject. Consider me a resource!

Also, see www.dushkin.com/online/ for additional study skills.

Course Load: if you are a working student, think carefully before enrolling in too many classes. Your job performance and your scholastic performance will both suffer if you are overburdened, so be honest with yourself about how much you can accomplish. Do not forget to leave time in your schedule for study outside the class hours and class preparation. Consult your 2011-2012 HCCS Student Handbook for additional details.

Remember that college level work requires a commitment of time and effort. The more you put into it the better the results will be.

Policies Rules and Regulations:

1. Students are expected to comport themselves in a mature and nondestructive manner, Disruptive behavior will not be tolerated. The instructor will use appropriate provisions in HCCS Student Handbook to enforce this requirement. Instructor can move student to a different seat for disruptive behavior.

2. Class attendance is required for both lecture and lab. Students are expected to attend classes regularly. Please see attachment for additional rules for attendance.

3. If you miss either lecture or lab, you will be counted as absent.

4. You will not get any credit for an incomplete lab work.

5. If you miss more than two labs, you will be administratively withdrawn from the course.

6. HCC Course Withdrawal Policy

The State of Texas has begun to impose penalties on students who drop courses excessively. For example, if you repeat the same course more than twice, you have to pay extra tuition. Beginning in Fall 2007, the Texas Legislature passed a law limiting first time entering freshmen to no more than SIX total course withdrawals throughout their educational career in obtaining a certificate and/or degree. If you are considering withdrawing from a course for whatever reason, please confer with your instructor or counselor as early as possible. In any case, should you decide to withdraw, you must officially withdraw from the course by no later than March 29,2012 with the approval of your counselor or your instructor only. Your instructor is not allowed to give you a “W” if you fail to follow the official procedure.

7. Course Repeat Policy

Students who take a course more than twice face significant tuition/fee increases at HCC and other Texas public universities. If you are considering withdrawing from a course because you are not passing (or for any other reason),confer with your instructor/counselor as early as possible about your study habits, reading and writing homework, test-taking skills, attendance, course participation, and opportunities for tutoring or other assistance that might be available.

8. Scholastic Dishonesty: Students are responsible for conducting themselves with honor and integrity in fulfilling course requirements. Penalties and disciplinary proceedings may be initiated by college system officials against a student accused of scholastic dishonesty. "Scholastic dishonesty" includes but is not limited to cheating on tests, plagiarism, and collusion. Cheating on a test includes: copying from another student's test paper, using material during a test that are not authorized by_ the person giving the test, collaborating with another student during a test without authority, knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting or soliciting in whole or part content of an unadministered test, bringing another person to obtain a test that is to be administered. Plagiarism means appropriation of anther’s work and unacknowledged incorporation of that work in one own work offered for the credit. "Collusion " means unauthorized collaborations with another person in preparing written work offered for credit. Please see student handbook.

9. During an exam you can have ONLY paper, pen, calculator, periodic table (or any material provided by the instructor). You must put your backpacks, books and notebook away from you.

10. During exam you will be asked to sit on assigned places only.

11. You must read the assigned experiment before coming to the lab. You must submit a short summary of the experiment. Summary should cover whole experiment. If this prelab. summary is not submitted before starting the lab; one would lose 20% on that lab.

12. The attendance is taken few minutes after the beginning of the class. For perfect attendance you should be on time also.

13. Grading Scale. The final letter grade will be determined accordingly: 89-100=A, 79-88=B, 69-78=C, 59-68=D, and below 59=F. This course is comparable (and transferable to the best of my knowledge) to the similar courses offered at colleges and universities. Therefore rigor, requirements and amount of work needed to successfully pass the course is also very similar.

14. Lab Grading. Lab. grades will be based on the quality of your work, individual participation in experiments, and observance of laboratory safety precautions, and general impression, etc. Total lab. is worth 20%, five percent will come from quality of your work, individual participation in experiments, and observance of laboratory safety precautions.

15. Office Hours: My Office Hours for this semester is printed in the front page. Additional help beyond classroom is available by appointment or email or phone.

16. Homework: The nature and the frequency of the homework will be defined in the class. Students who correctly complete and submit all the homework assignment every week (twice in summer) will receive 10 additional points in each exam.

17. Bring your textbook and take notes. Participate in lab. and lectures

18. No food, drinks, or smoking are allowed in the class or lab.

19. Lab assignment must be submitted on their respective due dates (the next lab. Period). A 50% point penalty will be imposed on every late lab assignment.

20. Missed Exam: If a student misses an exam for any reason, the grades for the missed exam wiII be zero. Each student’s lowest test grade wiII be dropped at the end of the semester.

21. You are encouraged to ask questions about the course lecture subject matter or policies.

22. No children are allowed in classroom or lab.

23. Modification of Syllabus: This syllabus acts as a contract between students and instructor. I will make every effort to fulfill the requirements of this syllabus during this semester. However in unlikely event changes must be made, I reserve the right to make such changes and to notify students in a timely manner of any such changes.

24. No talking is allowed during the lecture. Please put your cell phone in silent or vibrating mode during the

lecture.

Additional Policies for Lab.

1. Although students work in groups, individual active participation is expected and required. If you don’t turn in the summary in time and don’t participate actively, your grade may be different than your partner. Every student has to turn in their own lab summary and lab report.

2. There is no make-up for the missed lab work. Please do not copy and turn in the missed lab. If you are absent in the lab., you do not get the grade for that lab.

3. If you miss more than two labs, you will get a grade of "F" in the whole course. You will get a zero for the missed lab. Graded labs will be given at the end of the semester.

4. Read your experiment in the lab manual before coming to the lab.

5. Your working space in the lab. should be cleaned thoroughly after use. Otherwise, you and each member of your group will lose 10 points. If common working area is found dirty, the whole lab will be penalized.

6. Read safety guidelines in your manual before coming to the lab and adhere to them strictly in every lab. It is solely your responsibility to protect yourself and it is solely your responsibility to know and observe safety guidelines.

7. Wear safety glasses in the lab ALL THE TIME.

8. Make yourself aware of the location of safety showers and eyewash.

9. Collect all waste in appropriate containers. Do not dispose off waste improperly. Offenders will be penalized in a suitable manner.

10. Please do not hesitate to ask any question that you may have about the policies, exams, lab grading or any other matter. Any updates or modifications of any policy or procedure will be announced.

6. Homework: The nature and the frequency of the homework will be defined in the class. Students who correctly complete and submit all the homework assignment every week (twice in summer) will receive 10 points added in each exam. Homework grades are only the completion grades, only requirement is to complete it and submit it in time.

7. Bring your textbook and take notes. Participate in lab. and lectures

8. No food, drinks, or smoking are allowed in the class or lab.

9. Lab assignment must be submitted on their respective due dates (the next lab. Period). A 50% point penalty will be imposed on every late lab assignment.