CHEM 1000 Syllabus

CHEM 1000 Syllabus

Welcome to CHEM 1000. Taking this class is designed to do one thing for the students who are enrolled: getting you ready for CHEM 1320. This class has been developed to get students “ready for the fight” and this is needed for some students who either had high school chemistry a while back and they need the review/practice or for student who have never taken high school chemistry. As a rule of measure, most students that do well in this class find CHEM 1320 challenging but certainly “doable”.

That being said, taking this class in an 8 week online format is an ambitious undertaking. There are two separate online homework/assessment tools you will need to keep up on AND you are also expected to work problems from the end of each chapter. Total time for ALEKS can vary from 30 hours for the semester to 70 hours per semester. Sapling Homework is expected to take 2-4 hours per week. End of chapter questions could take 3 hours per week. A commitment of 17+ hours per week is not unreasonable.

Studying chemistry is a lot like studying a foreign language: there are specific rules and some items that MUST be memorized. Also, you are learning chemistry for the long-term. Studying for an exam must be done with an eye on long term learning; memorizing only to forget everything you are doing so you can relearn it for the next exercise will cause you lots of pain long term. We expect you to KNOW this material when you are finished with it so that you can apply it to the next chemistry class. Most students have been exposed to chemistry prior to taking this class, but it was studied with the idea of taking the exam and forgetting the material.

When you read the book (an expected part of the course), don’t read the chapter all the way through as if it were a novel. Read the book in small sections. Work through the examples and please be aware that we do not use all of each chapter AND we do not use every chapter in the book. Refer to https://web.coas.missouri.edu/~chemweb/chem1000/online.shtml and follow the order of information there.

The

grading

scale

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on

the

next

page.

Grading:

This scale is adjustable but will not be more stringent than:

GRADE SCALE FOR SS15 CHEM 1000 / low / high
A+ / 96 / 100+
A / 89 / 95.999
A- / 86 / 88.999
B+ / 83 / 85.999
B / 77 / 82.999
B- / 73 / 76.999
C+ / 70 / 72.999
C / 64 / 69.999
C- / 61 / 63.999
D+ / 58 / 60.999
D / 50 / 57.999
F / 0 / 49.999

Also, there is no rounding. If you have an 85.5, this is a B+. If you have an 85.88, this is ALSO a B+. A grade of A- starts at 86.00

The grades for ALEKS and Sapling will be stored in the vendor’s page and added to Blackboard weekly.

Assistance in this course: I have recorded 50+ Tegrity topic guides to assist you in working problems. Another good site is Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/)

Deadlines: These are posted in both in the ALEKS/Sapling vendor’s pages and the course webpage.

Contacting me: My office hours are posted under the “home” tab. I STRONGLY recommend coming in in person to work problems. If you want help working problems, you will need to do this on through the Tegrity page.

Click on the person icon and click on my name and we can chat online.

Academic Dishonesty

Academic integrity is fundamental to the activities and principles of a university. All members of the academic community must be confident that each person's work has been responsibly and honorably acquired, developed, and presented. Any effort to gain an advantage not given to all students is dishonest whether or not the effort is successful. The academic community regards breaches of the academic integrity rules as extremely serious matters. Sanctions for such a breach may include academic sanctions from the instructor, including failing the course for any violation, to disciplinary sanctions ranging from probation to expulsion. When in doubt about plagiarism, paraphrasing, quoting, collaboration, or any other form of cheating, consult the course instructor.

Students with Disabilities:

If you anticipate barriers related to the format or requirements of this course, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need to make arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please let me know as soon as possible.

If disability related accommodations are necessary (for example, a note taker, extended time on exams, captioning), please register with the MU Disability Center, S5 Memorial Union, 573-882-4696, and then notify me of your eligibility for reasonable accommodations.

Intellectual Pluralism

The University community welcomes intellectual diversity and respects student rights. Students who have questions or concerns regarding the atmosphere in this class (including respect for diverse opinions) may contact the departmental chair or divisional director; the director of the Office of Students Rights and Responsibilities; the MU Equity Office, or .

All students will have the opportunity to submit an anonymous evaluation of the instructor(s) at the end of the course.