Syllabus Outline

I. Course Information

A. Course name, catalog number, meeting dates, etc.

1. Physical Chemistry Laboratory I

2. Chemistry 3119

3. Fall 2009

4. Thursday 2:00-6:00 p.m. in W-206.

B. Major text(s) and materials needed

1. LABORATORY RESEARCH NOTE BOOK, Available in the campus bookstore

2. Scientific calculator

C. Your name, telephone number(s), office hours, etc.

1. Dr. Derek L. Smith

2. Office:  W-205

3. telephone: 646-2502, ext. 5402

4. Internet mail:  DSmith@hputx.edu

5. Office Hours  8:00-11:00am—Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:00-11:00am—Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays

II. Purpose, Objectives, Assessment

A. Purpose statement related to the overall purpose statement for the function of the course within general education requirements, majors, etc.

Students enrolled in Physical Chemistry I are, for the most part, junior or senior level chemistry majors.  The laboratory section of this course will be presented at a level consistent with an upper-division course designed to allow students to develop expertise in experimental physical chemistry.  The experiments chosen are not primarily concerned with "techniques" per se or with the analytical aspects of physical chemistry.  Rather, they are chosen (1) to illustrate and test theoretical principles and (2) to help students develop a research orientation by providing basic experience with physical measurements that yield quantitative results of important chemical interest.  The course is considered "writing intensive" in that great emphasis is placed on students’ ability to communicate the results of their experimentation in the form of formal laboratory reports.

B. Intended outcome for the course

Chem. 3119 is the first-semester laboratory section of a two-semester sequence in Physical Chemistry and represents an introduction to experimental physical chemistry.  Emphasis will be placed upon communication of results and the use of computers in analyzing data.  Formal laboratory reports, wherein students must demonstrate an understanding of the principles behind each experiment and explain clearly the results of their measurements when compared with expected values, will be required for each experiment.  At the conclusion of this course, students should be able to produce a competent, formal laboratory report, correct in both English grammar and scientific content.

C. Assessment of outcome

The outcome will be evaluated by the quality of the last two laboratory-reports turned in by students near the end of the semester after the preliminary reports have been graded and the results discussed with the students.  This gives students time to correct their procedures and get over any initial writing blocks.

III. Methods and Procedures

A. Course prerequisites

1. CHE 1489 with a “C” average or better or instructor approval

2. concurrence with or credit for CHE 3311  Students dropping CHE 3311 before the end of the semester must also drop the laboratory, CHE 3119.

B. Specific material to be covered --with tentative dates.  "Laboratory" type courses must include section on safety or incorporate secondary material by reference.

A tentative laboratory schedule is given below with suggested dates on  which specific experiments should be performed and laboratory reports submitted.  Generally, a four-hour laboratory period is assigned to complete one experiment, although in some cases more time may be required to finish collecting data.  Some laboratory periods are designated laboratory-lecture periods where laboratory results are discussed and preliminary laboratory reports are checked.  The finished laboratory report will be due approximately two (2) weeks after the laboratory experiment.

TENTATIVE[1] LABORATORY SCHEDULE

(subject to changes announced in class)

Week of	Exp./Chap Lecture	Title of Experiment/Lecture	Report Due Date
Aug. 25	Chap I Page 1	Introduction, Procedure, etc. Treatment of Experimental Data..  Laboratory Reports  Check-in.	9/2
Aug. 31	Calculations workbook	Graphing data sets in Excel—first law, vapor pressures	9/9
Sep. 7	Text, pp. 13-24.	First Laboratory Experiment.  Determination of the Density of a Crystalline Solid.	9/16
Sep. 14	Chap. III	journal research, defense	9/23
Sep. 21	Exp. 9 page 172	Partial Molar Volume	9/30
Sep. 28	Exp. 3. page 105	Heat-Capacity Ratios for Gases  Adiabatic Expansion Method
Oct. 5		Continuation of Experiment 3	10/14
Oct. 12	Exp. 6 page 152	Bomb Calorimetry. Heats of Combustion
Oct. 19		Continuation of Experiment 6	10/28
Oct. 26	Exp. 12 page 193	Chemical Equilibria in Solutions The I2-I3^- Equilibrium	11/4
Nov. 2	Exp. 13 Page199	The Vapor Pressure and Heat of Vaporization of Liquids
Nov. 9		Continuation of Experiment 13	11/18
Nov. 16	Exp. 14	Binary Liquid-Vapor Phase Diagram	11/25
Nov. 23	Thanksgiving Holiday-no laboratory session
Nov. 30	Exp. 20 page 247	Chemical Kinetics:  Method of Initial Rates  The Iodine Clock	12/9
Dec. 7	Last Laboratory period.  Finish all laboratory reports. All laboratory reports are due.		12/9
Dec. 14	Final examination 1:00pm Monday, December 14

