Syllabus components:

 

Welcome to CH201 Quantitative Analytical Chemistry Lab. This course provides a one semester survey of quantitative laboratory techniques, instrumental methods, and approaches to data analysis used in quantitative analytical chemistry. Additionally, advanced topics relevant to upper-division chemistry and biochemistry courses are discussed. Students must have completed CH102 before taking this course. By the end of the course the students will (i) be able to properly use analytical glassware and associated lab equipment, (ii) understand the basic principles and operation of absorption spectrophotometers, (iii) be able to use statistics and graphing software to analyze experimental data, (iv) understand the chemical principles behind various analytical methods including gravimetric analysis, acid/base titrations, buffers, and complex ions, and (v) have a good foundation in the process of scientific communication -- preparing tables and figures, outlining an argument, and preparing a scientific report. This syllabus is designed to answer many questions you may have.

 

Course staff

This course is given by Professor Binyomin Abrams:

The lab is taught by John Cerritelli (TF) and Marisa (LA).

All members of the course staff are available for consultation during their office hours and by appointment. All students are welcome and encouraged to attend any of the office hours listed to discuss lab work and ask questions about the lab portion of the course (questions about the lecture/discussion portions of the course should be directed to those instructors).

Emergency questions that you may have about the lab portion of the course can be sent to ch201-questions@bu.edu. E-mails sent to this address will reach all of the course staff simultaneously.

Personal and sensitive matters should emailed directly to the course instructor.

 

Texts and equipment

Required materials

The required materials for the course are available at the Boston University Bookstore:

  1. Laboratory notebook, Hayden McNeil Publishing, ISBN 1-930882-23-8.
  2. Lab coat
  3. Approved face-forming safety goggles (UVEX Futura). Safety glasses are not acceptable.
  4. Scientific (non-graphing, non-programmable) calculator (recommended: http://goo.gl/uRZQ8K).
  5. Top Hat account (see below)

The lab manual for CH201 is provided to students and posted on Blackboard.

All of the above items are required by all students. You must have procured these items before the first lab session. Additionally, you may find it useful to have your general chemistry textbook available for reference.

Classroom response system and other electronic devices in lecture/discussion

We will be using Top Hat for in-class engagement, pre-lecture work, and other assessment.

You will be able to submit answers to in-class questions using Apple or Android smartphones and tablets. The course join code for the lab portion of CH201 in Summer 2024 is 418912 and your account for Top Hat must use your BU email address (ending in @bu.edu) in order for you to get credit for your work on Top Hat.

We will use Top Hat for classroom engagement, periodic attendance, and some quizzes; that said, recent studies (click here) have shown that taking notes with electronic devices (computers, tablets, etc.) leads to lower performance by students on exams. For this reason, we highly recommend that you take notes using the traditional pen and paper mode, and we do not permit computers in class. Similarly, while you will use your cellphones or tablets for answering Top Hat questions, make sure to keep them out but down when they are not in use so that you might best benefit from the lectures.

 

BU Hub Learning Outcomes

Students completing CH201 will received the Research and Information Literacy BU Hub unit. The following section describes the course learning objectives relating to the BU Hub.

Research and Information Literacy

Students in CH201 work closely with their graduate teaching fellow who mentors them in their research-based communication skills relating to their laboratory experiments. Each experiment requires students to work with the scientific literature to extend their learning and present their arguments. The Teaching fellows guide and assess the students’ engagement with the scientific literature in their writing, and work with the students to hone those research skills. In addition to chemical understanding and analysis, papers writing in CH201 are evaluated for their level of engagement with primary and secondary sources. These efforts represent a continued expectation from analogous efforts that started during WR150.

As part of the lab curriculum described in detail in the schedule, students will engage in writing workshops that guide the students in navigating the scientific literature, how to use databases like SciFinder scholar and ISI Web of Science, how to effectively use reference managers, how to identify relevant and strong sources, and how to incorporate that research into their writing. Students: (1) select and use chemistry-specific information search methodologies to obtain information for use in addressing their research problems of interest, and (2) develop an understanding of the research process and all necessary component parts.

 

Important Information

Communication

Periodic e-mails will be sent to the entire class using the BU-link (registrar’s online information system). Make sure that you check your BU e-mail address regularly so that you do not miss any important messages.

Schedule

The detailed course schedule can be found here. The course consists of two required components:

  • Lectures: Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-3:30pm in SCI 109
  • Labs: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9am-1pm in SCI 153

Students are required to attend all of the lab meetings of their registered section and all lectures (engagement in lecture will count towards your course score). Recorded lectures will be posted to the Echocenter in the course blackboard website.

