Chemistry for the Citizen (CHE 102)

Instructor: Dr. Noel Sturm

E-Mail: nsturm@csudh.edu

Course Expectations:

You will be expected to read the text book.

Do the homework.

Use Blackboard.

Check your “cp.csudh.edu” e-mail account regularly.

 

1. Required Text:

   Chemistry in Focus: A Molecular View of Our World, 7th Ed, by Nivaldo J. Tro, publisher: Cengage.

   We will be Using the myCSUDH-ImmediateAccess- program.

   How Does It Work?

   The required course ebook will be available in a digital format .

   You will receive an email from Brytewave. It will say "The following materials have been added to your library at brytewave.redshelf.com: Chemistry in Focus: A Molecular View of Our World, 7th Ed, by Nivaldo J. Tro".

   You will receive Free Access on the first day of classes.

   Discounted pricing, $43.00, has been negotiated with publishers.

   Students will have until Friday, February 17^th, 2023 to opt out of the program..

   After the opt-out deadline, any students who has not opted out will be charged on their CSUDH student account by the university, allowing more time to pay for the required material.

   You do NOT need to purchase OWL access this semester, just the text book!!

2. Power Point Presentations: Power Point presentations are arranged via chapter on the syllabus page. Each of the Power Point presentations has a corresponding Bb Collaborate Ultra Recording found in the Video's folder in Bb..

3. Examinations:

• There will be four examinations each worth 100 points.
• Examinations will be multiple-choice.
• Questions will be presented one at a time and you may backtrack (return to previous questions).
• You may use your notes, a calculator and a Periodic Table.
• From the time you log-on you will have 120 minutes to complete the examination.
• All examinations will require the Respondus Lockdown Browser.
• There are specific windows during which each examination will be available. See below for specific dates.

4. Homework: Given the array of unfamiliar material and the speed with which we cover the material doing the assigned homework problems is required to succeed in the course. Homework assignments are multiple choice and will definiely help you prepare for the multiple choice exams. Each Homework assignment is worth 10 points, there are 12 assignments for a total of 120 points. Homework turned in after the deadlines stated below will not be accepted.

5. Discussion Board Etiquette: Effective usage of the discussion board means that only quality information should be posted to it.  The best uses for the discussion board tend to concern course content for which you are unclear, and need help to more fully understand.  As such, posted questions should be reasonable for your classmates to understand and contribute (but perhaps with some forethought!).  It should not be one of the following types of questions that vaguely incorporates course content:

• A question for which there is no known answer (i.e., “What is the atomic number of the heaviest possible element that could be created in a particle accelerator?”)
• A question involving trivia (i.e., “What is the thrust, in pounds, of the Saturn V rocket?”)
• A question that is surveying an opinion (i.e., “Is the automobile the most important invention of the twentieth century?”)

• What types of questions does this leave?  Questions about understanding processes.  A good example might be,  “How is it that the loss of trees contributed to the collapse of civilization on Easter Island?”

Lastly, you should be cautioned that the discussion board is not the venue to ask questions concerning answers to the hoemwork.  Naturally, you may pose questions about general concepts—some of which may be implicitly embedded into questions on the problem sets—but if discussion board questions veer into, “I got 300 meters for problem 4.  Did anyone else get this?”, that is a clear misuse of the discussion board.  Such postings will be immediately deleted.

6. The Goal: of this course is to understand the basic principles of chemistry.

7. Grading Criteria: Letter grades are based on the following point distribution. Grades are criterion-referenced not norm-referenced; each student has an equal opportunity meet the criteria charted below:

8. Course Description: A non-mathematical treatment of the basic principles of chemistry and their application to various facets of life in a highly technological society.

9. Academic Integrity Statement
The university is a community of learners bonded together by the search for knowledge; the pursuit of personal, social, cultural, physical, and intellectual development; and the desire for the liberating effects of an advanced education. California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) has a culture--an academic culture--shared with other universities and colleges across the nation. Integral to that culture is a set of values such as academic freedom, dedication to teaching and learning, diversity, civility toward others, and academic integrity. Academic integrity is of central importance in the university community and involves committed allegiance to the values, the principles, and the code of behavior held to be central in that community. Integrity concerns honesty and implies being truthful, fair, and free from lies, fraud and deceit. Cheating or plagiarism is cause for formal university discipline and is justification for an instructor to assign a lower grade or a failing grade.

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism are described and discussed in the University Catalog. This course will be taught in a manner which upholds and enforces those statements. Academic Dishonesty of any sort will not be tolerated and will result in a grade of F for the assignment, quiz, or test, and referral to the Vice President of Student Affairs and to your Dean or Program Director. Dishonesty in this course includes, but is not limited to:

• Dry Lab, Fabrication – creating data without actually performing the experiment
• Falsification or data destruction – changing experimental results; destroying experimental results without notation in your notebook; cherry picking (picking only the experimental results you think are the best); removing pages from your notebook
• Backdating – performing an experiment on a particular date, but stating that it was performed at an earlier date.
• Improper recordkeeping – Recording your measurements somewhere else before writing them in your notebook; Not writing your experiment data directly in the notebook when measured; Transferring existing notebook data to a different notebook; Failure to include supporting data in your notebook (charts, spectra, calculations); Failure to answer the required pre-lab questions in your notebook before starting the experiment.
• Sabotage – messing with someone else’s experiment or supplies, as a joke or for malice
• Plagiarism – presenting someone else’s words, ideas, equations, explanations, conclusions as your own without attribution; failure to cite the source of someone else’s words, ideas, equations, explanations, conclusions; (cut and paste without citation is plagiarism; using your lab manual as a report resource without citation is plagiarism); using a classmate’s or prior student's report or spreadsheet content; copying someone’s report or homework
• Having someone else -- amateur or professional -- analyze your unknowns and claiming the work as your own
• Impersonation – taking a course on behalf of someone else; letting someone take the course on your behalf; having someone else use your clicker in class on your behalf; having someone else perform your on-line assessments for you
• Cheating – using or possessing unauthorized resources during an exam/quiz and in preparation for exams/quizzes; providing unauthorized resources to another student; copying someone’s exam/quiz; Using someone else’s answers for your own on-line assessments

10. Disabled Student Services: CSUDH adheres to the American with Disabilities Act with respect to providing reasonable accommodations for students with temporary or permanent disabilities. To receive accommodations, students with disabilities must register with Disabled Student Services. For more information, please contact their office in Welch Hall B250 at (310) 243-3660 or (310) 243-2028.

11. Statement of Diversity and Inclusion

It is my intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well-served by this course, that students' learning needs be addressed both in and out of class, and that the diversity that the students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength, and benefit. It is my intent to present materials and activities that are respectful of diversity: gender identity, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, and culture. Your suggestions are encouraged and appreciated. Please let me know ways to improve the effectiveness of the course for you personally, or for other students or student groups. Lastly, it is my intention to uphold our class norms. Students who act as a disruption to me or my students will be asked to leave the class.

 

Syllabus  

 

 

 

© Sturm 2023