C. Overall teaching methodology

The laboratory sessions meet once a week on Wednesday from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00p.m., with the first 50-minutes or so reserved for a laboratory lecture, if needed.  Generally, one period will be devoted to collecting data for the experiment and the next period will be devoted to laboratory reports.  Students will have two (2) full weeks to submit the finished report and must have preliminary reports available on laboratory-lecture day.

D. Practice beyond scheduled laboratory or class time

This course is writing-intensive by design.  The semester grade is based largely upon the laboratory reports submitted by the student.  These reports can be very time consuming and may take up to 20 clock hours to finish.  Students are advised not to wait until the night before a report is due to start writing the report.  Generally, students will be given two (2) weeks after an experiment has been performed to turn in the completed report.  Reports will be accepted up to one (1) week late for half-credit.  Zero credit is granted for reports more than one week late.

E. Assistance available:  Office hours, tutors, learning labs or other centers.

Department tutors are available during the regular semester in W-105.  Their schedules are posted outside of the room.  Note that tutors are not very useful for laboratory courses.

IV. Grading System

A. Tentative test dates, the type(s) of test(s) given, the value (as it related to  final grades) of each test.

There will be no intra-term tests, but students should be prepared for a final examination that is based upon one of the experiments conducted during the semester.  One scenario involves providing the students with simulated data from one of the better grasped experiments

B. Criteria used to yield a final grade

1. The course grade will be based primarily upon grades on written laboratory reports. (70%)  In general these reports will contain the following sections.

a) title page and abstract  The front page of the report should display a title, name, name of laboratory partners, date report submitted, and an abstract.  The abstract is typically 50 to 150 words long, and should summarize the results of the experiments and state any significant conclusions.  Numerical results with confidence limits should be included.

b) introduction  This section should state the purpose of the experiment and give a very brief outline of the necessary theory.  An introduction should be as concise as possible, between 100 and 300 words.

c) experimental method  This section is usually brief and merely cites the appropriate references which describe the details of the experimental procedure.  A summary statement or condensed derivation of the phenomenological equations used to analyze the raw data should be given.  A statement of the number of runs made and the conditions under which they were carried out should always be included at the end of this section.

d) results  This section should present the experimental results in full detail, making use of tables and graphs where appropriate.  No result should be excluded merely because it is unexpected or inconsistent with other data or theoretical models.  If one or more computer programs have been used in processing the data, they should be cited in the Reference section.  If appropriate, provide a complete listing of the program in an appendix.

e) error analysis  An error analysis dealing with the uncertainty in the final results due to random errors in the measurements will normally be part of the Results section.  Because of the emphasis in this course on data analysis, Error Analysis could be summarized in its own section.  The type of error analysis undertaken will depend a great deal on the nature of the experiment.

f) discussion  This is the most flexible part of the laboratory report, and students must depend heavily on their judgment for the choice of topics for discussion.  The final results of the experiment must be clearly presented.  A comparison, often in a tabular or graphic form, between the results and theoretical expectations or experimental value from the literature should be made, and any discrepancies must be commented upon.

g) references  All outside references must be cited in this section.  Students who look up a value in a handbook, for example, must cite that handbook as the source.  Two sources that must be cited in the report are the laboratory textbook and the lecture text.

2. physical chemistry journal article defense (10%)

3. final examination (20%)

C. Attendance requirements and effect upon grade

The Howard Payne University attendance policy as outlined in the Student Handbook and in the University Catalog states that a student cannot receive a passing grade in a course unless attending 75% or more of the scheduled classes or labs.  Students in this course are expected to attend every laboratory session, whether a laboratory lecture or an experiment is scheduled.