Professional Standards: Safety, course policies, and academic conduct

A discussion of professional standards (safety guidelines, course pedagogy, and course-specific policies) can be found in the Course Policies section of this website and in the first part of your lab manual. All students are required to read through those sections before the beginning of the first experiment and to abide by all of the regulations and policies. Additionally, helpful guidelines for preparing course assignments and laboratory notebooks are presented in the Resources section of the website and in the first section of the lab manual. All students are responsible for following maintaining the appropriate Professional Standards (including all course policies and regulations) at all times.

Included in Professional Standards, all students at Boston University are expected to maintain high standards of academic honesty and integrity. Details about academic integrity, including specific details about laboratory courses, are presented in the Course Policies section of this website and the first part of the course lab manual. All students are required to read through those sections before the beginning of the first experiment. All students at Boston University are expected to maintain high standards of academic honesty and integrity. The Chemistry Department treats cheating with zero tolerance. Here, cheating refers to any violation of the student academic conduct code. There are no small infractions. All instances of misconduct will be reported to the Dean's office. It is the responsibility of every student to be aware of the Academic Conduct Code’s contents and to abide by its provisions, as detailed at:

http://www.bu.edu/academics/resources/academic-conduct-code/

 

Lab components and assessment

Pre-lab assignments

Pre-lab assignments are at the end of the each lab in the lab manual. The completed sheets must be printed and submitted to the supervising TF before the beginning of the lab section. Late pre-labs are not accepted. In general, pre-lab assignments will typically consist of a few calculations, or questions, that are relevant to the lab that is about to be performed. Doing well on these assignments is a good indicator of preparedness for the lab - make sure to work on them in advance (and it is advisable to keep copies of your work for reference when doing the post-lab).

Lab notebooks

Use of the lab manual in the lab is not permitted during the experiment (the lab manual may be used during analysis after all experimentation is complete); students arriving without an appropriately-prepared notebook will not be allowed to complete the lab. All work in the lab must be done directly from your notebook – the correct academic, and industrial, lab practice. The duplicate notebook pages must be submitted before leaving the lab, and the use of proper lab notebook technique will be part of your assessments. Detailed instructions for preparing lab notebooks to be used in lab can be found in the Resources section of the website and in the first section of the lab manual. (Exceptions: the lab manual may be used for labs 1 and 5.)

Post-lab assignments

Post-labs are submitted on Blackboard and are due at the times listed in the schedule (usually the day following the experiment at 7pm -- exceptions and extensions are listed in the schedule). In some cases, the system will take submissions after the due date. Late submissions will either not be graded or will receive a (substantial) penalty.

  • These assignments will typically be a series of questions related to the lab and your data. Detailed instructions and guidelines for preparing post-lab assignments can be found in in the Resources section of the website and in the first section of the lab manual. Students names and section numbers need to be included on all pages of the submission.
  • Post-lab assignments will be evaluated on three criteria: (A) data analysis; (B) chemical understanding; and (C) requirements, formatting, and standards. Self-assessment rubrics (to help guide your work) are provided on Blackboard under Course Documents.
  • The TF will provide detailed feedback on the quality of the submitted assignments broken down by the three categories listed above. Instructions for how to access and interpret the feedback are posted on Blackboard under Course Documents.

Important note about receipts from Turnitin: Turnitin will send a confirmation email that your submission has been received. Make sure that you've received this email, or your assignment has not been received. Also, make sure to only submit PDF files or Turnitin will cause major (bad) structural changes to your paper -- submitting a PDF makes it so that the instructor will evaluate the paper as you intended them to see it.

Quizzes

There will be three quizzes in CH201. They will cover the material covered in lecture, the lab manual, in the assigned textbook readings, and in the laboratory (including post-lab assignments). Late arrivals will not be allowed extra time for the quizzes. Quizzes are only given at the scheduled time -- a missed quiz counts as a 0. There are no exams in CH201.

Lab Practical

The lab practical is a special in-lab exercise designed to evaluate you on your learning of proper lab techniques, basic statistical analysis, and analytical thinking. Details will be supplied at a later date.

 

Grading

Overall lab grade

The approximate breakdown of the points in CH201 is:

Component Points
Post-lab assignments 550
Performance in lab and pre-lab assignments 150
TopHat (pre-lecture assignments and in-lecture engagement) 100
Quizzes 100
Lab practical 100

Letter grades are not assigned to individual labs. You will receive substantial feedback, guidance, and evaluation on each post-lab assignment that you submit. Your teaching fellow will also clearly indicate their assessment of the quality of the work:

  • High-quality work with correct analysis, good chemical understanding, and that follows the guidelines provided is said to be great work that meets our expectations (this is the goal);
  • Work that is good but still needs some improvement will typically be said to have room for growth;
  • If your instructor finds too many mistakes in the work then they will likely rate it as needing substantial improvement; and
  • Work that is substantially below the standards appropriate for the course is unacceptable.
  • Occasionally, students will display a level of mastery of the material that is above and beyond the scope of the course. In these cases, the teaching fellow will note that the work exceeds their expectations -- this is highly praiseworthy work (though not necessary to achieve the highest grade in CH201).

