Chemistry 3103 Spring 04 Organic Chemistry I Lecture

Professor:       Dr. Juliet M. Hahn

office:              LSE 514 (or my research lab LSE 501)

phone:             870-972-3087 ext: 220            email: jhahn@astate.edu

office hours:    8:00 am-9:00 am MWF,  11:00 am-12:00pm MWF & other times by appointment

textbook:        Organic Chemistry by John McMurry 6th edition (required), Study Guide and Solution Manual by Susan McMurry (recommended)

classroom:      MWF  LSE 205 9:00 am -9:50 am & 10:00 am - 10:50 am (Please take exams & quizzes in your own section unless you receive permission from me to do otherwise.)

Organic Chemistry is not some far away, antiseptic, horrible, technological monstrosity of the 21st century and organic chemicals are not some maiming, toxic substance from which we all have to keep a distance.   The bodies of all living organisms are largely made up of organic chemicals.   Almost everything that you eat are organic chemicals.   Almost everything that you wear are organic chemicals.   [organic chemicals: polyester, plastics, nylon, fats (in your thighs, your cake and even olestra), almost all pharmaceuticals (AZT, taxol), pesticides, styroform, perfumes, rubber].   Organic chemicals are everywhere!   Organic Chemistry is going to be a lot of work, but you will learn a lot and hopefully have some fun doing it.   (If Organic Chemistry is not a lot of work, then you may be doing something wrong and your grades may reflect this.)

Chemistry 3103 is the first semester of a two semester sequence of Organic Chemistry lecture.   We will cover chapters 1-13 inclusive this semester.   Please understand that no matter how smart you are, you will not do well in this course without hard work.    The biggest secret to doing well in this course is to keep up with the lecture material.   Organic Chemistry is logical (Mr. Spock probably likes Organic Chemistry.) and you may be able to reduce the amount of brute memorization by reasoning.   However you are going to have to do quite a bit of memorization to do well in Organic Chemistry.   Do not ignore the assignments until the night before an exam.  This technique may work in some classes but the surest way to a bad grade (and of course to not learn anything) in Organic Chemistry is to cram before an exam.   There will be homework problems which will be announced in class.   It is strongly recommended that you do these problems because actually doing problems is a large part of learning the material in Organic Chemistry.   Merely understanding the lecture or the reading is not going to result in your doing well on the course.

Grading:         Grading will be based on 600 points

            3 exams            100 points each

                        final exam         200 points (cumulative)

quizzes             100 points (You will be given at least 6 quizzes.   Quizzes will be given in the last 10-15 minutes of class.  The total of your quiz scores will be 100 points.   You will be allowed to drop one quiz.)

                        attendance        5 points (If you attend 90% of the classes this semester, you will get  extra credit points which will be added to your final points out of the 600 points that you accumulate this semester.   This will have the same effect as if you did 5 points better or half a letter grade better on an hour exam.   You must sign the attendance sheet every class period to get these points.)

There will be no makeup exams, quizzes or final exam without a documented excused absence.   Without a valid excuse, you will receive a zero on all missed exams, quizzes and final exam.    If you have a valid excuse (at my discretion), I will replace the missed exam with an average of your other exams prorated for the difficulty of the missing exam.    Alternatively you may be given a makeup exam which is all essay - short answer and long answer.   Excused absences will be allowed only under clearly documented (i.e. written doctor's excuse, written obituary,  etc.)   Examples of valid excuses include: medical grounds,  death in the immediate family and documented weather related transportation problems and university business.   Examples that are not valid excuses include:  transportation, personal problems, going away for the weekend, intramural sports, etc.   You will be allowed to drop one lowest quiz grade.   (The lowest quiz grade dropped may be a zero for an unexcused absence.)   

Schedule of Reading Assignments:     The following is a schedule of the reading assignments. I suggest that you read the text after the chapter has been covered in class because I will be skimming some of the chapters.   The exams will cover the materials discussed in class.   Unless specifically mentioned, exams will not cover materials in the textbook that were not discussed in the class.   However it is strongly recommended that you read the text because it will be impossible to do well on the course without doing so. Exams, quizzes and the final exam will consist of a mixture of multiple choice, short answers and long answers (approximately 1/3 of each).   In general for short answer and  long answer questions, you will be expected to show your reasoning for your final answer and you will receive partial credit for doing so.

dates.                                                                                                                                      chapter

1/12M, 1/14W, 1/16F .......................................................................................................      1

1/19 M Martin Luther King Holiday ..............................................................................           (no class)

1/21W, (1/23F quiz I), 1/26M .........................................................................................       2

1/28W, 1/30F, 2/2M ..........................................................................................................     3

2/4W, (2/6F quiz II), 2/9M ................................................................................................     4

2/11W ...............................................................................................................................     exam I

2/13F, 2/16 M, 2/18W ......................................................................................................      5

2/20F,( 2/23 M quiz III), 2/25W ................................................................................            6

2/27F, 3/1M, 3/3W ...........................................................................................................      7

(3/5F quiz IV), 3/8M, 3/12F ..........................................................................................         8

3/10W ................................................................................................................................    exam II

3/15 M-3/19F .....................................................................................................................    Spring Break

3/22M, 3/24W, (3/26F quiz V)......................................................................................          9         

3/29M, 3/31W .................................................................................................................       10

4/2F, 4/5M, (4/7W quiz VI)............................................................................................        11

4/9F , 4/12M, 4/14W ........................................................................................................      12

4/16F .................................................................................................................................     exam III

4/19M , 4/21W, 4/23F .....................................................................................................       13

4/26M ....................................................................................................................last day of class (review)

4/27T  ...................................................................................................................................  study day

9am class (8:00am-10:00 am 4/30F) 10amclass (10:15am-12:15pm 4/30F) ...............        final exam

Students with Disabilities:     Students who have special conditions as addressed by the Americans with Disabilities Act and who need any test or course materials to be furnished in an alternative format must first register with the ASU Disability Services.   Please also notify the professor of the course immediately.  

Academic Dishonesty:   Academic dishonesty in any form will not be tolerated.   University regulations on academic honesty will be strictly enforced throughout this course.  

Drop Dates:   WN date for this semester starts January 21.   The last date to drop this class is March 26.

One final point, my objective is to teach Organic Chemistry to everyone in this class.   I want you all to do well because you are my students.   If you have any difficulties, please come to see me before your difficulties cause irreparable damage.   Do not just stop trying without coming to see me first.