D. Any requirements regarding keeping exams and papers

Laboratory reports will not be returned to students after they have been graded in order to eliminate "fraternity" files.  Graded reports will be discussed with students on an individual basis to correct any mistakes in the reports.

E. Circumstances under which a student could be dismissed or failed in your class which is not covered in other university publications such as the Catalog or Student Handbook.

Students who repeatedly violate safety regulations which violations in the sole opinion of the instructor make them a danger to themselves and to other students working in the laboratory will not be allowed to continue in the laboratory.  Cheating will not be tolerated in any form.  All laboratory reports must be a student's own work, even though laboratory partners may have helped in the collection of data.  Students should be totally familiar with the academic and personal integrity statement in the Student Handbook for details.

V. Bibliography

A. EXPERIMENTS IN PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY, 6th ed., by Shoemaker, Garland, and Nibler.  McGraw-Hill Company, Inc., 1996.  ISBN 0-07-057074-4

B. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES AND INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL FOR CHEMISTRY 325 AND 326 (PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LABORATORY I AND II), Ver 7.0 (Fall 1986), by Dr. Michael P. Rosynek, Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University.

C. PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY:  DEVELOPING A DYNAMIC CURRICULUM, edited by Schwenz and Moore.  American Chemical Society, 1993.  ISBN 0-8412-2503-6.

D. DYNAMIC MODELS IN CHEMISTRY:  A WORKBOOK OF COMPUTER SIMULATIONS USING ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEETS,  by Atkinson, Brower, and McClard.  Edited by David S. Barkley.  N. Simonson & Company, 1990.  ISBN 0-9622556-2-9.

E. EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY, by G. Peter Matthews.  Oxford University Press, 1985.

F. LABORATORY MANUAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY, 2nd Ed., by Crockford, Nowell, Baird, and Getzen.  John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1975.  ISBN 0-471-18844-1.

G. THE CRAFT OF SCIENTIFIC WRITING, by Michael Alley.  Prentice Hall, Inc., 1987.  ISBN 0-13-188855-2.

H. THE ART OF SCIENTIFIC WRITING:  FROM STUDENT REPORTS TO PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS IN CHEMISTRY AND RELATED FIELDS, by Ebel, Bliefert, and Russey.  VCH Verlagsgesellshaft, 1987.  ISBN 0-89573-645-4.

I. SCIENTIFIC ENGLISH:  A GUIDE FOR SCIENTISTS AND OTHER PROFESSIONALS, by Robert A. Day.  The Oryx Press, 1992.  ISBN 0-89774-722-4.

J. WRITING THE LABORATORY NOTEBOOK, by Howard M. Kanare.  American Chemical Society, 1985.  ISBN 0-8412-0933-2.

I. Course Information

A. Course name

Physical Chemistry Laboratory II

CHE 3129 - Spring 2010

W 02:00 -06:00 p.m. - W207, 8

B. Major text and materials needed

Experiments in Physical Chemistry, seventh ed. by Shoemaker, Garland, and Nibler. McGraw Hill, 2002.  ISBN 0-07-057074-4

Laboratory Research Notebook  available in bookstore.

C. Professor

Dr. Derek L. Smith - W-205

Phone: 646-2502 ext. 5402

DSmith@hputx.edu

Offices Hours: as posted on office door

II. Purpose, Objectives, Assessment

A. Purpose

Students enrolled in Physical Chemistry II are, for the most part, junior or senior level chemistry or biochemistry majors.  The laboratory section of this course will be presented at a level consistent with an upper-division course designed to allow students to develop expertise in experimental physical chemistry.  The experiments chosen are not primarily concerned with techniques per se or with the analytical aspects of physical chemistry.  Rather, they are chosen (1) to illustrate and test theoretical principles and (2) to help students develop a research orientation by providing basic experience with physical measurements that yield quantitative results of important chemical interest.  The course is considered writing intensive in that great emphasis is placed upon student ability to communicate the results of their experimentation in the form of formal laboratory reports.

