General information
CH101/103 General Chemistry, Spring 2017
http://people.bu.edu/keyes/ch101

Welcome to CH101/103, General Chemistry. Please read the Syllabus and Lab Syllabus, and sign up for Sapling and Piazza, immediately. This page will be updated, and new Homework assignments will be posted, on Sundays (or sometimes Sat night), starting 1/22. The first mini-quiz will be on 1/24. Discussion starts 1/26.

Syllabus

All of the details of the course are in the course Syllabus.

Lab Syllabus

All of the details of the Lab are in the LabSyllabus.

Office Hours

All of the course staff will hold Office Hours. Somehow, students who come to Office Hours tend to do very well.

Homework Problems

Problems will be assigned and graded via Sapling. Much of the Discussion will be about the problems. You are strongly urged to do as many other problems as you can. If you have difficulty, that is what Discussions, Piazza and Office Hours are for.

Attention! Check these Announcements for weekly updates.

• First week. We will begin with the material on units in Appendix 1B and continue with Fundamentals, for a review of high school chemistry. With just one Lecture we won't get too far. The Math in Fundamentals will be covered in Discussion. If this is not easy for you, it is a signal that you will have to work very hard! We'll only briefly mention sections D and G in Lecture, and ask you to read them on your own, and we'll skip sections I, J and K until their content appears later in the book. Discussions start second week, 1/26, with a Quiz on the Syllabus. Note that the Atkins book website has a "Fundamentals diagnostic quiz". It might be a good learning aid and provide some self-assessment. Please ask questions in Lecture, including any difficulties you might have with the assigned problems.
• Week of 1/23. We aim to finish Fundamentals, skipping or very briefly mentioning the Sections indicated above; quiz in Discussion on the Syllabus and first clicker mini-quiz in Tu Lecture. That may be a bit ambitious, perhaps we won't get through Sec. M.
• Week of 1/30. We finish Fundamentals L and M and continue with Focus 1. The original plan was to finish Focus 1.C, but due to Afra's presentation problem on Tu we will only get to maybe halfway through 1.B. I've moved the Sapling deadline up to next Wed to compensate. The mini-quiz will be Th. As we introduce quantum mechanics and atomic spectra, good topics for a talk will appear. Anyone want to talk about the quantum revolution? And how Avogadro found his number is a very good topic. Because a number of students did not have registered clickers, you will not be graded on last week's mini quiz.
• Week of 2/6. Discussion quiz this week and we're way overdue for a talk. Demo on line spectra Tu, so mini will be on Th. I hope to finish Focus 1.D.4. Remember, these are only estimates. Your responsibility is for what we actually cover.
• Week of 2/13. We finish Focus 1, finally, skipping 1F.6 - 1F.8. Discussion quiz this week. Mini quiz in both Lectures.
• Week of 2/20. First exam Th in COM 101, no class Tu. No Sapling this week. No Discussion this week. The exam will be part numerical problems and part "fill in the blanks" questions. All equations and constants will be given. Focus on understanding and problem solving, not memorizing.
• Week of 2/27. The plan is to cover Focus 2A-2D, skipping 2D.2. Sapling deadline is 3/11 but I suggest ignoring the extra time as you won't want to do homework over the break. TK available as usual monday but not available the rest of the week.
• Week of 3/13. We will get through Focus 2F, and maybe a little into 2G, not sure. Discussion Quiz this week. In answering the Sapling questions, note that we will skip hybrid orbitals built from d orbitals, so they are never the answer. We have got to get the student talks going! Volunteer, let us get to know you, learn a topic, practice for all the talks and job interviews you will have to give in the future etc.

  Oops, another snow day for Tu. So let's say we'll get through 2E, and maybe a little into 2F, on Th. That may be too ambitious as we will have the mini quiz on Th, and maybe even our first talk, yea!

• Week of 3/20. We finally finish Focus 2, and we finally have some talks.
• Week of 3/27. A little more to finish with MO theory, then we start Focus 3, Gases, aiming to get into Focus 3E. It was great to get the talks started, and we will have more.
• Week of 4/3. Second hour exam Tu. No Sapling. We finish Focus 3E and 3F, with a very brief discussion of liquid structure 3G.1 and 3G.2. We're skipping the topics in Focus 3 after 3G.2 and I'd be very happy to have a talk on the skipped topics. TK will not be available monday.
• Week of 4/10. Didn't finish 3F, so we do and have the above-mentioned very brief discussion of liquid structure 3G.1 and 3G.2. We're skipping the topics in Focus 3 after 3G.2 and they make great Talk topics. I expect to get somewhere in Focus 4B and we will have some Talks. Quiz this week.
• Week of 4/17. Quiz this week. Happy Marathon weekend. We continue with Focus 4, Thermodynamics, and I expect to get somewhere into 4D, Thermochemistry. Despite the snow days we have plenty of time to finish our goal, which is to finish 4E, and can go slow and have lots of talks.
• Week of 4/24. Last full week. We will come close to finishing the course material, which goes through Focus 4E. We'll go slow, have lots of talks, and cover anything we miss in the final lecture on 5/2.

  I'm extremely disappointed with the use of Piazza by this class. It's almost entirely about grading and procedures with almost nothing about the basic ideas of chemistry. Please, think about the material, and when you don't understand something, ask a question.

• Week of 5/1. No more Sapling. Last class Tu will be an all-talk mini-symposium. Speakers will have to be very brief, aiming for 5 min.

  I remain extremely disappointed with the use of Piazza by this class. It's almost entirely about grading and procedures with almost nothing about the basic ideas of chemistry. I'm not very motivated to answer more "what will be on the exam" questions when there are no science questions. Please, think about the material, and when you don't understand something, ask a question.

• Week of 5/8. Exam Fri 5/12 6:00-8:00 PM in HAR 105. The exam will be like an hour exam on the old material plus an hour exam on the new material. TK is not holding regular office hours but will probably be available 11-12 MW in 513 SCI. As the semester is over it's too late to fulfill the OH requirement, but you can get your Chemistry questions answered.