COURSE STRUCTURE AND GRADING
· 80% Laboratory Reports
o A lab report for EACH student is due at the beginning of the following “experiment” day. Labs will be done in groups assigned by the instructor. Lab reports are expected to be written in a format consistent with the scientific literature, e.g. Title, Introduction, Methods, Results and Analysis, Discussion, Conclusions, and including a bibliography. Lab reports will be graded on the quality of their scientific content (clear understanding and discussion of key concepts and experimental process) and presentation (writing quality, grammar, clarity, organization, formatting, and figure presentation).
· 20% Literature Report
o After completion of all six labs, each student must find an article pertaining to a topic discussed or explored in class or lab (i.e. must be physical chemistry!). This article must be from a peer-reviewed scientific journal such as: Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Nature, etc. Each student will write a report discussing the thermodynamic or kinetics principles and analysis within the paper.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
· The labs will be on a rotation of three labs at a time, each of which will be given two weeks per experiment. So rotation 1 will incorporate Experiments 1‒3 for the first six weeks of the semester. Then rotation 2 begins with Experiments 4‒6 for the next six weeks.
Date Lab # Activity
Rotation 1
Sept. 2 NO LAB
Sept. 9 1, 2, or 3 Introduction and first experiment in rotation
Sept. 16 1, 2, or 3 Finish experiments and begin analysis
Sept. 23 1, 2, or 3 Begin second experiment in rotation
Sept. 30 1, 2, or 3 Finish experiments and begin analysis
Oct. 7 1, 2, or 3 Complete third experiment in rotation
Oct. 14 1, 2, or 3 No Lab – Fall Break
Rotation 2
Oct. 21 4, 5, or 6 Introduction and first experiment in rotation
Oct. 28 4, 5, or 6 Finish experiments and begin analysis
Nov. 4 4, 5, or 6 Begin second experiment in rotation
Nov. 11 4, 5, or 6 Finish experiments and begin analysis
Nov. 18 4, 5, or 6 Complete third experiment in rotation
Nov. 25 No Lab - Thanksgiving Break
Dec. 2 Turn in lab report and work on literature report
Dec. 9 Literature report due