CHEMISTRY 241 ORGANIC CHEMISTRY I
FALL 2008 SYLLABUS

CATALOG DESCRIPTION
CHE 241 Organic Chemistry-I (four credit hours )
The structure, nomenclature, stereochemistry, and reactions of alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, and alkyl halides are studied. The mechanistic pathways of reactions, methods of synthesis, and spectroscopic determination of structure are also discussed. Laboratory work is required. Prerequisite: CHE 132.

OFFICE HOURS AND CONTACT POLICY:  See my schedule below. I am generally available for questions unless I am in lecture, lab, or at lunch. I usually get in at 7 am on MWF and 7:30 am on TR. I leave my office at 7:50 to go to the classroom so don't expect me to help you at the last minute. I am also available for questions in lab when I am not too busy (after the first 45 minutes of lab). If you visit me in lab you must wear safety goggles. I eat lunch usually from 11:15-12:15 every day. I will usually be around until 4 pm on MTWR and 3 pm on F. If you need to contact me during the day, calling my office (238-5415) is usually best. I check my email often while I am at school, but rarely in the evenings. Please do not try to ask me questions about organic chemistry problems over the phone or by email since it is often too difficult to answer them except in person. If you have an emergency you may call my cell phone (859-319-0341). You should use some common sense when calling my cell phone. Not understanding how to do a homework problem is not an emergency. Missing my class the next day because you are sick is also not an emergency. Be sure that you give me a phone number that you will answer to early in the morning--I will call you if you do not show up in the first five minutes of an exam.

TEXTBOOKS:  Organic Chemistry, by John McMurry; 7th edition; Brooks/Cole, 2007. (If you have the 6th edition, you should be OK for the course, although you might not be able to access some of the cool online supporting materials). If you are having some difficulty on concepts and I'm not around, try the web based tutorials. Here is a link to the lab manual and lab schedule. Don't print out the entire lab manual since some of the experiments will change. It's best just to print out the experiment for that week (and try to share with a friend to cut down on printing). The study guide for the textbook is optional. A copy will be on reserve in the library.

GRADING

You may not attend the other class section (on any day including the final) unless you have cleared it with me IN ADVANCE or unless you have some sort of emergency. One half of one exam or one quarter of the final exam may be dropped. The exam dates are September 26, October 24, and November 21 . The final exam date for the 8 am class is December 10 from 7-10 pm and for the 9:10 am class is December 11 from 8:30-11:30 am. Make up exams will not be given except under special circumstances. It is your responsibility to make arrangements well in advance if you know you are going to miss an exam. I cannot move the final exam date or time so do not make plans that will cause you to miss the final. Approximately ten percent of each exam will be based on laboratory material. You are encouraged to actively participate in the class. Your grade may be raised or lowered at my discretion due to good or poor class participation. Poor class participation includes unexcused absences or tardiness. You will be held to the college policies concerning academic honesty. Please review those policies in the Student Handbook. These standards apply to ALL aspects of the course, including lab reports and homework assignments! I will be using turnitin.com for any written assignments.

COURSE COVERAGE:  The course will follow the textbook very closely. Some topics may be added or deleted. We will attempt to cover Chapters 1-13 in that order in this course. I will generally tell you what pages to read to review what I have gone over in class.

ATTENDANCE POLICY: You are strongly encouraged to attend all lectures. Poor attendance (missing classes or repeated tardiness) will affect your class participation grade. You must attend all laboratory meetings: failure to do so will result in possible failure for the course. It is your responsibility to make up labs missed due to athletic or other college-approved events.

DRESS CODE: I want my classroom to be a somewhat professional environment. To that end, baseball caps and other types of hats may not be worn in my classroom. T-shirts and shorts are OK as long as they are in good shape and of appropriate length. I do not want to have a strict dress code, but you should use your common sense about what is appropriate dress. If I do not feel that you are dressed appropriately I will quietly ask to you to leave to change your clothing. Repeated violations of the dress code may result in a grade penalty. Shorts and sandals may not be worn in the laboratory. Please turn your cell phones OFF in class and lab and my office.

EXAMS: Exams will be based primarily on in-class notes, homework problems and material from the laboratory. They will also test you on your ability to apply your knowledge to previously unencountered material. You can get an idea of the types of problems and format by looking at the exams from the last time I taught the class (EXAM 1, EXAM 2, EXAM 3). You should be aware that the material covered for the exams the last time may be different than this year. I will let you know in class which problems are appropriate. I will not answer questions from exams that date back prior to 2005. I do not hand back finals so you will not find any old ones.  

HOMEWORK:  Homework problems are available here as a PDF file (they are different from previous years!).  Problems will be assigned on a daily basis.  Do NOT print out all of the homework pages since I will be continually updating them. Problems from the textbook will also be suggested as homework.  Some homework will require you to come up with and solve problems. You must show your work on all problems and cheating is grounds for failure for the course.  Assignments are due in class on the designated date:  late homework will not be accepted. Some homework answers will be posted outside my office for a limited time or placed on reserve in the library. You may also find some useful problems at the website for the textbook. Most of them are multiple choice, but you can get help on concepts.

SPECTROSCOPY HELP :  You can find some help with spectroscopy on these links:
INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY STUFF
NMR SPECTRAL PROBLEMS (POWERPOINT PRESENTATION)

MOLECULAR MODELS:  You should buy a set of these from the bookstore or elsewhere. Very often I will not be able to answer your questions about homework problems if you do not bring a set of molecular models. They may also be used during exams. If you want to use a computer program to draw structures, the one I use (it's free) is ISIS-Draw and you can download it here.

GENERAL ADVICE:  Students always ask what strategies they should adopt to do well in organic chemistry. Over the years I have supplemented my own advice with advice from students who earned A's in both semesters of organic chemistry. You can view their advice here.