CHEM 120 A: Principles of Chemistry I

CHEMISTRY 120 (SLN 12388), Autumn 2024

SYLLABUS

COURSE MEETING TIMES:

Lectures: M, T, W, Th 8:30 – 9:20 AM

Location: ARC 147

Lectures are recorded via Panopto, and the recordings will be available on Canvas (and as a live stream).

Discussion Sections

Fridays (times and locations per the UW Time Schedule)

Discussion sections are not recorded and in-person participation is expected. You are allowed to miss two discussion sections without penalty.

Lab Sections

Tuesdays & Wednesdays (times and locations per the UW Time Schedule

In-person participation is required for lab. You are required to attend a lab safety orientation and 6 lab experiments.

If you need to miss either a discussion section or a lab for any reason, you must request to be excused by submitting this absence form  within 48 hours of the absence.

TEACHING TEAM:

Instructor: Terri Bright Hettinger; tbh14@uw.edu

Weekly, Office Hours: Mondays (9:30-10:30) BAG 330 (CSC)

Zoom (by appointment):  https://washington.zoom.us/j/8810944409

Teaching Assistants (Chemistry Study Center (CSC) - BAG 330)

Cooper Cohen, cdcohen@uw.edu, Tuesday 10:00 – 11:00 am, Wednesday 10:30 – 11:30am

Cassandra Padilla, cassyp21@uw.edu, Friday 9:30 – 11:20am

Henry Thornes, hthornes@uw.edu, Tuesday 12:00 – 2:00pm

Alison Wang, alisonw9@uw.edu, Wednesday 1:00 – 2:00pm, Thursday 10:30 – 11:30am

Oliver Wang, owang26@uw.edu, Friday, 1:00 - 3:00 pm

Julian Zhao, hyizhao@uw.edu, Thursday 12:00 – 2:00pm

TA Help Sessions in the Chemistry Study Center (CSC): You may attend all help sessions listed above. Your TA can help you with pre-labs, data analysis, lab write-ups, and course content.

Registration Questions: Chemistry Undergraduate Services | chemugs@uw.edu

EXCUSED ABSENCES:

Students must request to be excused from absences by submitting the Chemistry Absence Request Form within 48 hours of the absence.  You do not need to request to be excused from a lecture.

REQUIRED MATERIALS

Except where indicated, all items are required and available through the University Bookstore:

• Course Textbook (also used for CHEM 220 and CHEM 221)

General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, 7^th Edition, H. Stephen Stoker
Publisher: Cengage.  Available as Hardcover, Loose-Leaf, and eBook. Used options are also available.  Hard copies are also available in Odegaard on Course Reserve.

• Lab coat and safety goggles (NO safety glasses or any other type of goggles).
• Scientific calculator. Graphing/text-entry calculators WILL NOT be permitted on exams.
• Achieve Essentials Online Homework (also used for CHEM 220 and CHEM 221)

course code:  oe88w5; Publisher: Macmillan Learning

Access codes are available through the UW bookstore and directly through the Achieve site. (UW negotiated pricing: $32.00 per quarter).

You will only be able to register for our Achieve course directly through the links on our Canvas course website, but the access code can be purchased through several platforms. You have a 14-day "grace period" to get started in Achieve before paying to register.

Internet and Instructional Technology:

• Access to a computer or tablet. Student Technology Loan Program (https://stlp.uw.edu/) funded through Student Technology Fees
• Internet access. Students in WA State without broadband internet service: visit WA State Drive-in Wi-Fi hotspots (https://www.commerce.wa.gov/building-infrastructure/washingtonstate-drive-in-wifi-hotspots-location-finder/) .
• Daily online access to Canvas (uw.edu) and Achieve. Weekly online access to Gradescope (www.gradescope.com). All necessary links are available on the course Canvas site.
• Ability to convert a sheet of paper and/or file into a pdf. Submissions cannot be a group of individual image files. Free scanning apps are available for smartphones (such as Genius Scan, CamScanner and Scannable) – the Gradescope instructions page of the Lab section has more details for using these apps.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

See a specific breakdown of objectives & skills per chapter in the Canvas site (Course Learning Objectives page).

