INTRODUCTION TO CHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODS
Instructor: Dr. Susan Glenn
e-mail: susanglenn@usca.edu
phone: (803) 642-2616 (home)
(803) 643-6940 (office)
CHEM 310 Spring 2016 (1 credit)
office:
Room 305 Science Building
office hours: Mondays
10 – 11AM
Wednesdays 9 – 10 AM
mailbox:
Geology and Biology Office, Science 201
Prerequisites: ACHM112 or CHEM112 Text: None.
Final Exam: There is no final exam for this course.
Course Objective:
The undergraduate chemistry curriculum outlined by the American Chemical Society is designed to provide
students with a broad-based introduction to the five fundamental areas of chemistry (analytical, biochemistry,
inorganic, organic, and physical). Upon completion of the bachelor's degree, chemistry majors are prepared for
immediate entry into the workforce, as well as advanced study in chemistry or other related fields. The purpose
of this course is to acquaint you with the resources, materials, and skills that will help you with many of the
tasks that will be expected of you in your future coursework (undergraduate, graduate, and professional) and
ultimately in the workforce and/or academia.
The content selected for inclusion in this course is dictated in part by requirements of the American Chemical
Society, professors of your advanced courses, and also in direct response to comments received from
previous graduating classes, so be thinking about what else might be useful for the students that will take this
course in the future.
Course Delivery:
This course will be "taught" using materials and assignments provided on Blackboard and sent to you via
email. Many of the assignments will direct you to resources and tutorials available on the internet. Each
section of the course is designed to take one to three conventional 3 hour lab periods, so plan on a one week
unit needing about 3 hours to complete, a two week unit needing about 6 hours to complete, and so on. These
are approximations, of course, and you may find units take more or less than this estimate depending on your
prior experience and your time management.
Since this course does not rely on formal lab/class meetings, you are essentially participating in a self-paced
class (within the due dates found below). You can work as far ahead as you like as long as the assignment(s)
are available and turn in assignments at any time prior to their due date. Just as it will be in your professional
career, it is your responsibility to plan your time accordingly and start each assignment in plenty of time to
allow for troubleshooting technical difficulties and seeking out assistance when you need it while still
completing the assignment before the deadline. All work is to be submitted electronically via Blackboard and
e-mail. Information on how to do this is provided within each assignment. You will be able to verify submission
of your work through Blackboard for most assignments otherwise, I will email you to acknowledge receipt of
your work and then post grades to Blackboard.
Course Outline
This course will consist of eight major assignments which cover a variety of topics. The duration, point value,
and due date for each assignment is listed below.
Assignment
Laboratory Safety
Formatting, Equations, and Layouts in Microsoft Word
Chemical Structure Drawing
Literature & Chemical Searching
Graphs, Formulas, and Data in Microsoft Excel
Professional and Academic Ethics in Science
Presentations and Posters in Power Point
Total
Weeks
Points
1
1
2
2
3
2
2
13
100
100
200
200
300
200
200
1300
Due Date
(midnight that night)
Sun.
Sun.
Sun.
Sun.
Sun.
Sun.
Sun.
Jan.
Jan.
Feb.
Feb.
Mar.
Apr.
Apr.
17
24
7
21
20
3
17
Please note that assignments will not be accepted after the deadline (and therefore are worth 0 points)
unless circumstances dictate a new deadline for the entire class. In cases where exceptional circumstances
will prevent you from completing a particular unit by the indicated due date, contact me preferably in person.
Extensions will only be granted in the most exceptional of circumstances since all materials needed for a given
unit will be available 24/7 and you will have at least one week to complete each unit.
Honor Code:
The USC Aiken Honor Code remains in full effect for every unit of this course. Academic Dishonesty will not
be tolerated. This includes but is not limited to copying others’ work (even if they took the class another year)
and plagiarism of published material including copying text from internet sites for any part of your paper. All
work is to be done individually and the electronic transfer (copying) of materials from one student to another
(whether from this year’s course or a previous one) is explicitly prohibited and will be considered plagiarism.
Helping each other when stuck is OK, but copying and pasting, saving a file under a new name, or doing
someone else's work for them is not. I do not discriminate between those who copied, those who furnished,
and those who allowed it to happen. If I suspect academic dishonesty of any kind, I will pursue the issue
through the appropriate university channels according to the USC Aiken Student Handbook and University
Policy. This includes but is not limited to assigning a 0 for the assignment and filing a report of dishonesty to
the USC Aiken Judicial Board for all students involved. Any questions about this should be directed to me
ahead of time to insure there are no questions as to an assignment’s origins.
Typical Grade Distribution:
A
90%
B+ 85%
B
80%
C+ 75%
C
70%
D+ 65%
D
60%
Graded assignments, comments, and scores will
be available on Black Board.
Submitting Assignments and Deadlines
Turn in everything that you have completed on an assignment before the deadline, even if it is not complete
– I DO NOT ACCEPT LATE ASSIGNMENTS – something is better than nothing.
