Lab to accompany CHEM 1210. A minimum grade of "C" (2.0 or above) must be earned in this course before it can be counted in a physical science major or minor or as a prerequisite for any other course. (Fall, Spring, Summer) [Graded (Standard Letter)]

Co-requisite: Chem 1210

You will need Experiments for Chemical Principles I Lab - Chem 1215 and safety goggles designed for use in a chemistry lab, both available in the SUU bookstore. You will also need a scientific calculator for in-class work and for the final exam. I strongly recommend not using your phone as a calculator during lab, since you might spill stuff on it! Only a non-programmable, non-graphing calculator will be allowed for the final.

Upon successful completion of the General Education Physical Sciences requirement, students will be able to

Assessment of essential learning outcomes: Lab reports, homework assignments, and the final exam will be used to assess students’ progress in these learning outcomes.

Grading
Your grade in this course will be based on prelab assignments, lab reports, and a final exam. Prelabs and lab reports are worth 480 points in total, and the final exam is 120 points (20% of your grade for the class).

Pre-labs
Each prelab is worth 10 points. You can find each week's prelab assignment in your lab manual. These assignments are meant to help you prepare for lab, and may require you to do some research in your textbook or the introduction to the lab if the lab schedule is ahead of your lecture. Pre-labs are due before the beginning of lab. Some weeks, the labs may be ahead of your Chem 1210 lecture. You should make sure that you look at the pre-lab assignment well in advance, and come to office hours if you need help with it.

Lab reports
Most lab reports are worth 30 points. The lab report consists of all pages from the lab manual that you write on, including end-of-lab questions. You won't need to do any sort of write up in addition to turning in these pages. Although you will do the lab experiments with your lab partner, a completed lab report is required from each person in the class. Your lab report must be your own work. Each week's lab report is due by 5 pm on the Friday following the lab.

You are expected to attend and complete all labs. You will be given a grade of zero for any lab report for a lab you did not fully attend, except in extraordinary circumstances and with my explicit permission (this means no leaving early or arriving late and getting data from your lab partner). If you leave lab early or arrive late, only the parts of the lab report covering the time you were actually in lab will be graded.

Submitting lab reports and pre-labs online
All of your lab work will be turned in electronically this semester. If you prefer to fill everything out electronically, I can provide you with a pdf copy of the lab manual. If you choose that option, please make sure that your work will be legible and neat. Also understand that a chemistry lab can be a dangerous place for your electronic devices! If you prefer to fill everything out on paper, you should plan to photograph or scan each page and combine them into one pdf file for upload to Canvas. There are many apps for both iOS and android that make it easy to use your phone to make this pdf file. If you have technical difficulties with this, please come talk to me.

Final exam
The final exam will be given during our normal lab period in the last full week of the semester. The final covers material both from Chem 1210 and from Chem 1215. The best way to prepare for the final is to do well in your Chem 1210 class and to review your graded lab reports and make sure you understand what you did each week.

How to show evidence of doing your own work in a collaborative class
It is perfectly acceptable for you to discuss answers to lab report questions with your lab partner, with other lab groups, and with me during the experiment. Sometimes you and your lab partner will agree on a wrong answer. Your lab report should show that you understand the rationale for your answers, and have put some thought into them. You will lose some points for wrong answers, but fewer points if you have a good reason for your answer.

You and your lab partner should generally have the same data and calculations. You should each do the calculations on your own and check your answers with each other. If you come up with different answers, work back through your calculations and figure out what went wrong. This is a useful way to greatly reduce the probability of calculation errors.

Throughout the lab assignment, there are questions to help you reflect on what’s going on in the experiment. Even though you discuss these with your lab partner, please write your own answers. If your answers have exactly the same wording or exactly the same calculator error as your lab partner or someone else in the class, I will take this as a sign that one of you is copying from the other, and you will receive a zero for either a portion of the lab report or for that day’s lab.

The lab reports are set up so that you get a large portion of your grade for just showing up and working through the experiment. There is no substitute for doing the experiment yourself. Therefore it is absolutely unacceptable for you to copy data from another lab group except in the very rare cases that I give you explicit permission to do so.

Expected format for calculations
You are expected to show your work on any assignment when multistep calculations are required, even if you can do the whole calculation on your calculator. You are learning dimensional analysis in Chem 1210. This is the format that I expect for all calculations. If you don’t use this format, you will lose points. If you don’t include units in each term of your calculation (except for calculations) you will lose points.

Rounding and significant figures
Round all final answers to the correct number of significant figures, based on the equipment you used in the experiment. Please don’t round until the end of any calculation. I may occasionally give you instructions to use particular equipment to ensure a certain number of significant figures. Failure to follow these instructions will cost you points. I will generally allow 1-2 incorrectly rounded answers per lab report (unless they’re egregiously wrong), and after that will take 3 points (ten percent) from your lab report grade.

Keeping the lab clean and tidy
Cleaning up after yourself is important to protect yourself and your labmates from exposure to unknown chemicals, to prevent cross-contamination of chemicals, and to keep lab equipment in the best working order. You must clean up any spills or trash in common areas immediately during the lab. When you leave the lab, all borrowed equipment must be cleaned and returned to the prep lab, and all checked out equipment must be cleaned and stored in your drawer. Your lab bench must be clean before you leave. If you fail to clean up after yourself, I will take points from your lab report.