COURSE COMPONENTS

The course consists of:

• 4 in-person class sessions per week – all lecture notes and recordings will be posted to the course Canvas website.
• 1 in-person discussion section per week with a teaching assistant (sessions are not recorded).
• 7 three-hour laboratory sessions in certain weeks of the quarter: 1 orientation and 6 labs. See the CHEM 120 Laboratory Resources page of the course website for details. Labs will be attendance-required with your TA at the times published in the UW Time Schedule. Sessions will NOT be recorded.
• Daily work in the Achieve online homework platform
• Online prelab quizzes and online submission of post-lab reports
• In-person exams administered during the lecture time in ARC 147

GRADING

The point distribution for the evaluative components of the course is as follows:

Midterm exams                                45%

Final exam                                         25%

Discussion section participation     5%

Achieve Learning Homework          10%

Laboratory                                          15%

TOTAL                                                 100%

Some additional notes on grading:

The final median GPA in Chemistry 120 generally falls between 2.6 – 2.9.

It is the Chemistry Department’s policy not to make grade changes of 0.1 after final class grades are submitted to the UW Registrar.

Your scores for the various assignments, reports, and exams will be recorded using the online Gradebooks in Canvas (canvas.uw.edu).

ACADEMIC ETHICS

Original work performed in good faith is assumed on all assignments and course

components.

The Student Conduct Code prohibits several forms of academic misconduct (see section 7: Prohibited Conduct (http://www.washington.edu/admin/rules/policies/SGP/SPCH209.html#7) ),

including:

• Cheating
• Falsification
• Plagiarism
• Use of any generative artificial intelligence tools (e.g. ChatGPT or Dall-E 2) for assignments. Any AI-generated submissions are not permitted and will be considered plagiarism.
• Unauthorized collaboration
• Engaging in behavior specifically prohibited by an instructor
• Recording and/or dissemination of instructional content without express permission of the instructor

You are required to sign and submit an honor code statement for this course, in which you will affirm your acknowledgment of what constitutes academic misconduct in this course as defined below. Failure to adhere to this code of ethics will result in referral for possible disciplinary action as described in the Student Conduct Code.

General policies for all course assignments

Your effort for ALL assignments (including but not limited to homework assignments, lab reports, quizzes, and exams) should be your own individual work unless you are explicitly instructed otherwise by your instructor.

You are strictly prohibited from sharing any content from ANY assignment (including but not limited to homework assignments, lab reports, quizzes, and exams) with any website or app (including but not limited to Discord, Chegg, Course Hero, and Snapchat) or any other course content repository (virtual OR physical) that is not explicitly approved by the instructor. This prohibition applies both during the quarter that you are taking this course and any time after the course ends.

Specific policies for exams

During exams, you may not seek out or accept any input from ANY other individual, whether or not they are a classmate, nor may you provide assistance to other students.

Specific policies for lab reports

It is presumed that the data you record and report in the laboratory is your work. All data analysis and written/typed calculations and responses that you submit should be yours alone, even if you collected data with a laboratory partner. If it is found that a lab report has been copied from someone else or from an earlier quarter, this is considered plagiarism. It is considered improper collaboration in which lab reports or portions of lab reports are posted or shared for other people to view.

We understand that it can be difficult for students to discern what constitutes good-faith collegial support on lab reports, and what constitutes plagiarism or cheating. While examples of explicit plagiarism in which lab reports are directly copied from a student in the current quarter or an earlier quarter have been found, cases of students “over collaborating,” resulting in reports that are essentially identical or extremely similar with only minor edits made to achieve minimal  differences between the reports. This does not meet our expectation that you are submitting your own independent work. In short, if you have not done an assignment yourself, do not attempt to pass it off as original work. If you have questions about what might cross the line, please do not hesitate to ask your lab or class instructor prior to submitting your work. You will not be penalized for asking this type of question!

LECTURES

Lecture Schedule. An approximate schedule for the chapters to be covered each week is at the end of this document. You are responsible for material covered in class AND in the textbook (whether it was covered in lecture or not as we have limited lecture time).  Lectures will cover only highlights of the textbook material.

Lecture and Discussion Section Etiquette. Out of respect for your classmates and instructor, please observe the following rules:

• Arrive on time. If an emergency causes you to arrive late, please enter quietly.
• Do not pack up your belongings before the end of class.
• Keep side conversations to a minimum.
• Place your phones and devices out of sight and on silent, and refrain from sending or reading text messages.
• Do not browse or read materials that are unrelated to the lecture. This includes – but is not limited to – newspapers, books, magazines, and the internet.
• Do not put your feet/shoes on neighboring chairs or desks in the classroom

DISCUSSION SECTION

In the discussion section you will explore the concepts presented in the course. Specifically, you will collaborate with your colleagues on problems that will help you synthesize the material covered in the previous week’s lectures. These problems will be graded on participation only. To earn your participation credit, you must arrive on time and participate in good faith during the Discussion Section, not simply be in attendance.

