2701 Rice Rd • Matthews, NC 28105 • (704) 315­5774 • www.GreyfriarsClassical.org 10th Grade Chemistry Teacher: Dr. David Clark clark@greyfriarsclassical.org 704­533­3809 (cell) Materials • Exploring Creation With Chemistry , 3 rd edition, SECOND PRINTING • Solutions and Tests for Exploring Creation With Chemistry • Scientific Calculator (If you need to purchase one I suggest the TI 30xa – (around $10.00) • 3­ring binder for reading notes, supplemental handouts, class notes, homework, and tests & quizzes • Composition book (the pages are sewn in and students are not allowed to remove any pages; this will be used for lab reports and has a black and white mottled cover – costs about 50 cents). Course Description This course is designed to help students recognize the glory of God in Creation as we study the concepts and order of chemistry. Topics include significant figures, units, classification, the mole concept, stoichiometry, thermodynamics, kinetics, acids and bases, redox reactions, solutions, atomic structure, Lewis structures, molecular geometry, the gas laws, and equilibrium. Our science courses, like all our courses, are taught from a wholly Christian perspective in which the Triune God is presented both as the Creator of the glories which fill the earth and as the Sustainer of all that is. The constancy and predictability discovered in the chemical compositions and reactions of our world are sources of awe and delight, for they reveal the all­powerful, wise and good hand of God. Grading Your total points earned for the quarter from homework, quizzes, tests, papers and labs will be converted to a percentage and your letter grade will correspond to the grading scale used by Greyfriars (ie. 90+ = A, etc.). Homework and Quizzes (10 ­ 40 points per homework assignment or quiz): I expect the average student to put in one hour and fifteen minutes of solid work between each class. When doing your work, you need to make a conscious effort to minimize distractions: phone calls, email, internet, siblings, etc. Studying chemistry requires an undivided, sustained focus on the material in order to progress through complex, multi­step problems. If you are interrupted every few minutes, your study time will not be as profitable and will take longer. I find this text is excellent but is very wordy so may take more time to read than expected, but you will appreciate the format. I recommend doing your homework in at least two different sessions. I have seen that students who wait until the night before class to get their homework done take longer to complete their work, and do not understand it enough to do as well as they should on the tests. If you make it a habit to spend some time the day after class doing some chemistry and then the day before class to finish up, you will fare far better than the same amount of time spent the night before class. To sum up, students are not created equal and will not be able to master the information in the same way at the same speed. Motivation, math ability, reasoning/thinking skills, reading/processing ability all contribute to making the material easier or harder. If you consistently need more homework time between classes, consider: 1. Are you freeing yourself from distraction? 2. Are you waiting until the night before class to do your homework? 3. What are you doing when you get a problem wrong on your homework? This can make the difference between busy work and interacting with the concepts to gain mastery of them. 4. Is one particular part of the homework slowing you down? Is there one skill that you need to practice in order to make your homework go more smoothly (learning to use your calculator, working on reading for the most important ideas, writing down orderly steps to make corrections easier)? Getting your homework done does not mean that you just show work on your page for each problem. You may need to wrestle through a problem, and this means work . After you “do” the problems, you still have two steps to complete: first, checking, and, second, correcting. All papers without evidence of being checked and corrected will be given a zero and a demerit for being incomplete. To check your answers, mark each question with a different color pen/pencil as correct (checkmark) or incorrect (circle). Then, correct your answers: figure out what you did wrong and correct it. Then WRITE (in the same different colored pen/pencil) next to the circle (indicating an incorrect answer) why you got the answer wrong (there may be more than one reason). Was your mistake a calculator mistake? Did you set it up incorrectly? Did you work with units properly? Did you not understand the concept? etc. I do not want you to write things like: • I didn’t understand it and now I do • I was guessing • I was confused The more specific you can be, the better: • When temperature increases, the pressure decreases (or temperature and pressure are inversely related) • Sig Fig addition rules: When adding sig figs, count all sig figs to the left of and including the least precise number. It is tempting to do one problem and check the answer, then do a second problem and check the answer, etc. I would ask that you do four or five problems before you check the answers, as it allows your mind to dig in and really engage with the problems in the text. If you find yourself completely helpless in answering a problem, look back through the textbook's examples BEFORE you look at how the answer key answered the question. If you are still lost, ask a friend. And if you are still needing help, look at the answer key to find out how it should be done. **If you do look at the answer key to find out how the problem should be done, you need to add another problem to your homework. Find a similar problem in the Extra Practice Problem section of the book and do it. You cannot do this well if you are finishing up your homework late on the night before the work is due (another reason not to wait until the last minute to do your work). Obviously, I will not always be able to tell when you have relied too heavily on the answer key, however, I can assure you that it catches up to most students at exam time. Remember the purpose of our work – IT IS NOT JUST TO GET THE PROBLEMS DONE – IT IS TO USE THESE ASSIGNMENTS SO WE UNDERSTAND THE CHEMISTRY INVOLVED. Paper is cheap. Please leave yourself plenty of space to work through a problem, showing all steps. Chemistry is similar to a math class with complex, multi­step problems. You can make a mistake in any of the steps but if you write down your work, you can identify each of the mistakes, making it easier to correct (and learn from your work). Messiness ­ I am somewhat messy in my work, so I feel like a hypocrite in asking you to be neat when I am not always neat. However, when I write on your papers, I make an effort to write neater than I usually do so you can read my writing. If you are messy, I ask you to think of me grading your work and try to write neatly enough for me to read it. If I cannot read it or make sense of it, I need to mark it wrong. You do not have that same privilege. If you cannot read my writing, please let me know and I will decipher it and work harder to write more neatly for you. Homework needs to be completed by the day it is due, according to the syllabus. You need to come to class expecting to turn in your homework. The Greyfriars student handbook maintains that any homework assignment that is incomplete or not done will be given a demerit. If you are unable to complete an assignment due to extenuating circumstances, please email me or text me at least a day (24 hrs) before class so I can “excuse” the homework not being complete. You must hand in excused assignments by the following class period to avoid a penalty. Unexcused late assignments can NOT be emailed to me as they can get lost in the process. Unexcused late assignments may be turned in the following class period with a 15% reduction. You will save yourself much anguish if you come to class expecting a quiz on a small segment of material from you reading. Sometimes (rarely) these will be announced quizzes. Quizzes will also be taken from the previous homework, which again encourages you to treat homework not as a task to check off, but as a means to master the material. Papers (100 points each): There are three short papers assigned this year: One on an element, the second on a chemist and the third on an application of chemistry in life. You will be asked to present the paper to the class during our presentation days. Presentation day for the element paper is the class period closest to Mole Day, October 23 this year. The chemist paper will be presented the last day of class in December (Dec. 11, 2015). The chemistry in life paper is due our last day of class before Easter Break.. A copy of your paper is to be turned in to me a month before the presentation day so I can read it over and give you feedback. The first two papers should be between two and three pages. The chemistry in life paper will need to be closer to 4 ­ 5 pages. If you choose to write about a topic that you know a lot about, I expect you to learn MORE about it. These papers are about developing your ability to explore the different sides of a topic more deeply than you have before. Tests (100 points per test): Tests will be given at the end of each Module and will include both multiple choice and essay questions, some of which will be problems. Calculators will be necessary. There will also be a cumulative final which will count four times a normal test (400 points). The final is not optional and will be held at school the week after graduation, during the exam periods scheduled. I retain the right to weight the final heavier if it will benefit your final grade and you have proven yourself diligent throughout the year. I can also assign a class participation grade at my discretion. So, for example, if you participate constructively in class and have an 89, I am able to choose to bump your grade up to an A. If you choose to make class more difficult for learning, or are consistently disengaged in class, I will not do so. Labs (100 points per Lab): In addition to completing as many small experiments in class (one of these is currently planned for the first day of class) as we can fit into our class time, I have planned six labs this year. Lab period will usually be Fridays after school on the second Friday of each month. We won’t have a lab in October, December, or May. Lab dates: Second Friday of the month, skipping October, December, and May. Note: the third Friday of the month in January, so we do not have to meet the first Friday back after Christmas Break. September 11, November 13, January 15, February 12, March 11, April 8 **You should think of a lab write­up like you think of a paper. It should be carefully written and edited, an example of your growing rhetorical ability. At a minimum, I expect words to be spelled correctly and sentences to make sense. The Lab period does not allow time for playing around ­ it should be used to work through the details of the lab, to answer the questions together with your lab partner and other lab groups, and to prepare your calculations. If you spend lab period doing the minimum amount of work, you will need to put in a great deal of effort at home when help is not readily available. Illness If you are ill and miss a class, or are ill between classes and find yourself unable to complete an assignment, you are responsible for handing in whatever was collected while you were absent within a week of returning to class. You must not expect me to remind you about what is missing, so you need to be aware of your assignments. Feel free to ask a student when you return and I will be glad to clarify, but you need to be the one to initiate the conversation. Eventually I will notice that you are missing work, but by then it will be too late to earn points for the assignment.