CHEM 3170: Real World Chemistry

Part I of the Real World Trilogy

CAST:
Dr. Koni Stone, koni@chem.csustan.edu, S213, 667-3570
Dr. John Mayer, JMayer@stan.csustan.edu, P219, 667-3773
Dr. Steven Filling, steven@panoptic.csustan.edu, D15, 667-3451
~20 Students

Based on the text developed by the American Chemical Society and Edited by Conrad Stanitski, Chemistry in Context: Applying Chemistry to Society.
The text is available at Addall, a text book locater service. The ISBN number is 0-697-36024-5.

Since this is a general education class there are the following additional GE goals:

1. Subject Knowledge. To provide an educational experience that will enhance student's understanding of the discipline's basic principles, methodologies, and perspectives. The content for this class is chemistry as it applies to living systems.  Students will take quizzes and work on activities in class in order to prepare for 2 midterm exams.  Students mastery of the content will be assessed with a comprehensive final exam.
2. Communication. To provide an educational experience that will enhance the ability to communicate. Students will write a 4-5 page research paper and work in groups to present information that they have learned from their research papers.  Students will also be actively involved in problem based and directed inquiry based learning activities that will require them to work in groups.  Hence, their small group interaction communication skills will be enhanced.
3. Inquiry and Critical Thinking. To provide an educational experience that will enhance critical thinking skills and will contribute to continuous inquiry and life-long learning.  (see #4 below)
4. Information Retrieval and Evaluation. To provide an educational experience that will enhance the ability to find, understand, examine critically, and use information from various sources. Students will do independent research on a topic that they select from a pre-approved list.  (Alternatively, students may choose another topic, in consultation with Dr. Stone.)  They will be required to think critically about the information they retrieve and then synthesize their papers based upon their research.
5. Interdisciplinary Relationships. To provide an educational experience that will enhance students' understanding of a discipline's interrelationships with other disciplines.  Chemistry is considered to be the central science.  While environmental topics will be emphasized, the connections to physics, biology, and earth science will be introduced.  For example, autoclaves work because of the direct relationship between pressure and temperature.  As pressure is increased, the temperature of steam increases.  This high temperature steam can then be used to sterilize glassware for microbiology experiments.
6. Global or Multicultural Perspectives. To provide an educational experience that will enhance the ability to look at issues from multiple perspectives and/or that will describe a discipline's impact on or connection to global issues.  Global topics will be introduced, such as the role of humans in global warming.  For example, long hot showers and SUV's require burning fossil fuels, this combustion reaction increases levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.  Carbon dioxide traps heat in the earth's atmosphere by absorbing infrared radiation.  Also, some populations have higher rates of genetic anomalies.  Sickle cell anemia results from a single amino acid change in a hemoglobin molecule.  This disease is most prevalent among people with ancestors that were originally from lands that are close to the equator where there are lots of mosquitoes!  It is thought that a mild form of the disease protects people from malaria infection.

Any change of grading option (CR/NC or letter grade) must be made by submitting an Add/Drop form to A&R by October 1st. You must receive 70% of the total points in order to receive a CR if you have selected the CR/NC grading option. Grading options can not be changed after October 1st.

Quizzes and Activities will be based upon the homework. Exams will be based on the quiz questions, readings, news reports and activities. Most questions will be short answer, some will involve calcuations. We will be dealing with really big and incredibly small numbers, thus you should acquire a calculator that has scientific notation. There will be a review for the comprehensive final exam on Reading Day (December 10th) at 11:15.

Real World News: These brief [5-10 minutes] presentations are intended to expose class members to current issues in the assigned topic area. Your task is to review various media sources during your assigned week and then select an article that is relevant to this course. You may need to do some further research to fully understand the article. Presentations will be evaluated based upon the source of your article (Economist >>> ModBee Society page), your explanation of the article and its connection to the content of this course, and the your responses to questions/comments from your classmates. You will need to provide a copy of your selected article to your instructor one class period before your scheduled report. The sign-up sheet will be available the first class period.

Environmental Topic Paper: Choose a topic from the list provided on the www. Research this topic using www and library resources. In your 4-5 page typed paper, clearly define the environmental problem, describe the related chemistry and the issues that are involved. Only four persons will be able to write on each topic, so sign-up quick, while supplies last. Note: All papers must be typed in a font that has 10-12 characters per inch.

Excellent sources of information are: the library (Chemical and Engineering News, Science, Nature, American Scientist, Science News, Down to Earth), the Internet, and newspapers. Encyclopedias and our text book do not count as references. After finding at least three sources of information about the environmental problem of your choice, condense the information from those sources into a 4-5 page research paper. Sources must be cited in the text, and listed in the bibliography (you may be requested to provide copies of your sources, so do not throw them away until your paper has been returned, failure to provide copies of your references upon request will result in an automatic "F" for the assignment.) For materials that were published on the world wide web(www), please report the URL address of the site for the information.

The audience for this paper are the other students in the CHEM 3170 class. Therefore, terms need to be defined and concepts must be simplified. Explain the concepts in your own words, do not lift phrases from the research paper and put quotes around them. There should be no quotations in any of these papers. The paper should be written in a style that is similar to scientific writing. There should be no first person and most sentences should use the passive voice. Science writing puts the emphasis on the data, (not on the writer) to be as objective as possible about the facts.
Examples

Active voice: I broke the test tube.
Passive voice: The test tube was broken.

In the first example, credit is given to the author for increasing the entropy in the universe. The second example just states the facts.

Again, students are encouraged to consult the instructor for additional guidance. This assignment is designed to encourage exploration of the media and library resources for information about environmental chemistry. Also students will gain an appreciation for writing a paper in "scientific style". Length: 4-5 pages.

The following categories will be used to assess your paper:

Late papers will be penalized 10% per 24 hour period. Papers may be submitted electronically.

Group Presentations: Groups (3-4 persons) will be assembled according the choice of their environmental problem papers. The group will organize a brief (10-15 minute presentation) to educate the rest of the class and then answer questions from the class (~10 minutes). The presentation should include a brief description of the problem and the group's suggestion for a solution. These presentations will be made during the last two days of class: December 3rd and 5th. There will be a sign-up list on the www for the project topics. You will be expected to present the chemistry that is involved in the environmental issue, and you will be graded on the oral presentation based upon the overall organization and quality of the presentation.

Service Based Learning: You may select one of the following educational experiences:
1. Assist with Science night at Osborn Elementary, October 17th 5-9, with one preparation session. The preparation sessions are Tues, Oct 8 5:30-8 and Friday, October 11 from 1:30-4.
2. Plant trees at the Cosumnes River Habitat Restoration Project .
3. Volunteer at the Stanislaus County Household Hazardous Waste Center.
4. Participate in Take Pride in Turlock, Saturday, October 26th, all day.

WWW and Email: Students are required to subscribe themselves to the class mailing list [3170@panopticon.csustan.edu]. Changes in topics or assignments will be emailed to this list. To subscribe, send an email [from whatever account you wish to receive course-related emails at] to: minimalist@panopticon.csustan.edu with a subject line of: subscribe3170. If you are concerned about this assignment, please see your Instructor immediately. All course announcements andhomework assignments will be posted on the www. If you do not know how to get to the www, please see K. Stone or S. Filling immediately. Grades will not be posted, however you can receive information about your grades via Email. Emails to your instructor need to contain [3170] in the subject line. This is so that we can respond quickly to students.

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