Problems with grading
Although I grade as carefully as I can, mistakes are possible. I would be glad to take another look at anything that you think may not have been graded correctly as long as you send me an email to let me know within 14 days of the grade being posted (or by Sunday, May 1st for anything graded within the last two weeks of the term). I’m also glad to talk about grading in person, but having you send me an email makes sure that I won’t forget.

Grading scale
93% or higher – A
90-92.9% – A-
87-89.9% – B+
83-86.9% – B
80-82.9% – B-
77-79.9% – C+
73-76.9% – C
70-72.9% – C-
67-69.9% – D+
63-66.9% – D
60-62.9% – D-
less than 60% – F

A grade of C or better in Chem 1210 and Chem 1215 is required to move on to Chem 1220 and Chem 1225 and to count this course toward a chemistry major. Please note: if you stop participating in the class partway through the semester and earn less than 60%, I will be required to give you a grade of UW instead of F. This can affect your financial aid.

We won't necessarily be doing all of the experiments in the lab manual in order, and we have two weeks where two labs are due. It is your responsibility to check the calendar and make sure you are doing the correct pre-lab assignment(s) each week. The schedule below may be modified during the semester (although it’s unlikely). If any changes are made, I will announce them in class and on Canvas, and will modify due dates on Canvas. 

August 28th: No lab
Sept. 4th: Safety in the laboratory and lab check-in
Sept. 11th: Measurement lab
Sept. 18th: Formulas lab and nomenclature lab (turn in last two pages only)
Sept. 25th: Hydrates lab
Oct. 2nd: Limiting reactant and percent copper
Oct. 19th: Spectrophotometry
Oct. 16th: No lab (fall break week)
Oct. 23rd: Calorimetry lab
Oct. 30th: Spectroscopy lab
Nov. 6th: Reactivity of metals lab
Nov. 13th: Halogens lab and molecular geometry lab
Nov. 20th: Gas laws lab
Nov. 27th: No lab (Thanksgiving)
Dec. 4th: Final exam, during our normal lab period

I understand that occasionally things come up in your personal life that may make you late with a pre-lab or lab report. Please feel free to ask before the assignment is due if you know you will need to turn something in late, with the understanding that we will agree on a new due date that you must meet (generally within one or two days of when the work was originally due), that this should not be a frequent occurrence, and that I may say no if you are asking regularly.

If you miss one or more labs due to illness or personal emergency, I will work with you on adjusting due dates to catch back up with the class. Please understand that making up the work later is only possible up to a certain extent, since each week's lab takes 2-3 hours and I may only be able to schedule one or two make-up sessions that work with both of our schedules. If you have an extended period of missing lab, you may reach a point where you won't be able to catch back up, and will need to consider withdrawing from the class or taking an incomplete, depending on where we are in the semester.

If you turn something in late without receiving permission from me before the due date, that work will be penalized 30% of the original points at the time it is turned in and 30% of the original points per week after that. 

Hands-on learning is the main point of a chemistry lab, so you will be expected to attend each lab and complete each experiment. You will be given a grade of zero for any lab report for a lab you did not fully attend, except in extraordinary circumstances and with my explicit permission. If you leave before your lab group has finished the day's experiment and cleanup, you will not receive credit for any part of the lab that your group finished after you left. The same policy applies if you come late and miss the first part of an experiment.

Our chemistry labs are not suitable for remote learning, so there is no way to make up labs online. If you will need to miss lab for University travel (athletics, etc.) you may go to a different section in the same week. I can help you with scheduling this, but please remember that it is your responsibility to make sure this is set up in advance of your travel (and early enough in the week that there are alternate labs for you to attend). This is also the best option for making up a lab missed due to illness if at all possible. If you are sick and need to miss our lab, and aren't able to attend one of the later sections, please email me as soon as you can to let me know. I will help you make up the lab if possible, but it is also your responsibility to follow up with me about making up the lab once you're better. Please understand that making up the work later is only possible up to a certain extent, since each week's lab takes 2-3 hours and I may only be able to schedule one or two make-up sessions that work with both of our schedules.

If you need to miss lab for any other reason, your only option for making up the lab is to go to a different section in the same week.

No course fee.

Chemical exposure and exposure to open flames are constant risks in a chemistry lab. To minimize the risk to yourself and those around you, the following rules must be followed:

With some medical conditions, you may wish to take additional precautions like wearing a lab coat or additional protective garments, delaying enrolling, or even not enrolling in the lab. In particular, if you are in your first trimester of pregnancy you should avoid exposure to laboratory chemicals or talk to your doctor about the risks. I am not qualified to give you medical advice, but I can help you locate material safety data sheets for the chemicals that will be used in the lab, to take to your doctor.

Failure to follow lab safety rules may result in a lower grade or a grade of zero for a lab. If I see you doing something unsafe, I will ask you to stop. If you continue to do something unsafe after a reminder, you will be asked to leave the lab and will not be allowed to make up whatever you miss.