All work will be submitted via either Black Board or e-mail according to the directions in the assignment. Be
sure to follow the file-name format in the instructions for each task. If I download 2 files from Blackboard
that are both named Word Assignment, the second one will overwrite the first one leaving me with nothing
to grade for the first student. Any e-mail you send me should include your name and the class you are
enrolled in (CHEM 310) in the text of the message. Don’t assume I will know who you are from your
username.
In cases where exceptional circumstances will prevent you from completing a particular unit by the
indicated due date, contact me preferably by phone. Extensions will only be granted in the most exceptional
of circumstances since all materials needed for a given unit will be available 24/7 and you will have at least
one week to complete each unit.
Class Behavior:
Though this is course is delivered on-line, you are expected to respond to communications from me (Dr.
Glenn) in a timely and appropriate manner. The same is true for me. Any emergencies that arise due to
illness, death, etc. should be reported to me as quickly as possible.
Necessary Electronic Resources
Access to the USC Aiken campus computer labs including campus software and internet access are
required to complete the assignments for this course. Every effort has been made to ensure the modules
for this class reflect the current (and in some cases recent) versions of software available on campus. If you
have older versions of the software used in this course at home, you will need to check with Dr. Glenn
about compatibility with the assignments for class.
• All resources are provided electronically via Blackboard. If you have not used Blackboard before, you
must ensure that your account is active and that you receive any e-mails or messages sent to you via
Blackboard. You should update the Personal Settings in BB to ensure that the e-mail address for BB
messages/e-mails is set to an account you check at least daily.
• Microsoft Office (for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) is available on almost every computer on campus. .
USCA faculty, staff, and students now have FREE access to Microsoft Office 365. It’s FREE and can be
installed on up to five devices, including your home computer. Details and directions for downloading
Office 365 can be found on the Computer Services – Current Students page. In no case should Microsoft
Works or another office suite be used to avoid file format incompatibilities.
• ChemDraw is available on the computers in the department, in SCI100, and can be downloaded to your
computer/tablet per our Department site license. Directions and restrictions are covered in the Chemical
Drawing Assignment.
Technical Assistance
To obtain assistance with technical issues (removing pop-up blockers, opening pages or quizzes, etc.), or if
you are unable to see the course content or have other questions regarding the course itself, please visit
the USC Aiken Computer Services Help Desk, email help@usca.edu, or call 803-641-3391. You can also
visit the Computer Services Help Desk in person. It is located on the second floor of B&E in Suite 238.
Class Behavior:
Though this is course is delivered on-line, you are expected to respond to communications from me (Dr.
Glenn) in a timely and appropriate manner. Any emergencies that arise due to illness, death, etc. should be
reported to me as quickly as possible.
Disabled Student Policy:
The Disability Services Office provides accommodations to ensure that educational programming
and services are accessible to students with disabilities. If you have a physical, psychological, and/or
learning disability that might affect your performance in this class, please contact the Disability
Services Office, B&E 134, (803) 643-6816, as soon as possible if you believe you are eligible for
accommodations. The Disability Services Office will require appropriate documentation to determine
accommodations. Once determination of eligibility is made, students who have disabilities requiring
special arrangements for class participation or test administration should notify the professor of the
need for such arrangements at the beginning of the semester.
Helpful Hints to be Successful in this Class
• set aside a 2-3 hour block of time in your week so you have no problem completing each unit (treat it just
like a lab with a regular class meeting time, if you always procrastinate this work to complete your most
pressing homework, it will never get done)
always, make back-up copies of your work as you go – save frequently as you are working. Flash drives
wear out and laptops crash so you should ALWAYS make a second copy on another device each time you
accomplish a major section or take a break. We all have access to One Drive through our campus e-mail
accounts. Files saved there are backed up off campus and are available to you anywhere you have internet
access. I find it especially useful to save a copy to my hard drive, thumb drive, and then drop it on One
Drive. Murphy’s law says that if you are relying on one copy, it will get corrupted, lost, or deleted at the
worst possible time.
• adding a version number also allows you to go back to pervious stages in case you accidentally undo a
section that was previously completed (e.g. sjglennWord1, sjglennWord2, etc.) You can delete all of the
previous versions when you complete the assignment and just keep the final one.
• TURN IN EVERYTHING THAT YOU HAVE COMPLETED ON AN ASSIGNMENT BEFORE THE DEADLINE, even if it is not
complete – I do not accept late assignments – something is better than nothing
• Finally, ask questions. Send an email, call, or visit me. I have provided my office and home phone on the
syllabus so that you can reach me at just about anytime I am not in class. I am up each night at least until
the 11 o’clock news. If it is a bad time, I won’t answer my phone or won’t be able to immediately respond
to your e-mail. If I can’t, I will let you know when will be a good time and we’ll go from there. Just don’t
wait to the last minute for help – it will probably be too late. Sage Words of Advice for Life: Lack of
planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on any one else’s part.