B. Intended outcome

Chemistry 3129 is the second-semester laboratory section of a two-semester sequence in Physical Chemistry.  Basically, the course is an extended introduction to experimental physical chemistry.  Emphasis will be placed upon communication of results and the use of computers in analyzing data.  Formal laboratory reports will be required for each experiment in which students must demonstrate an understanding of the principles behind each experiment and explain clearly the results of their measurements when compared with expected values.  At the conclusion of the course, students should be able to produce a competent formal laboratory report that is grammatically and scientifically correct.

C. Assessment of outcome

Students are to take the American Chemical Society (ACS) Physical Chemistry examination at the end of the second semester (CHE 3321 & CHE 3129).  The scores on this examination, as compared to the nationwide percentiles, will be used to help evaluate the intended purpose and outcome of this course.

III. Methods and Procedures

A. Course prerequisites

Credit form Chemistry 3311, Physical Chemistry I, the lecture section  Students dropping Chemistry 3321 before the end of the semester must also drop the laboratory, Chemistry 3129.

B. Material to be covered

A tentative laboratory schedule is given on below with suggested dates on which specific experiments should be performed and laboratory reports submitted.  Generally a four-hour laboratory is assigned to complete one experiment, although in some cases more time may be required to finish collecting data.  Some laboratory periods are designed laboratory-lecture periods where laboratory results are discussed and preliminary laboratory reports are checked.  The finished laboratory reports will be due approximately two (2) weeks after the laboratory experiments.

C. Tentative laboratory schedule

(subject to changes announced in class)

Date	Exp.	Title of experiment	report due
Jan. 13	- -	Clean-up from last semester	- - -
Jan. 20	28	Viscosity of common fluids	- - -
Jan. 27	- -	Continuation of Exp. 28	1/27
Feb. 3	48	Statistical Thermodynamics of I2 Sublimation	- - -
Feb. 10	- -	Continuation of Exp. 48	2/10
Feb. 17	34	Absorption Spectrum of a Conjugated Dye	- - -
Feb. 24	- -	Continuation of Exp. 34	2/24
Mar. 3	39	Absorption Spectrum of I2	- - -
Mar. 10		Spring break
Mar. 17	- -	Continuation of Exp. 39	3/24
Mar. 24	35	Analysis of the Infrared spectrum of a gas (SO2)	- - -
Mar. 31	- -	Continuation of experiment 35	3/31
Apr. 7	20	Method of Initial Rates:  Iodine Clock	- - -
Apr. 14	- -	Continuation of Exp. 20	4/14
Apr. 21	6	Heats of Combustion	- - -
Apr. 28	- -	Continuation of Exp. 6	4/28
May 5		Final examination

D. Overall teaching methodology

The laboratory session meet once a week, on Wednesday, from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., with the first 50 minutes or so reserved for a laboratory lecture, if needed.  Generally, one period will be devoted to collecting data for the experiment and the next period will be devoted to laboratory reports.  Students will have two (2) full weeks to submit the finished report.

E. Practice beyond scheduled laboratory or class time

This course is writing intensive by design.  The semester grade is based entirely on the laboratory reports turned in by the student.  These reports can be very time consuming and may take up to 20 clock hours to finish.  Students are advised not to wait until the night before a report is due to start writing the report.  Generally, students will be given two (2) weeks after an experiment has been performed to turn in a completed report.

F. Assistance available

Dr. Smith is available according to the schedules posted by his office door.

IV. Grading System

The bulk of the term grade is based upon the reports presented at the conclusion of each experiment.  Each student will be graded upon his fulfillment of the assigned role during the course of the experiment.  Therefore, there is no certainty that all students will receive the same grade for a given experiment.  Each student’s efficacy will be assessed by personal observation and polling among the members of the group.  A final examination that reviews the principles and techniques investigated will be given in accordance with the Final Examination schedule.

A. Grading criteria

1. course grade

The semester grade will be determined using the following weighted sections:

Laboratory Reports	75%
Final Examination	25%

2. laboratory report

a) title page and abstract.

