CHM - Chemistry Course Descriptions
This course examines energy production in modern technical society (including food, electricity, and fuel) and some of the associated unintended consequences: air pollution, acid rain, radon contamination, and ozone depletion. The fundamental chemistry and physics necessary for understanding these problems are presented on a level appropriate for the non-science major. Three lecture hours per week.
Provides foundational chemical concepts particularly pertinent to students pursuing careers in nursing and in middle childhood education. Topics include matter, measurements, atoms, bonds, moles, solids/liquids/gases, solutions, reactions, acids/bases/salts, and nuclear chemistry. Laboratory work reinforces and applies lecture material and includes computer-based data acquisition and analysis. Three lecture and one 3-hour laboratory periods per week.
For pre nursing and middle childhood education students:
CHM 115
Provides science majors, pre-engineering students, and education majors seeking adolescent/young adult licensure with a comprehensive study of matter, its interactions, and its transformations. This is the first course of a two-course sequence covering the most fundamental concepts and theories of chemistry. Topics covered in this course are measurement and uncertainty, properties and classification of matter, atomic structure, the periodic table and periodic properties of the elements, molecular structure, ionic and covalent bonding, properties of gases, and basic chemical calculations. Three lecture periods per week.
Co-requisite for science majors and for pre-engineering and pre-professional students:
CHM 116
Is the second course of a two-course sequence covering the most fundamental concepts and theories of chemistry. Topics include aqueous solutions, chemical reactions, thermochemistry, kinetics, equilibrium, acid-base chemistry, chemical thermodynamics, and electrochemistry. Three lecture periods per week.
Offers a survey of organic chemistry followed by an introduction to biochemistry within the context of human physiology. Topics include saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons, alcohols, phenols, ethers, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, amines, amides, carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins. This course is essential for students in the allied health fields, who require a background in the chemistry of the human body. Three lecture periods per week.
Reinforces and applies CHM 110 lecture material and includes computer-based data acquisition and analysis. One 3-hour laboratory period per week.
Provides a hands-on exploration of the theories and laws studied in CHM 111, with an emphasis on the scientific method. One 3-hour laboratory period per week.
CHM 111 (may be taken concurrently)
Provides a hands-on exploration of the theories and laws studied in CHM 112, with an emphasis on the scientific method. One 3-hour laboratory period per week.
Reinforces and applies CHM 114 lecture material and includes computer-based data acquisition. One 3-hour laboratory period per week.
Provides science majors and pre-professional students with a foundational study of organic chemistry. This is the first course of a two-course series covering the most fundamental concepts, reactions, and mechanisms involved in the understanding and practice of organic chemistry. Topics include alkanes, alkenes, aromatics, structure, properties, nomenclature, conformations, isomers, stereo- chemistry, chirality, resonance, reactions, polymerizations, synthesis, carbocations, radicals, mechanisms, thermodynamics, and spectroscopic techniques. Three lecture periods per week.
Is the second course of a two-course sequence covering the most fundamental concepts, reactions, and mechanisms involved in the understanding and practice of organic chemistry. Topics include conjugation, alkadienes, organometallics, alcohols, phenols, thiols, ethers, epoxides, sulfides, aldehydes, ketones, enols, enolates, carboxylic acids and derivatives, esters, ester enolates, amines, and biochemically important organic molecules. Three lecture periods per week.
Provides practical applications, in the form of experiments, of many of the most important concepts taught in the corresponding lecture course. Experiments include physical properties, spectroscopy, acid-base chemistry, addition and elimination reactions, chiral resolutions, and electrophilic aromatic substitutions. One 4-hour laboratory per week.
Provides practical applications, in the form of experiments, of many of the most important concepts taught in the corresponding lecture course. Experiments include reductions, oxidations, qualitative tests, Grignard, aldol, and Michael reactions, Fischer esterification multi-step synthesis, and original design chemistry. One 4-hour laboratory per week.
Expands on concepts introduced in General Chemistry to examine the chemistry of all elements, with an emphasis on the transition metals and solid state chemistry. Topics include the crystalline state, symmetry, coordination chemistry, molecular orbital theory, and nuclear chemistry.
Introduces statistical methods as applied to laboratory data; explores theoretical and practical aspects of volumetric and gravimetric analytical procedures; and concludes with an overview of electrochemical, spectrometric, and chromatographic instrumental methods. Laboratory work develops students' skills in these areas and includes using a transducer interfaced to a computer for data acquisition and analysis. A knowledge of these theories and methods is essential to the application of chemistry in many fields. Two lecture and two 3-hour laboratory periods per week.
Provides a mathematical treatment of chemical laws and theories, including quantum theory, atomic and molecular structure, and spectroscopy. Three lecture periods per week.
Provides a mathematical treatment of chemical laws and theories, including thermodynamics, kinetics, kinetic molecular theory, and the chemistry of solutions and surfaces. Three lecture periods per week.
Exercises complement and reinforce the concepts covered in CHM 321. A significant part of the course involves the writing of journal-style laboratory reports. One 4-hour laboratory period per week.
Exercises complement and reinforce the concepts covered in CHM 322. A significant part of the course involves the writing of journal-style laboratory reports. One 4-hour laboratory period per week.
Is a work-experience opportunity with the purpose of expanding education by applying accumulated knowledge in chemistry. The availability of internships is limited to upper-level students, normally juniors and seniors with a 2.5 quality point average. Students are approved individually by the academic department. A contract can be obtained from the Career Planning and Services Office in Starvaggi Hall. Internships count as general electives.
Chemistry senior standing and permission of the department chair. Internships must be preapproved.
Delves into the theoretical and practical aspects of chromatographic, electrochemical, and spectrometric methods of analysis. Statistics and computer applications are also included. Two lecture and two laboratory periods per week.
Departmental permission
Continues the study of inorganic chemistry by focusing on main group chemistry, transition metals, lanthanides, actinides, and organometallic chemistry.
Deals with the chemico-physiological nature of biological systems, focusing on macromolecules. Relationships between the structure and functions of water, proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids are discussed. The function and kinetics of enzymes are also covered.
Deals with the chemico-physiological nature of biological systems, focusing on metabolism. The reactions, functions, and thermodynamics of the major metabolic pathways are discussed in detail.
Provides hands on experience for students with principles and methods learned in Foundations of Biochemistry I and II.
Investigates an understanding of the reactions of organic compounds via a study of the structure of these compounds and the mechanisms of the reactions they undergo. Three lecture periods per week.
Departmental permission
Requires the preparation of a scholarly treatise on an assigned topic in chemistry. The topic is typically the research project of CHM 437.
Provides the student with the opportunity to pursue a research project. Students will choose a research project that is of special interest to them, then conduct laboratory experiments of their own design after consultation with the chemistry faculty.