HOMEWORK 

Online Learning (Achieve)

There will be 15 homework assignments that are graded.  This course uses a specialized on-line homework system called Achieve. It is like other homework systems such as Sapling, Knewton, ALEKS, OWL and WebAssign.

How to sign up for ACHIEVE:

• For initial registration, your ACHIEVE homework must be accessed through Canvas, which you will find under Assignments or under the Chapter Module.  Go to Homework Chapter 1 and click on the link.  After logging in once using this link, you can log in to subsequent sessions from the course page in Canvas.
  
  
• ACHIEVE Homework has a fee of around $25, and you have two weeks grace period to pay this fee.   If you drop the class, you may receive a credit from the publisher for future homework access.  Follow the link to request a refund/credit:  Achieve Refund/Credit Request
  
  
• Please note that grades in Canvas may not be updated immediately, please wait 24 hours for ACHIEVE to sync with Canvas before contacting me that the grade did not transfer correctly.

• Need Additional Help? The ACHIEVE Technical Support Team can be reached by phone or by webform via the Student Support Community. Their hours and contact information can be found here: Achieve: Getting Started Guide for Students.

During sign up - and throughout the term - if you have any technical problems or grading issues, please fill out the support form explaining the issue. The Achieve support team is more able (and faster) in resolving issues than your instructor or your TA.

EXAMS

Chemistry knowledge is cumulative so that questions on exams will often depend on knowledge from earlier chapters.

Exam Protocol

• Bring a few pencils, your calculator, and a photo ID to all exams.

Midterm Exams

There will be 3 midterm exams in this course. These will be on current material. They will focus on the recent content material but be advised that there is content from earlier sections that is essential to understanding the more complex material. There are no make-up exams. If you need to be excused, please use this absence form.

The midterm exams will be on the following days:

Thursday, October  24

Thursday, November 14

Thursday, December 5

Chemistry is a cumulative subject by nature, so that you must have a firm understanding of material from earlier in the quarter when the exams are given.

Final Exam. The Final Exam will be held on Tuesday, December 10 from 8:30 – 10:20am. The Final Exam is cumulative.

CLASSROOM CLIMATE

UW Chemistry is committed to a welcoming and inclusive classroom environment. Diverse backgrounds, embodiments, and experiences are essential to the critical thinking endeavor at the heart of university education. Therefore, you are expected to follow the UW Student Conduct Code in your interactions with your colleagues, TA and instructor in this course by respecting the many social and cultural differences among us, which may include, but are not limited to: age, cultural background, disability, ethnicity, family status, gender identity and presentation, citizenship and immigration status, national origin, race, religious and political beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and veteran status. Please talk with me right away if you experience or observe disrespect in this class, and I will work to address it with you.

ACCESS AND ACCOMMODATIONS

Your experience in this class is important to us, and it is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law. Disability Resources for Students (DRS) offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. If you have not yet established services through DRS but have a temporary or permanent disability that requires accommodations, you are welcome to contact DRS at 206-543-8924 or uwdrs@uw.edu or visit disability.uw.edu. Note for students with DRS accommodations for extra time with quick turnaround and/or long-term assignments: The Department of Chemistry recognizes universal access to education and has built in significantly more time than needed to complete lab reports to allow greater flexibility and access for all students, including those with disabilities. As such, no additional time is needed. If you are unable to complete the assigned work within the time period, you should contact your TA for further guidance.

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATIONS POLICY

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities.

The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/ )

KEYS TO SUCCESS

1. Participate in ALL available sessions, pay close attention, and take notes – learning is not a passive process.
2. Learning chemistry is a sequential process. You must understand today’s material before you can understand the material tomorrow. As with all courses at UW, your instructors and TAs will assume that you are studying at least two hours for each hour of lecture and one hour for every hour of lab. Find a place that allows for periods of uninterrupted study. Skim through the chapter or sections to be covered in the next class session.
3. Make daily, weekly, and quarterly learning plans and follow those plans.
4. Working in shorter, more frequent sessions in Achieve will be more efficient than long, marathon sessions.
5. Practice! Work on practice problems as well as those problems assigned in Achieve – focus on understanding the concepts and general processes, not just memorizing how to solve a specific problem.
6. Talk chemistry with fellow Chem 120 students. You will not only learn more, but you will probably also find the course more enjoyable.