Discussion Sections
The class as a whole will meet for the Lectures in CLB 130 on
lectures, and Monday, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
This experience will be augmented by smaller meetings,
lead by your TA, held on Fridays.
Who is your TA? Your
registered section number determines the
Day, Room and
Hour
for the Discussion and the identity of your TA
If you section number does not appear in the list below, your
Professor
is not Brucat and you should seek information elsewhere. Remember your section
number: You use it on your Exams!
Common courtesy expected in all University classes is expected in our
lectures, i.e. disruptive/distracting
behavior in the classroom is to be avoided.
I humbly ask that you use your cell phone only in an emergency and that
you wait until the lecture is over to read the newspaper or converse with your
friends.
If you must enter or leave the lecture theater during a lecture,
do so quietly using the back doors.
Homework
Chemistry is a problem solving science, and is best learned by working
problems. You will be given several opportunities to work Chemistry
problems, some of which will be evaluated as part of your course grade.
One such opportunity will be provided by the on-line homework/tutorial
program
called
OWL < http://owl1.thomsonlearning.com/ >.
nbsp;
Weekly assignments (due Sunday midnight, open all week)
will be given using this software which, it is hoped, will help you to
master the science of Chemistry. There are lots and LOTS of problems
there for you to work, but only a few are required for acquiring points.
nbsp;
We hope that this system will be more convenient and more useful than
'paper' homework, so we hope you will put some effort into it.
See < http://www.chem.ufl.edu/~itl/2045/OWL_Access_s08.html" > or the course e-Learning Website for access
instructions.
Discussion
Quizzes
There will be four 50 minute long-answer Discussion Quizzes
administered during you regularly scheduled
Discussion Class
on the
following
dates
(Fridays):
1/18
2/22
3/28
4/11
The exact time and location of your Discussion Quiz will be determined by the
the your section number and thus your Discussion class time and location.
See above for details of Discussion classes.
Each Discussion Quiz will have a maximum point value of 50.
The highest three (3) scores of the four (4) Discussion Quizzes
will be used to compute your course point total (best 3/4).
Exams Mid-Terms
There will be three assembly examinations (mid-terms)
given Periods E2-E3 8:20-10:10PM on
the
following
Tuesdays:
1/29
3/4
4/8
The location of these examinations will depend on the section
in
which you are officially registered.
See the Midterm Schedule page for
details.
No conflicts with the exam times should occur, but if they do, they
will
be resolved by official
UF policy
. Bring writing instruments and a good
calculator to the exam, but DO NOT allow your TEXTBOOK or NOTEBOOK to
accessible
at any time in the exam room! Sharing of calculators or scrap
paper
is not allowed; You will work alone on the exams. Scrap paper
will
not be collected, so put all answers on the answer sheet. The lowest of
your three midterm exam grades will be dropped from your grade
computation. The
instructor requests that possible absences be communicated
to the Instructor at least one week prior to the exam time, via
the e-Learning
email tool. No makeup Exams will
be
given. No Regrades will be considered. Final Final Exam:
Saturday April 26, 2008
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
The
location of the final exam will depend on you section number.
These
rooms may be found on the Final Schedule
page.
Failure to attend the Final exam will result in a failing course
grade. No makeup Exams will be given. No Regrades will be
considered.
Course Material
Everything you need to know about the subject matter in this course
is plainly described in your textbook. This textbook is much like many
other introductory level chemistry textbooks that describe the same
material
in slightly different ways. If you feel the need, peruse the library
for
additional textural input.
My notes
and lectures reflect more closely my personal perspective on the
subjects
at hand, but are not 'better' than the textbook for the purpose of
learning
the material. Nonetheless, every attempt has been made to provide my
complete
lectures, conveniently, on-line.
Try to avoid
printing out what you
can save on disk --- save a tree!
Course Announcements,
Grade Dissemination,
Communicating with Brucat
All course grades
and announcements
will be made using e-Learning, in a password-protected
environment.
You are expected to check the course website regularly
for important information
regarding the function of this course.
nbsp;
If you wish to communicate directly to your instructor,
you should use the e-Learning Email tool,
as per course policy.
Laboratory
The associated but autonomous lab for this course is CHM2045L All
questions
related to the lab must be addressed directly to the Lab Instructor: Prof.
Jim Horvath (Room 132 LEI). Brucat has no knowledge of
the inner workings of the laboratory course.
Goals (Mission Statement)
Our goal is the discovery of the structure
of the world around us. We seek discovery because knowledge is power.
Understanding nature reveals its beauty.
We need to learn about nature
because we are in a time when others manipulate our environment without
complete knowledge of the consequences of their actions.
We are curious
and knowledge is the cure.
Ancient humans labored hard to
master their environment and they have conveniently left us a record of
their
results.
We will all meet together, at the same time and place, to
discuss in exact detail the material that the ancients have
left for us to learn.
We will get to know them, one another, and some
Science,
together.
You can learn from each other, you can learn from the
textbook,
you can learn from me, and you can learn from experiment.
Learn.
Our
goal
is to have a working understanding of the topics listed on the syllabus
so that we may succeed in future Chemistry (and other) studies.
If we
do
this, we will get a good grade, but that is only an ancillary benefit.
To succeed in this course, you should spend twice as much time reading
your textbook as you do in class. You should spend this amount of time again
working problems.
Work some of the end of chapter problems in the textbook,
and
problems in the OWL homework program (which include all the end of chapter problems with answers).
Working problems helps one learn.
This course takes a lot
of time (at least
12 hours a week).
Don't short change this course by spending less time
on it than this.
It will just make you unhappy :(
Grade Computation
The grade for this course will be derived from
the cumulative point value (score) of the Midterm Exams,
Homework Assignments,
Discussion Quizzes,
and the cumulative Final Examination.
To take account of possible illness or other unavoidable complications,
redundancy has been built into the grading system.
There will be three (3) mid-term exams,
but only the highest two (2) scores will be used for grade computation
(Best 2 out of 3).
Of your four (4) Discussion Quiz scores,
only the top 3 scores will be used for grading (Best 3 out of 4).
The breakdown of the
point values of these items is as follows:
MidTerms
......................................2 x 250 = 500
Discussion
Quizzes ...................... 3 x 50 = 150
HW
(OWL)
.................................................. 50 Final
Exam ................................................. 300 Total
= ..................................................... 1000
The following letter grades are guaranteed
for the corresponding acquired cumulative score:
