COURSE SYLLABUS - Alhambra Chemistry



COURSE SYLLABUS

E-mail: martin_maria@ausd.us

• Course: AP Chemistry

• Text: Chemistry :(Zumdahl)

• Course Description:

This is an advanced placement course designed to prepare the student for the AP Chemistry exam. The course covers the equivalent of one full year of college level General Chemistry, comparable to a first year course at a college or university.

The course is a rigorous math-based course, with a strong laboratory component. It is intended for students who have demonstrated a willingness to commit considerable time to studying and completing assignments outside of class, and who have successfully completed a prior course in chemistry during high school.

The course will develop the student's ability to incorporate mathematical skills in the solution of chemistry problems, both through the use of textbook problems and laboratory activities. Since the AP exam no longer allows the use of calculators, significant emphasis will be placed on developing the student's ability to solve problems through dimensional analysis and estimation. Students will be required to do extensive writing, and to keep a thorough and accurate ongoing laboratory notebook. Students are required to take the AP test on May. If the student decided not to take it, a final test will be administering, and will be part of the grade.

The new AP course will be organized around the following big ideas

BIG IDEA 1: SCALE, PROPORTION, AND QUANTITY

Quantities in chemistry are expressed at both the macroscopic and atomic scale. Explanations, predictions, and other forms of argumentation in chemistry require understanding the meaning of these quantities, and the relationship between quantities at the same scale and across scales.

BIG IDEA 2: STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES

Properties of substances observable at the macroscopic scale emerge from the structures of atoms and molecules and the interactions between them. Chemical reasoning moves in both directions across these scales. Properties are predicted from known aspects of the structures and interactions at the atomic scale. Observed properties are used to infer aspects of the structures and interactions.

BIG IDEA 3: TRANSFORMATIONS

At its heart, chemistry is about the rearrangement of matter. Understanding the details of these transformations requires reasoning at many levels as one must quantify what is occurring both macroscopically and at the atomic level during the process. This reasoning can be as simple as monitoring amounts of products made or as complex as visualizing the intermolecular forces among the species in a mixture. The rate of a transformation is also of interest, as particles must move and collide to initiate reaction events.

BIG IDEA 4: ENERGY

Energy has two important roles in characterizing and controlling chemical systems. The first is accounting for the distribution of energy among the components of a system and the ways that heat exchanges, chemical reactions, and phase transitions redistribute this energy. The second is in considering the enthalpic and entropic driving forces for a chemical process. These are closely related to the dynamic equilibrium present in many chemical systems and the ways in which changes in experimental conditions alter the positions of these equilibria.

How to succeed in this class:

(YOU CANNOT CRAM FOR THIS CLASS! Do your work everyday. I work very hard to eliminate repetitive and unnecessary work and give you only materials that are strongly

focused on the AP curriculum,

(Work to understand the material, not to just get your work done

(Take advantage of class time. Be alert and ask questions in class. Work hard in

class

( See me during lunch for help, and the after school tutoring sessions.

(Find useful information from my website or from the web.

• Course Requirements:

CLASS POLICIES. Please also be aware of the following class policies.

•Class Supplies

o You should bring to class every day: a binder, writing instruments (pencil, eraser, pens, colored pencils), paper, a scientific calculator (graphing calculators will not be allowed on

o Do Not Bring: food, drinks, cell phones, or other electronic devices to class. Chewing gum is not permitted in class.

See safety contract - YOU MUST WEAR GLASSES OR GOGGLES IN THE LAB when you are working with dangerous chemicals.

•Restroom: Please use the restroom before you come to class. One student at a time may use the restroom with permission during times when your participation in class is not critical. No restroom passes while taking tests.

•Personal Mobile Devices: Cell phones and other personal mobile devices (e.g. tablets, laptop computers) are not to be seen or used during class time (never will be on your desk) unless instructed or given permission for an approved purpose. Do not take pictures of classroom materials without permission. The cell phones should be in your backpack, if your teacher confiscated your phone will returned at the end of the period. However, if your phone was confiscated 3 times, your teacher will report to the student services.

•Absences: If you are miss part or all of class, you are completely responsible for what you missed. There will not be any time in class to help you catch up on what you missed. Here is how you can make up the missed class]:

o Let me know if you know you will be gone. Sometimes I will know what you will miss. We can start a conversation about how to complete missed assignments and class activities.

o Ask a friend (who is in the class) to “cover” for you. Ask them to make a note of what we did in class, keep track of any announcements made, pick up any handouts, and take thorough notes. Ask this friend afterward to update you on what happened during class, and to teach you the lesson that you missed.

o Check the Class Website so you know exactly what we’ve done.

o Come see me before school as soon as you can when you are back. Make up class work should never be done in class. You need to be engaged in the class activities during class. Absences are NOT a legitimate reason for not knowing content or completing assigned work.

o Missed work need to be completed. Missed unit tests must be taken during the announced Make-Up Test date (this will be the only opportunity to take the test).

♣Labs must be completed at a scheduled time. You cannot just copy another student’s data.

♣Assignments need to be your own work.

Missing stamps in your assignments will discount a portion of your grade proportionally. Late work will be accepted during the same quarter anytime and it will be graded proportionally depending how late was returned

Extra credit.: Because the grading scale is lower than usual, there is not extra-credit assigned. You can obtain extra points if your work is an A+ or if you exceed the participation points expected for the quarter. In addition each test, will offer some extra credit questions to answer

• Class Rules:

1. Be Prompt: When the bell rings, be in assigned seat ready to learn.

Wait to be dismissed by the teacher. The bell does not end a class.

2. Be Prepared: Bring binder, completed homework, and materials to class, included textbook.

3. Be Polite: Respect teachers, classmates and classroom environment, including raising your hand to ask questions or to reply to one. Refrain from chewing gum, putting on make-up, eating or drinking in class..

• It is the student's responsibility to obtain any material missed when absent. Missed assignments and labs due to excused absences must be submitted upon return or within a period of time discussed with the teacher or receive a grade of zero.

• Students must acknowledge any input from peers, parents and secondary sources in all work. Students who cheat, copy or plagiarize the work of others will receive a grade of zero on the assignment, test, or exam. All the assignments that you turn have to be original. Especially for summaries and individual or team projects, the teacher will reject to grade your work if you had copy and could inform the Deams’ office.

Grading scale: 85-100% A, 84-75% B, 74-65% C, 64-55% D, 0-54% F

|Quarter 1 and 3 |Quarter 2-4 |Semester 1 |

|Tests +Quizzes 45% |Tests +Quizzes 40% |Tests +Quizzes 35% |

| | |Final (project/ test) 10 % |

|Labs  20% |Labs     19% |Labs     17% |

|Classwork   packages      33% |Classwork   packages       32% |Classwork   packages      29% |

| |binder 7% |Binder 7% |

|Participation 2% |Participation 2% |Participation 2% |

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