CHE130--Molecules; CHE130L--Molecules Lab
This course will be offered beginning Spring 2001. Its anticipated clients will be
1) Students in the Education Program
2) Students in the Advance program.
In order to serve these constituencies, at least one section of the lecture course will be
offered on the internet. Whether or not it will be possible to offer some experiments on
an “in-the-home” basis is unclear. It is expected that at least some experiments will
have to be performed in the lab for safety reasons.
We believe that the internet sessions will be particularly attractive to the Advance
students, and it should be possible to integrate these with weekend laboratories which
will serve each “cohort”.
The purpose of the course will be to introduce the basic ideas of chemistry: a set of
ideas whose mastery will enable a person to say “I understand chemistry”. The
importance for educators of this understanding is almost self-evident. In order to guide
our youngest students in the sciences, they must have a clear intuitive knowledge of the
explanations of everyday phenomena that the sciences offer. Misconceptions instilled
in young students can last a lifetime and can hinder the students intellectual abilities in
subsequent academic or non-academic learning environments.
The importance of this kind of knowledge to future executives may not be quite so
obvious, but a cursory examoination of the business sections of the newspapers or of
the world wide web reveals an almost limitless treasury of examples of patent,
copyright, technology, and financial issues all grounded in scientific innivation or
scientific disputes.
But aside from mere utility, understanding the world around us is a delight. We owe it to
all our students to, to the extent this is possible, lead them out of Plato’s cave and to
help them understand the real thing as opposed to the shadows flickering on the wall.
Chemistry has been described by one text book author as the “Central Science”
standing as it does between physics and biology. It provides the descriptive narrative
that explains the mathematical insights of physics, and is itself, the core around which
the biological story of physiology and evolution is constructed. The central concept in
chemistry is that of the molecule--the idea that everything, from the color of my cell
phone, to the texture of my skin, to the processes of life and evolution...everything that
we see, feel, taste, smell or hear is ultimately explainable by an understanding of the
interactions of tiny invisible molecules. Indeed, the very processes of hearing, seeing,
smelling, touching and tasting are themselves understandable if we understand the
molecules from which our sense organs are constructed.
We will examine the following chemical ideas, doing so from the perspective of
molecules which particularly illustrate each idea. Eight units will take four one-hour
classes each, and four others willl last for 2 classes each (forty classes in all).
Classroom presentations will in general be accompanied by molecular model building.
CHE 130 Lecture
1) atom, molecules, elements
What is the difference between a pure substance and a mixture, an element and
a compound, an atom and a molecule?
Periodic Table
Solutions
2) Forces betwen atoms and molecules
What kind of forces hold molecules together? Idea of electrical charge. What
kinds of forces attract molecules to one another? What do molecules “looklike” (this
being determined by the intramolecular forces)? States of matter (solid, liquid, gas,
amorphous, liquid crystals), these being determined by the intermolecular forces
What kinds of forces operate in solutions
3) Kinds of molecules
Atoms
Diatomic molecules
Ions
dimers
macromolecular substances
polymers
isomerism
4) Chemical reactions
chemical equations
combination
decomposition
single displacement
doube displacement
What makes reaactions “go”?
5) Heat--2 classes
what is heat?
Heat comes from energy stored in chemical bonds
6) Entropy--2 classes
Idea of disorder
Philosophical implications
practical implications for whether a reaction happens or not
7) The idea of equilibrium--2 classes
Idea of Dynamic Eq2quilibrium
No reaction happens completely
How we influence position of equilibrium
8) The idea of rate--2classes
What determines speed of reaction
Idea of catalysis
Enzymes
Half life
Very Fast and very slow reactions
9) Light
What is light?
What is color?
Color and energy
Chemiluminescence (emission of light from a reaction)
Absorption of light
10) Acids and Bases
What are they?
The idea of pH
Strong and Weak
We eat acids and clean with bases
Indicators
11) Electricity
Oxidation and reduction
Using electricity to split up molecules
Tricking natuire into providing us with electricity
12) The molecules of Life
Natural Products
Sugars
Lipids
Proteins
DNA
Biological construction materials
CHE 130L Lab
1) Molecules
A series of experiments to differentiate atoms, molecules, elements,
compounds, pure substaces, mixtures
2) Moleular Shapes
Model Building showing 5 basic molecular symmetries and experience with
chemicals that possess these structures
3) Kinds of Molecules
Model building of ionic and covalent substances examoing variuous tyoes of
bonding
4) Chemical reactions
Generate a gas
Generate a precipitate
CopperPlate a nail
Decompose peroxide and collect oxygen
5) Heat
Observation of Endothermic and exothermic processes, heats of vaporization,
supercooling
6) Rate and Equilibrium
Cobalt Chloride (invisible Ink)
Light Sticcks
Catalytic production of hydrogen
7) Light
Luminol
Light Sticks
8) Acids and Bases
Indicators
pH meters
Household chemicals
9) Electricity
Electrolytic decomposition of water
Fabrication of a simple battery
10) Life
Properties of Lipids, sugars and proteins