Course letter grades are assigned based on your total score for the course. Do not expect “High School”-type scores; in other words, an “A” is not a 93, an “A-” is not a 90, etc. Moreover, there can be a relatively steep learning curve when starting analytical chemistry. The most important thing is that you should work as hard as you can and strive to continually improve your learning and performance throughout the course.

In general, an “A” grade represents excellence and consistently doing great work that meets the expectations of the course on assignments -- i.e., mastering the course material; a “B” corresponds to a very good command of the material, which means that the work is a mixture of meeting the course expectations or having room for growth; a “C” represents being consistently needing growth or needing substantial improvement; and a “D” corresponds to insufficient mastery of the course material. In all of these cases, your work on all components of the course will be considered, including: post-lab assignments, pre-lab assignments, notebook pages, data quality, and participation and performance.

Your teaching fellow will meet with you periodically throughout the course to discuss your progress in the course, and give you additional feedback and guidance. We do not expect students to enter the course with mastery of the material -- that's why you're taking the class; rather, we expect students to continue to grow and apply new and more advanced skills as the course progresses.

Performance

Your performance during the labs will be evaluated by your lab instructor (TF). These assessments will include proper lab etiquette, following course policies, demonstrating proficiency with techniques that are taught, and instrumentation use. It is important to remember that you should work efficiently and safely at all times. Exceptional performance will lead to an increased assessment score. Infractions in lab safety and etiquette will result in a lowered assessment score. Repeated infractions may result in your ejection from the lab.

Note: not following explicit instructions of a TF or LA, or talking back to them, is completely unacceptable. Students not following the instructions of their TF will be ejected from the lab. This is unsafe and irresponsible. If you feel that your TF is wrong/incorrect: have them contact the course instructor immediately.

Questions regarding evaluated work

Students are expected to review their evaluated work soon after it is returned, and to use the feedback they are given to improve later work. It is critical to your success in the course that you do not delay in processing your feedback, and your teaching fellow will be happy to give you additional suggestions for improvements -- please see them in office hours or at the end of the lab.

In the rare event that you believe that your teaching fellow has made a mistake in evaluating your work, please make sure to bring the graded work to the attention of the lab course instructor within a reasonable amount of time (no more than a few days after the evaluated work is returned -- by the end of the next lab or office hours).

 

Tips and hints

This course is designed to walk a student through the basics of analytical chemistry and quantitative analysis for students who have already completed an introductory chemistry sequence (CH101 and CH102). Since CH101/CH102 are pre-requisite courses, and since there will not be a great deal of time to review basic chemical theory in lecture, only those aspects of theory that are directly relevant to the experiment at hand will be covered. Students are expected to review topics from CH101/102 as necessary to give more complete background. There is an expectation of basic lab techniques, but they will reviewed and built-up quickly during the course.

Make sure to use the course staff (and their office hours) and study groups to get the answers to any questions that you have. The best approach is to always make sure that you know what you are doing, and why you are doing it, and if you don’t understand something then ask questions.

In the past, students have best been able to manage their workload with good time management:

  • Students should be reading the lab manual and working through the Top Hat assignments before the lectures.
  • Pre-lab assignments, and notebook pages, are best completed soon after lecture in order be prepared for lab.
  • Post-labs are most efficiently completed as soon after the lab is completed as possible. Analysis is typically started during the lab session. Polishing/completing the assignment, sometimes with help at office hours, is best done soon thereafter.

A note about summer courses: while the amount (hours, labs) of instruction over the summer is approximately the same as during the academic year, summer courses unfold at a substantially faster pace. As a result, it is very important that you make sure to keep on-top of the coursework and do not get behind. It has been our experience that students who dedicate the time each day to complete their work are at least as successful as (if not more successful than) students who take the course during the school year.

Office hours

You are strongly encouraged to attend office hours frequently. They are a great opportunity to work through assignments in groups, get support from course instructors, and ask questions. Note: you do not need to have a question or an appointment to attend these open hours. Rather, come frequently and maximize your effort by getting support. These office hours are helpful for all students.

An important note about getting answers to your questions: e-mail is not a replacement for office hours. While instructors will certainly respond to personal, private, and urgent matters by email, they will not be answering content-related questions by email. To get answers from instructors, please attend any of the office hours.


This is a tentative syllabus and is subject to change at any time. Students are expected to conform to these instructions and any other instructions given throughout the semester.


Updated Friday, October 11, 2024 1:34 PM