CHEM212A - Organic Chemistry I

Fall 2021 with Dr. Kelli Gottlieb

This is the welcome letter for CHEM212A! This letter outlines some of the policies and the timeline for the course. The syllabus for the course, which fully outlines all policies and procedures for this course, will be available on the first day of the fall semester. This letter is subject to change! It was last updated 7/27/2021.

Please pay special attention to the description of the workload, the pacing of the course, and the tentative quiz an exam dates before deciding to take this course!

 

CHEM212A is the first of the two-semester organic chemistry series at Cuesta College. This course serves as the foundation for organic chemistry. Organic chemistry is the study of carbon-containing compounds. More specifically, CHEM212A focuses on:

• acidity and basicity of molecules
• nomenclature of organic compounds, including alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, and alcohols
• the influence of atom hybridization and orbitals in the reactivity and stability of molecules
• the effect of 3D shape of a molecule on reactivity
• analysis of chemical reactions, including the flow of electrons and the effect of reactants on the rate of a reaction
• use of IR spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry in the interpretation of chemical structure

The laboratory component incorporates material from lecture and places a specific emphasis on laboratory technique, safety, data analysis,  and observation.

 

 

Instructor:

Dr. Kelli Gottlieb (kelli_gottlieb@cuesta.edu) lab and lecture instructor

Email is the best way to get in touch with me. If you email me, please allow at least 24 hours for a reply. I generally do not check my email after 8pm. I also often do not check email on Saturdays. Emails must be sent from either your CUESTA email or through Canvas. I will not send a meaningful response to any emails from non-Cuesta emails due to privacy (FERPA) concerns.

 

Course Information:

CHEM212A - CRN 70367 and CRN 73584

Course website: Canvas (cuesta.instructure.com - log in with your Cuesta username)

• Canvas access tutorial.
• Click here for help with any Canvas issues

Course dates: 8/16/2020 - 12/17/2020
Canvas Partially Available: 8/13/2020
Full Canvas Availability: 8/16/2020
Final Exam: 12/13/2020 from 2:15 - 4:15pm

This semester, lecture meetings will be fully online. Certain activities (such as quizzes and exams) will be held synchronously during the lecture time on the course schedule  while others will be asynchronous (on your own). You should only be enrolled in the course if you know you can meet during the lecture times listed on ClassFinder for this course.

Lab this semester is hybrid; you will meet for in-person lab once a week and complete an asynchronous lab activity online. You should only be enrolled in the course if you know you can meet during the lab time listed on ClassFinder for this course.

 

Mandatory In-Person Lab Meetings:

Starting Week 3 of the semester, you will be required to attend your scheduled in-person lab meeting for your lab section. You should not be enrolled in the course if you do not have this time available in your schedule. You cannot pass the class without participation in the in-person lab component of this course. 

The day you attend lab is according to the section in which you are enrolled. There is not room to allow for alternating days; if you miss your lab day for a week, you will not be able to make it up. 

Students are required to follow the current district policies regarding personal protective equipment, sanitization, distancing, and other related  measures to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. Students who do not comply will not be permitted in the laboratory and will be referred to the Vice President of Student Services for non-compliance with the Student Code of Conduct.

 

Mandatory Online Meetings:

You may be required to meet on Zoom during the times listed on ClassFinder for this course.

• You can expect to be on Zoom during quizzes or exams (during the lecture times). We will meet for live problem-solving or work occasionally for lecture as well.

You should only be enrolled in the course if you know you can meet during the times listed on ClassFinder. These times will not be the sum total of what you need to work on for this class; this is just the time you will be required to meet online.

There will be times we won't meet but you should always have the time available. Meeting days for the week will be announced on Mondays.

The rest of the course is asynchronous, meaning that you will complete activities on your own. The due dates and times will be detailed indicated on Canvas and described in the syllabus. To be clear, this course is not self-paced; there are deadlines and due dates you must follow!

This course is extremely fast paced. You are expected to keep up with the material by sticking to the deadlines and guidelines provided on Canvas. There is a lot of work in-class as well as studying and work to be done out of class as well. You can count on the following each week:

• something due in lab (a prelab, a lab report, and/or another lab activity)
• an experiment to complete (we will have a new experiment almost every week) in the in-person lab portion and an asynchronous lab activity 
  • Remember that the lab component of this course is SIX (6) HOURS. You can expect to be doing a good deal of work for lab this semester, including data collection and data analysis. 
• Online lecture to read and watch and an activity to complete with that lecture
• There will also be online assignments that aren't due immediately but that you'll need to work on regularly

This list details the in-class time requirements. Outside of class, you'll need to study and do practice on your own to succeed in class. It is a very heavy workload. You can count on a minimum of 2-3 hours/unit per week, it adds up to a lot of hours (your mileage may vary, depending on your comfort with the material - some people may take longer or shorter). This is a 5-credit hour courseload with the work to match.

