Ch 205 Course Policies

Required Items: The Official Laboratory Research Notebook, safety glasses, laboratory coat (all are available at the SOU Bookstore)and a couple of 3.5" diskettes or a USB flashdrive on which to save lab data.

Corequisites: Ch 205 must be taken concurrently with Ch 202. Please note that a passing grade (C- or better) in Ch 204 is required for students moving to Ch 205 in the Winter term.

Grades: Grades will be based on the total points earned in the course. Each lab report is worth 100 points, and the final exam is worth 150 points. The grading scheme is flexible, but approximate grade cutoffs will be 90% of the points for A's, 80% for B's, 70% for C's, and 60% for D's.

Guidelines: Each class will meet initially in a classroom for 30-45 minutes. This time will be used for clarifications of the procedure. Students are responsible for reading the experiment and entering specific information in their lab notebooks before coming to class. You will not be allowed to conduct the experiment if you miss the session or the required information has not been entered in your notebook. This leadoff session will be followed by 3 hours of work in the laboratory. All work must be completed by the end of this three hours - no extra time will be allowed. Poorly prepared students will have trouble completing the assignment in the scheduled time. At the end of the laboratory session, we will reassemble in a classroom for a 30-minute discussion of the lab, including how to handle the data and write up the report. Attendance at this session is mandatory to receive a grade for the experiment.

Lab Safety: Safety glasses and lab coats are required at all times in the laboratory. These items may be purchased at the bookstore and should be kept in your drawer in the lab. No open-toed or opened-backed shoes (e.g. sandals, flip flops, etc.) are permitted in the lab - you will be sent home to get proper footwear if you show up to lab in sandals. No food or drink is permitted in the laboratory - no exceptions. Backpacks, coats, etc. must be hung on the racks provided at the rear of the lab and not left where they may block the aisles. Other considerations with regards to lab safety will be addressed by your instructor during the first week and during weekly lab meetings. Please note that repeated safety violations will result in your being asked to leave the lab (therefore you'll receive a grade of zero on that particular report). Repeated serious safety violations may result in your being dropped from the course.

Laboratory Notebook: All observations should be entered directly into the Official Laboratory Notebook in ink. If you make an error, draw a line through the entry, and write it again; don't try to erase, or try to write over the original entry. Include a table of contents in the front. The introduction, lab procedure, and an outline of data to be collected must be entered before you come to lab each week, and the duplicate page from your notebook will be collected at the beginning of the lab period. You will not be admitted to class unless you have completed this pre-lab writeup in your notebook.  At the end of each lab period you will hand in the duplicate data page(s) from your notebook. Ten points of each lab grade will be based upon the quality of your notebook pages.

Lab Reports: You will be given explicit instructions on expectations for each lab report. The most common causes of poor scores are failure to turn in reports on time, and failure to follow the required format. Guidelines for format and content are contained in the General Chemistry Lab Manual on page 7, and examples of good and bad reports are given on pages 10 and 13, respectively.

All reports must be word processed and all graphs must be computer generated. Reports are due at the beginning of the next lab period. Late reports may receive a maximum of 80 points (up to one week late). Reports will not be accepted more than one week late. You are urged to begin work on your lab report as soon as possible after your lab section has met and you've collected your lab data. You have a week to produce a report so there is absolutely no reason to wait until 30 minutes before your lab section next meets to finish your work!

Feel free to work with and consult with your classmates in making calculations, plots, etc., but plagiarism is unacceptable. According to the 2005 SOU Student Handbook under Academic Standards: "Plagiarism is defined as knowingly submitting the language, ideas, thoughts, or work of another author as one's original work, or allowing work to be used in this fashion." In the case of two students submitting identical or very slightly altered but essentially identical lab reports, both students will receive grades of zero for that particular report. Disputes on this point will be referred to the Dean of Students' Office, and copies of the disputed lab reports will be forwarded to the Dean of Students for review.

Lab reports will be graded on the following items:

• Technical content - how well did you understand the procedure, the data analysis/calculations, and the conclusions? Is this reflected in your report?
• Error analysis - in the event that you have a "known" value to which to compare your results, be able to give explicit, verifiable explanations for disagreement.
• Adherence to format - Are there clearly delineated sections (Intro/Methods/Results/Discussion) in the paper? Are equations numbered and referred to? Are tables and figures labelled with proper captions and properly referred to? Are references properly cited?
• Grammatical content - is the writing appropriate for a college-level course? Are verb tenses in agreement (i.e., past tense)? Are all sentences complete? Are personal pronouns absent?

Attendance: Please contact the instructor if illness prevents you from attending your lab session. You are not allowed to attend a different lab section without the written permission of both your own lab instructor and the instructor of the other section. Permission is not automatic, and depends upon the reason for your request, and the number of available spaces in the other lab section. Permission is obtained by printing out the form found at this link, and bringing it to the two instructors for signatures. The instructor reserves the right to determine what constitutes an emergency.

Check-out: You must check out of your lab drawer and return your key to the Chemistry storeroom by the end of the term if you drop the course, or during the normal checkout time at the end of the term. If you do not check out of your lab drawer and return your key to the storeroom by the last day of finals week, you will be assessed a $50 fee to cover the cost of cleaning the drawer and re-keying the lock.

SOU academic support statement

If you are in need of academic support because of a documented disability (whether it is psychiatric, learning, mobility, health related, or sensory), you may be eligible for academic accommodations through disability services for students. Contact Disability Services for Students; Director, DSS; 552-6213; or schedule an appointment in person at the ACCESS Center, Stevenson Union, Lower Level.

This page is maintained by The Ch 205 Web Staff 

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