This is the course syllabus for Chemistry 115, the instrumental analysis and bioanalytical chemistry class at UC Merced.
A note about printing this page: Please don’t. This page will be at this URL long enough to share with your children and grandchildren. You don’t need a paper copy of it.
Instructor: Professor Erik Menke
Class Room and Hours: COB 263, MWF 11:30-12:20
Office: Science and Engineering, Room 358
Office Hours: Drop by my office any time if you have questions or concerns. If I don’t have time to talk, we can schedule a time. In addition, I will be available from 9:30-11 am, Tuesdays and Thursdays, at the Lantern Café in the library.
Contacting me: In addition to visiting my office, you can reach me by e-mail or leaving a message on the UCMCrops website for the class.
Course description and objectives: Analytical chemistry is one of the broadest disciplines of chemistry, with the primary goal of developing the tools and experiments to either qualitatively or quantitatively measure chemical composition. Historically, analytical chemistry was primarily performed by wet methods, most notably titrations, but over the last decade instrumental tools and techniques have come to dominate the field. This course focuses on how these instruments work, and what samples they are best suited for. The instruments and experiments we will look at are FTIR, FT-NMR, UV-Vis, GC, HPLC, AAS and AES, and electrophoresis.
Expected student learning outcomes: By the end of the semester you should be able to:
-Identify the most useful technique and instrument for a given analytical problem.
-Identify the different parts of analytical instruments and explain how they work.
-Propose interesting research avenues that utilize each analytical instrument discussed in class.
Relationship to program learning outcomes: CHEM 115 enables student mastery of PLO 1, Fundamental skills and knowledge, by focusing on the techniques and skills that enable modern chemistry research. CHEM 115 also enables student development of PLO 3, Communication and teamwork, by having the students write a number of short research proposals as well as work in teams on a final project. Finally, CHEM 115 introduces students to the role of analytical techniques and instruments in society, which is related to PLO 4, Citizenship, ethics, and the role of chemistry in society.
Required Text: Undergraduate Instrumental Analysis by James W. Robinson, Eileen M. Skelly Frame, and George M. Frame II (Sixth Edition)
Prerequisites: Chem 112, which may be taken concurrently.
Class Policies: The number one rule is to respect the time of everybody in the class, including the instructor. Ultimately, I believe that this is the only rule we should need, but it is rather vague. To help overcome the vagueness of said rule, here are some examples of what this covers:
-Refrain from using cell phones in class (this includes texting or having the ring volume above vibrate).
-Refrain from talking out of turn.
-Do not tease, taunt, or belittle others.
-Anything that someone else reads (e-mails, papers, message posts, etc.) should be legible, with (mostly) proper grammatical structure and spelling.
Academic Integrity: This is a topic that I take very seriously. While I understand that shortcuts are attractive, they very rarely end up helping in the long run. Dishonest practices, like cheating and plagiarism, typically prevent you from understanding the material, which is ultimately why you are here in school. A full description of the University policy, as well as the judicial process and potential penalties, can be found on the student life website. Students should be familiar with the University policy as anyone caught violating the policy will be dealt with harshly.
Disability Services: A disability should not impede learning. To this end, UC Merced provides a number of options to help people with disabilities succeed in their academic career. If you have a disability, I encourage you to contact the University Disability Services Office to find out how they can help. You can find out more information on their website, e-mailing them at disabilityservices@ucmerced.edu, or calling them at 209.228.6996. In addition, please let me know so that we can take measures to ensure that it has a minimal effect on your ability to understand the material.
Class structure: This class has a format that is different then most. I have broken the class down into six different subjects that we need to cover. Each subject will be treated as a two week mini-class. The first week of the mini-class will consist of me lecturing on an instrumental technique. The second week of the mini-class will consist of a class discussion on research papers utilizing the instrumental technique. These papers will be available in the resources section of the CROPS page, and you are expected to read them before we begin discussing them.
Grading: Your grade in this class will be based on five sources, according to the following percentages:
5 short proposals @ 5% each = 25%
5 proposal reviews @ 5% each = 25%
6 quizzes @ 5% each = 30%
Participation @ 10% = 10%
1 final project @ 10% = 10%
The grading will follow a standard 10 point scale (100 - 90 = A, 89 - 80 = B, 79 - 70 = C...), with any +/- to be left for the instructor’s discretion.
Proposals: You will be expected to write five short (i.e. 2-3 pages) research proposals, as well as review proposals written by your other classmates.
Proposal due dates:
NMR proposal: Friday, September 28th.
IR/Raman proposal: Friday, October 12th.
UV-Vis/Fluorescence proposal: Friday, October 26th.
Atomic spectroscopy proposal: Friday, November 9th.
Mass spec proposal: Friday, November 30th.
Quizzes: There will be six in-class quizzes, each worth 5% of your overall grade. There will be no make-up’s allowed for missed quizzes. If you miss a quiz and have a legitimate excuse (i.e. doctor’s note or equivalent) the other quizzes will be renormalized to make up the point difference.
Quiz schedule:
Quiz 1: Friday, September 21st.
Quiz 2: Friday, October 5th.
Quiz 3: Friday, October 19th.
Quiz 4: Friday, November 2nd.
Quiz 5: Wednesday, November 21st.
Quiz 6: Friday, December 7th.
Participation: As there is a large portion of this class that involves discussion, your participation will be graded. At the end of every discussion class, I will collect the names of the students present that day, noting who either asked or answered questions. If you where present and asked or answered at least one question, you will get full credit. If you were present but didn’t say anything, you will get half credit, and if you weren’t present, you will get no credit.
Final project: Rather than having a final test, you will have a final project that you will do in groups.
Homework: There will be no homework problems assigned or graded. However, I would strongly recommend working problems in the back of each chapter, as some quiz problems will be taken directly from the book.