Tentative Quiz/Exam dates - Number of assessments and dates will be finalized on the course syllabus when the semester begins

Quizzes and exams are only available during synchronous class times AND will be proctored using online proctoring software (more details will be given in the syllabus).

Quiz Dates	9/1, 9/22, 9/29, 10/20, 10/27, 11/17, 12/8
Exam Dates	9/8, 10/6, 11/3, 12/1, 12/13 (final exam)

 

Is online education for you?

I am very excited to have you in class for organic chemistry. However, I would be remiss in my duties as an instructor if I didn't tell you that online courses aren't for everyone. Before committing to this course, make sure to address the following question: Is an online class suited for you? 

• To answer this question, please access the Online Readiness Resources, and take the "self assessment survey". Answer the questions to yourself honestly. If you find that your answer to many of the questions is "no", then taking this class online is not in your best interest regarding student success and I strongly suggest you enroll in a traditional classroom section when available.
  • If you mostly answered "yes" but there are some questions to which you have answered "no", you can brush up on these skills using this Canvas tutorial. that Cuesta has prepared for online students (it's free!). You can also use these tutorials to see if online learning is for you (you'll be using a lot of the skills in the tutorial - decide if you like using those skills since you'll need them in this course!). 

Class and Electronic Device Requirements

If you believe (based on your personal knowledge and your self-assessment survey results) that you can be successful online, you will need the following:

• You must have constant access to a reliable computer (minimum specs for a reliable computer). This should be most days of the week, not just the days our class meets (you'll want regular access to our materials on Canvas).
• Your computer must have a webcam and a microphone. Quizzes and exams will be proctored on Zoom so you will need to have a webcam for proctoring (we will be using proctoring software). 
• You must have a reliable Internet connection, meaning you can be on conferencing software, Canvas, and download and upload documents. 
• A device for scanning. This can be a scanner or a phone app that scans (there are many free ones out there! I will provide some examples once we get started). 
• Optional but highly recommended: a reliable way to print documents (like a printer). This isn't mandatory but will be really useful to you as we go through the semester. It wouldn't be considered reliable if you need to pay a lot of money to be able to print (there will be alternatives).
• You must have access to your my.Cuesta.edu email account (or have successfully set up email forwarding to your third party email provider).
• You must have access to Canvas, Cuesta College's learning management system (LMS).
• You must have a backup plan in case your internet provider or computer goes down.  For issues related to accessing Cuesta's Canvas Site, email: support@my.cuesta.edu. 
• You must have a good understanding of the following online activities to succeed in this course: email, internet navigation, online communication, pdf creation (as well as other file-types), document uploading and downloading.

 

Required Materials

The following items listed below are the only course-specific materials you will need for this course.  Retailers may “suggest” or “recommend” additional items (e.g., lab coats, laminated Periodic Tables, study guides, etc.).  Those are not required for this course and you do not need to purchase them.  You will need:

• Organic Chemistry, Wade and Simek, 9^th Ed. (8th edition will work, won't match my notes perfectly but I'll have section differences indicated on Canvas)
  • Book ISBN 978-0321971371 (9th edition)
  • You can also use the e-text, I won't mandate a physical copy. 
• A Microscale Approach to Organic Laboratory Techniques, (Pavia, et. al) 6th edition (5th will work but won't match in-class materials)
  • Book ISBN 978-1305968349 (6th edition)
• Molecular Modeling Kit: You will need a molecular modeling kit for a number of the activities we'll do in class. A lot of what we do in this class is in three dimensions, including manipulating molecules and rotating around bonds. This can be very difficult to do in your head without very much experience.
  • I will be using this kit but  it is ridiculously expensive just about everywhere (I splurged for mine but I use it a lot). There are plenty of good quality kits out there that will do the job without breaking the bank (here, here, and here, for example). Just about any organic chemistry kit (with linear, trigonal planar, and tetrahedral pieces) will work; if it isn't one of the ones linked, check before purchasing!
• Safety Goggles for in-person lab meetings 
  • I recommend the UVEX Stealth, especially if you will be taking more chemistry courses after this course.  While these are available in the bookstore, they are overpriced! I recommend looking online for a better deal. 
  • If you want to purchase goggles that are not the UVEX Stealth before the semester begins from somewhere besides the bookstore, PLEASE contact me and check that they are acceptable. The goggles must be chemical splash goggles with the appropriate certification (Z87+); do not purchase just any goggles.
  • Do not purchase safety glasses! They are not permitted.
• A Newell-Brand Sharpie permanent marker. This needs to be an on-brand marker or else it won't work in the lab. 
• LabArchives Access ($20): We will use this software for our lab notebook this semester. Wait to purchase this until the semester begins. 
• Calculator: You will not need a graphing calculator; we'll be using scientific calculators exclusively in this class.