Division of Environmental and Life Sciences

MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY

DIVISION OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY AND BIOMOLECULAR SCIENCES

CBMS112 – Advanced Chemistry 1A - UNIT OUTLINE

Semester: Semester 1

Unit convenor: Dr Ian Jamie

Corequisites: CBMS101

Assumed Knowledge: Assumed knowledge is HSC Chemistry or equivalent.

Students in this unit should read this unit outline carefully at the start of semester. It contains important information about the unit. If anything in it is unclear, please consult one of the teaching staff in the unit.

About this unit

Credit Points: 1 (equivalent to at least 3 hours/week)

Contact Hours: 2 per week, averaged over the semester

When Offered: D1; First Half-Year

Staff Contact: Dr Ian Jamie
Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences
Phone: 9850 8293
Fax: 9850 8313
E-mail: ian.jamie@mq.edu.au

CBMS112 is an extension unit to CBMS101. It is highly recommended for those students who intend to study chemistry and chemistry-related units at higher levels. It is also suitable for those students with Senior High School chemistry, even if they do not intend continuing in chemistry studies. It is run in a student-centred, extended discussion/tutorial mode with a large amount of active student participation, hands-on exercises and demonstrations. The syllabus is designed to extend the students’ understanding beyond High School Certificate level chemistry. The syllabus runs in parallel to the CBMS101 syllabus but may at times lead the CBMS101 lectures.

Teaching staff

Dr Ian Jamie (Convenor):

Office: F7B 236
Phone: 9850 8293
Fax: 9850 8313
E-mail: ian.jamie@mq.edu.au

There are no formal office hours for this unit. I am happy to receive students outside of the formal contact times. I invite you to see me at any time, but please be aware that I am not always to be found in my office. It is generally wise to organise an appointment in advance, if possible.

Classes

• Lectures/Tutorials: There are two contact hours each week.

Required and Recommended texts and/or materials

Prescribed textbook: The CBMS101 text book will be used as the text. 

Learning Goals and Outcomes: This course is intended to broaden your understanding of chemical phenomena at the molecular level. It will prepare you for further studies in the chemical and biomolecular sciences by providing some of the basic chemical knowledge and tools required for those studies.

Generic Skills: Generic skills, also called “graduate attributes”, are the qualities, skills and understandings that will allow you, as a graduate, to act as an informed and effective member of your community. Generic skills can be thought of as those skills, abilities and personal attributes that can be used in the wide range of environments that you may experience as you live your lives. They are viewed as essential for all graduates, irrespective of their course of study. Thus, in conjunction with discipline-specific skills and knowledge, generic skills are the building blocks for developing the attributes valued in a university graduate. Some of the attributes and skills that CBMS112 can help you develop are:

• problem-solving: the ability to apply problem-solving strategically both in situations where there is a clear solution and in situations demanding critical thinking and creativity;
• working with others: in one-to-one and in larger teams, understanding and responding to the demands of the task and working effectively to achieve a shared goal;
• literacy and communication: generating meaning from complex information and communicating that meaning in an appropriate manner;
• critical analysis: evaluating relevance and relating knowledge to the real world;
• numeracy: ability accurately to collect and interpret numerical data through extrapolation, approximation, precision, accuracy, rational estimation and statistical validity; being able to perform calculations, extract meaning and understanding the relevance of conclusions drawn from such calculations; quantitative reasoning skills to successfully to pursue career objectives, a related career or further professional training;
• IT and technical skills, and computer literacy: competence with relevant equipment;
• self-management: the ability to plan and organise your activities;

Teaching and Learning Strategy 

• Active participation by the students in all of the meetings is expected. This means that you are expected to ask questions, participate in activities and work as a team member. Learning is an active process, and as such, you must engage with the material. This means reading the textbook (and beyond) before and after the meetings, attempt the assignment questions and other questions, discuss the concepts with your classmates and lecturers. Do not be afraid to ask questions – your classmates will probably want to ask the same thing.
• Assignment questions are issued so that you will have the opportunity to use the information provided in the lectures and textbook and to test your degree of understanding of those topics.
• There are hands-on activities and exercises. The intention of this is to allow you to explore the topics under consideration from your own perspective, reinforcing the textbook and lecture descriptions.

Relationship between Assessment and Learning Outcomes

Assessment: This unit is a Satisfactory/Fail unit, without a numerical grade allocation. Assessment will be made on the basis of a small number of formal assignments, degree of participation in activities and attendance record.

