1. General Features

   • Semesters offered: in the fall
   • Instructors: Professor Steinmetz
   • average enrollment: 24
   • format: lectures, one 4-hour lab per week, weekly review sessions. The experiments in the lab are chosen from the Chemistry 1a,b repertoire.
   • prerequisites: at least two years of high school chemistry and a passing grade on the Placement Examination offered during Freshman Orientation. Students who complete Chemistry 51 and have a 4 or 5 on the Chemistry Advanced Placement examination will be given one AP credit. Starting with the Class of 2008, an AP credit will be given for a 4 or 5 on the Chemistry AP examination even if the student is not enrolled in Chemisjtry 51. However, the College will only award two courses of credit towards graduation from the results of AP examinations irrespective of the number of AP exams with a score of 4 or 5. The instructor's permission is required to enter the course.
   • Special competencies: Basic proficiency in high school mathematics and at least two years of high school chemistry. Students with only one year of high school chemistry should enroll in Chemistry 1. Topics such as stoichiometry, gas laws, solutions, nomenclature, and balancing of oxidation-reduction equations will not be covered in the course.
   • Level of the course: General Chemistry is required for concentrations in chemistry, biology, physics, molecular biology, neuroscience, and environmental analysis and Chemistry 51 satisfies this requirement. Chemistry 51 is an appropriate course to satisfy PAC requirement 2 (Use and Understand the Scientific Method).
   • student composition: mostly freshmen

2. Course Requirements

   • 75% of the final grade is based on the lecture component of the course and 25% of the grade on the laboratory component.
   • The lab grade is based on the lab reports and a short written lab final exam.
   • The lecture grade is based on 4 midterm exams and the final examination.
   • Homework: Effort placed on the homework assignments is the key to the course. The homework is checked by student graders but performance on the homework is not a factor in the calculation of the lecture grade.

3. Materials to Be Purchased

   • D. W. Oxtoby, W. A. Freeman, and T. F. Block, Chemistry: Science of Change, 4th. ed., Thomson (Brooks/Cole), Pacific Grove, MA, 2003. The same text is also used in Chemistry 1a,b.
   • Chemistry 51 Laboratory Manual, purchased at the stockroom
   • laboratory notebook and safety glasses

4. Course Content and Goals
   • We strive to develop an understanding of phenomena at the molecular level. The course also emphasizes the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting quantitative data. General Chemistry is an excellent vehicle for developing problem-solving skills. Microsoft Excel will be used in the laboratory to fit experimental data to linear equations. The laboratory also includes an introduction to molecular modeling using Spartan.
   • Topics in Chemistry 51: introduction to statistics, classes of chemical reactions, ionic equilibrium, atomic structure, the nature of the chemical bond, transition-metal complexes, solid-state chemistry, chemical thermodynamics, and chemical kinetics

last revised, 13 August 2003, WES