The front page of the report should display a title, name, name of laboratory partners, date report submitted, and an abstract.  The abstract is typically 50 to 150 words long and should summarize the results of the experiments and state any significant conclusions.  Numerical results with confidence limits should be included.

b) introduction

This section should state the purpose of the experiment and give a very brief outline of the necessary theory.  The introduction should be as concise as possible—between 100 and 300 words.

c) experimental method

This section is usually brief and merely cites the appropriate references, which describe the details of the experimental procedure. A summary statement or condensed derivation of the phenomenological equations used to analyze the raw data should be given.   A statement of the number of runs made and the conditions under which they were carried out should always be included at the end of this session.

d) results

This section should present the experimental results in full detail, making use of tables and graphs where appropriate.  No result should be excluded merely because it is unexpected or inconsistent with other data or theoretical models.  If one or more computer programs have been used in processing the data, they should be cited in the reference section.  If appropriate, provide a complete listing of the program in an appendix.

e) error analysis

An error analysis dealing with the uncertainty in the final results due to random errors in the measurements will normally be part of the results section.  Because of the emphasis in this course on data analysis, Error Analysis could be summarized in its own section.  The type of error analysis undertaken will depend a great deal on the nature of the experiment.

f) discussion

This is the most flexible part of the laboratory report, and students must depend heavily on their judgment for the choice of topics for discussion.  The final results of the experiment must be clearly presented.  A comparison, often in a tabular or graphic form, between the results and theoretical expectations or experimental value from the literature should be made, and any discrepancies must be commented upon.

g) references

All outside references must be cited in this section.  Students who look up a value in a handbook, for example, must cite that Handbook as the source.  Two sources that must be cited in the report are the laboratory textbook and the lecture text.

B. Attendance

The Howard Payne University attendance policy as outlined in the student handbook and in the university catalog states that a student cannot receive a passing grade in the course unless attending 75% or more of the scheduled classes or laboratories.  Students in this course are expected to attend every laboratory session, whether a laboratory lecture or an experiment is scheduled.  It is possible, however, for students to perform an experiment, i.e. collect data, on a day other than Wednesday with the laboratory instructor's advance approval.  The only criterion in this case is that the laboratory report must be submitted on time, i.e., the date given on page 2 of this syllabus.

C. Any requirements regarding keeping papers

Since all students are expected to record observations and write reports in the laboratory notebook, all work will be recorded and retained by the students at the conclusion of the semester.

D. Dismissal

Students who repeatedly violate safety regulations, which breach in the sole opinion of the instructor makes them a danger to themselves and to other students working in the laboratory, will not be allowed to continue in the laboratory.  CHEATING WILL NOT BE TOLERATED IN ANY FORM.  All laboratory reports must be a student’s own work, even though laboratory partners may have helped in the collection of data.  Students should be totally familiar with the academic and personal integrity statement in the Student Handbook for details.

V. Bibliographic Resources

A. Physical Chemistry: Developing a Dynamic Curriculum, edited by Schwenz and Moore.  American Chemical Society, 1993  ISBN 0-8412-2503-6

B. Dynamic Models in Chemistry: A Workbook of Computer Simulations Using Electronic Spreadsheets, by Atkinson, Brower, and McClard. Edited by David S. Barkley.  N. Simonson & Company, 1990  ISBN 0-9622556-2-9

C. Experimental Physical Chemistry, by G. Peter Matthews. Oxford University Press, 1985

D. Laboratory Manual of Physical Chemistry, 2 ed., by Crockford, Nowell, Baird, and Getzen.  John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1975  ISBN 0-471-18844-1

E. The Craft of Scientific Writing, by Michael Alley.  Prentice Hall, Inc. 1987  ISBN 0-673-39786-6.

F. The Art of Scientific Writing: From Student Reports to Professional Publications in Chemistry and Related Fields.  by Ebel, Bliefert and Russey  VCH Verlagsgesellshaft, 1987  ISBN 0-89573-645-4

G. Scientific English: A Guide for Scientists and Other Professionals, by Robert A. Day  The Oryx Press, 1992  ISBN 0-89774-722-4

H. Writing the Laboratory Notebook, by Howard M. Kanare.  American Chemical Society, 1985  ISBN 0-8412-093-2

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[1] This sequence is subject to change as the semester progresses.  Students are encouraged to compare this version of the syllabus with the latest version available on-line.