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Prof. Christopher Masi |
Wilson 307B |
Course Description: Fundamental principles of organic chemistry will be discussed. Topics to be discussed will include electron delocalization, aromaticity, electrophilic and nucleophilic aromatic substitution, NMR and IR spectroscopy, Mass spectrometry, carbonyl chemistry, and substitution and elimination reactions of alcohols.
Students are expected to comply with all University policies and procedures, including those pertaining to COVID. Students who do not comply with these policies will not be allowed in class and referred to the Dean of Students for disciplinary review. As necessary, this class may be held in a remote synchronous fashion using video conferencing software. A URL will be provided by email. For students who are not able to attend because of a requirement to isolate or quarantine, when the class is being held in-person, it will simultaneously be shared over the same URL. Students should check their university email for the URL.
I reserve the right to unilaterally change this syllabus. Any change to this syllabus will be announced in class, and the changes, including the date the change was announced, will be added to this document.
Grading and Assignments: There will be three tests, three written assignments (reworked tests - these assignments are separate from the test), Mastering Chemistry on-line homework assignments (masi91374), and a final (approximately half of the final will assess the last few weeks of the course and the other half will be cumulative).
All of the graded assignments are to be done individually.
Grades will be determined as described below with the following caveats:
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For the course grade to be |
Lab grade must be at least |
The letter grade (with +'s and -'s) will be based on an overall average score. Each student's overall average score will be a weighted average of a student's test average, reworked test assignment average, homework average, and laboratory average as described below:
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The percentage of points earned on each of the three tests will be averaged, and that average will account for |
33% |
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The percentage of points earned on the combined last test/final will account for |
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The percentage of points earned on each Mastering Chemistry assignment will be averaged and that average will account for |
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The percentage of points earned on the three re-worked exams will be averaged, and that average will account for |
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The laboratory average will account for |
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Averages greater than or equal to 90 will earn an "A".
Overall averages greater than or equal to 80 will earn a "B".
Overall averages greater than or equal to 70 will earn a "C".
Overall averages greater than or equal to 60 will earn a "D".
Overall averages < 60 will not earn a passing grade.
Individual assignments will not be scaled. The scale used to determine the final letter grade may be altered if appropriate; that is, if the mean of the overall class average and overall class median is less than 80% the mean of the those values will be used as the cutoff for a B- and all of the other cutoffs will be adjusted similarly.
Attendance: Students are expected to attend class and arrive on time. There are no make up exams. Absence from an exam will result in a 0 for that exam. Missing two or more exams will result in a failing grade. Extenuating circumstances will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Text: Organic Chemistry, 8th Edition by Paula Yarkunis Bruce.
Mastering Chemistry at mlm.pearson.com (masi91374)
Additional Resources:
http://www.westfield.ma.edu/cmasi/
Laboratory Manual: Handouts.
Office hours: Monday 1:00-2:30 and Friday 11:30-1:00. Available by appointment, too.
Academic Honesty: Students are encouraged to work together while learning, but grades are based on individual achievement. Thus, any work that a student submits for a grade must be that student's work. Academic honesty is important, and academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. If an instance of academic dishonesty is uncovered, the student(s) in question may receive a 0 for the assignment or fail the class altogether.
Students may not work together on graded assignments. For example, students are encouraged to get together to talk about the readings, work out problems from the textbook, or talk about the problems reviewed during class, but students are not allowed to work together on the assignments that are to be submitted for a grade.
Crib sheets are not allowed during tests; a periodic table will be provided. Students may use university supplied molecular modeling kits if they wish.