Examinations: There is no final examination.

Attendance: Attendance at the lecture/tutorial is compulsory, and non-attendance may be taken as grounds for applying a failing grade. Students unable to attend due to illness or misadventure must provide formal documentary evidence to the University as soon as possible after the absence.

If an absence is anticipated (perhaps for a mandatory religious event, etc), the student must inform teaching staff in advance that this will be the case and make alternative arrangements. It is the responsibility of the student to undertake this. Notification after the event of an anticipatable absence will not be looked upon favourably.

Due Dates and Submission of Material: The due date for assignments and other assessable material will be provided along with the assignment.

Every effort will be made by the staff to return the material within the next seven days, but this may not always be possible.

University Policy on Grading

Academic Senate has a set of guidelines on the distribution of grades across the range from fail to high distinction. In this unit the final result will be either an S (Satisfactory) or F (Fail).

Plagiarism

The University defines plagiarism as "using the work of another person and presenting it as one's own." Plagiarism is a serious breach of the University's rules and carries significant penalties. You must read the University's practices and procedures on plagiarism. These can be found in the Handbook of Undergraduate Studies or on the web at:

www.student.mq.edu.au/plagiarism/

The policies and procedures explain what plagiarism is, how to avoid it, the procedures that will be taken in cases of suspected plagiarism, and the penalties if you are found guilty. Penalties may include a deduction of marks, failure in the unit, and/or referral to the University Discipline Committee.

Plagiarism, in an assignment, laboratory report or any other piece of work which is to be assessed, means to give the impression that you have written or thought something that you have in fact borrowed from another. It is acceptable to use other persons' words or thoughts, but they must be acknowledged as such. Examples include:

• copying part(s) of any document or audio-visual material, including electronic material (such as from web pages);
• using or extracting someone else's concepts or experimental results or conclusions, even if they put them in their words, unless explicitly given permission to do so from the staff of the unit;
• copying out or taking ideas from the work of another student, even if the borrowed material is recast in your own words;
• submitting substantially the same final version of any material as a fellow student. On occasions, a student may be encouraged to prepare their work with someone else, but the final form of the assignment must be their own independent endeavour.

In some cases group work is required, and the assessment procedures will take into account this situation. Grades may be distributed on the assumption that all group members contributed equally, or a mechanism may be used to allocated marks weighted to the extent of contribution of individuals.

Opportunities and temptations for plagiarism have increased with the spread of internet access. Plagiarism is a serious threat to the teaching and accreditation process, and seriously undermines the collegial and ethical principles which underpin the work of a University.

A full outline of the revised University Policy on Plagiarism can be found on the official Student@Macquarie website at http://www.student.mq.edu.au. The website includes a general discussion of plagiarism, definitions, examples drawn from concrete cases, procedures that will be followed by the University in cases of plagiarism, and recommended penalties. Students are expected to familiarise themselves with the website.

Assignments are to be your own work. Using someone else's words (either another student's or from a book or journal article or a web site) without clear acknowledgement is plagiarism and can incur serious penalties. If it is ever necessary to use someone else's words for a phrase or sentence, they should be placed in quotation marks and acknowledged at the end of the sentence. If you use or modify a diagram or figure from another author, that must be acknowledged underneath (e.g. Figure 3 from Brown et al., 1995; figure modified from Green, 1997). Lecturers want to read your own words and ideas.

In the event that a Lecturer identifies a case of plagiarism, the student will be advised, either on the submitted work or by separate letter, and a record kept in the office of the Head of Department. Students will always have the opportunity to discuss each case with their Lecturer if they indicate they wish to do so by either contacting the Lecturer or the Head of Department. Proven cases of plagiarism may result in the award of an “F” grade.

Student Support Services

Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can be obtained at:

www.student.mq.edu.au.

Other information for Macquarie students is available from the Student Portal at:

https://my.mq.edu.au.

The Numeracy Centre (C5A 225, www.maths.mq.edu.au/numeracy/) may also be able to offer assistance for difficulties with the mathematical aspects of this unit.

Feedback

I am always open to suggestions for improving the content and delivery of this course. I will be very happy to receive any constructive criticism that your may wish to provide. I hope that you will find this unit to be a rewarding experience.

Ian Jamie

Unit Convenor