Although the assessment tasks for CBMS234 are identical to those of CBMS123, CBMS123 and CBMS234 students will be graded as two separate cohorts, with a higher standard expected for CBMS234

Deadlines

All assignments (Essays & Workshops) are due in electronic form not later than 9 am on the submission date.

University Policy on Grading

Academic Senate has a set of guidelines on the distribution of grades across the range from fail to high distinction based on the level of understanding and comprehension achieved. See: https://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html for details of this policy.

The raw aggregate mark for the unit (i.e., the total of marks from all assessment items) is not the same as the SNG. Results will be scaled to ensure that there is a degree of consistency between the final SNG and student attainment. University policy does not require that a minimum number of students are to be failed or passed in any unit. The process of scaling will never change the ranking order among students. As a very rough guide, in this unit, you will need to achieve about 55 raw marks for a Pass, 69 for a Credit, 79 for a Distinction and 84 for a High Distinction. These numbers vary only slightly from year to year and will be converted to an SNG by applicaiton of a normalised distribution. Irrespective of your raw aggregate mark you must submit satisfactory efforts for ALL assessment tasks to pass CBMS123/234.

Extension and Special Consideration Requests

The University recognises that there may be circumstances where a student is prevented by unavoidable disruption from performing in accordance with their ability. The University has a policy on special consideration request that may be found at: http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/special_consideration/policy.html

You will need to lodge your request for special consideration by doing the following:

1. Log onto Ask.MQ (http://ask.mq.edu.au/)
2. Go to "My Enquiries"
3. Login with your OneID
4. Under "Forms and Requests", select "Submit request for Special Considerations" from the drop-down menu
5. Fill in your relevant details
6. Attach supporting document by clicking "Add a reply", click "Browse" and add scanned documents
7. Take the original supporting documentation to be sighted at your faculty office.

Teaching and Learning Strategy

The CBMS123/234 unit website, at http://ilearn.mq.edu.au, allows you access to lecture notes and other resources.  To log in, use your Student OneID plus your regular password.  Lecture notes are put on the Web in advance with the audio/visual recordings (L1-L24).  L0 is the orientation lecture given on the first day of semester and L23 is the Nobel Prize lecture. Both of these lectures are given live in Session 2, 2014. Any due dates or references to "Live lectures" do not apply to this session 3 version of the unit.

All students should be regularly accessing the CBMS123/234 iLearn site, which contains important information.  This is a vital requirement for this unit, with its progressive assessment and no final examination.  Regular study of the e-lectures is also expected.

Students must submit each of their Workshops and Essay assignments in electronic form.

Recommended texts and/or materials

There is no textbook for CBMS123/CBMS234, however, the following books are highly recommended reading:

1. Ronald Breslow, "Chemistry. Today and Tomorrow. The Central, useful and Creative Science", (Jones and Bartlett, Sudbury, MA, 1997; ISBN 0 7637 0463 6 or ISBN 0 8412 3460 4), provides a useful foundation.

2. Arthur Greenberg, "The Art of Chemistry" (Wiley Interscience, Hoboken, 2003; ISBN 0-471-07180-3), is a beautiful book about the history and philosophy of chemistry and would make a nice coffee table book that will break the ice at parties.

3. Roald Hoffmann, "The Same and Not The Same" (Columbia UP, N.Y., 1995; ISBN 0 231 10138 4 or 0 231 10139 2), much of the lecture material is based on this book.

4. Ben Selinger, “Chemistry in the Marketplace” (Harcourt Brace, London, 5th edition, 1998; ISBN 0 349 12198 2). A homegrown Aussie book about chemistry in everyday life. A fountain of knowledge about ……. well, everything.

Additional print- and web-based material will be recommended as the unit progresses; keep an eye on the “important news” on the web page – also, see the reading list:

Further Readings

• Susan Aldridge, Magic Molecules - How Drugs Work (Cambridge UP, Cambridge, 1998;  ISBN 0 521 58414 0)
• Philip Ball, The Ingredients (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002,  ISBN 0-19-284100-9)
• Philip Ball, MOLECULES A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford, 2001, ISBN 0-19-285430-5)
• Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent & Isabella Stengers, A History of Chemistry (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996; ISBN 0 674 39659 6)
• Jerome Berson. Chemical Discovery and the Logicians’ Program. A Problematic Pairing (Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2003; ISBN3 527 30797 4)
• Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist (Dover Publications, Mineola NY, 2003, ISBN 0-486-42825-7)
• Ronald Breslow, Enzymes, the machines of life (Scientific Pub. Dept., Sudbury, MA, 1986;  ISBN 0 8927 8155 6)
• Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man (BBC Books, London, 1973; paperback 1976;  ISBN 0 563 17064 6)
• Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Penguin Books with Hamish Hamilton, Harmondsworth, 1965; ISBN 0 1400 2268 6)
• Alan Chalmers, What is this thing called science? (U of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1999;  ISBN 0 7022 3093 6)
• Allen G. Debus, The Chemical Philosophy (Dover Publications, Mineola NY, 2003, ISBN 0-486-42825-7)
• Frank W. Dobby, The Age of the Molecule (Harper & Row, NY, 1976, ISBN 0-06-041659-9)
• Carl Djerassi, Oxygen:  A Play in Two Acts (Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2001;  ISBN 3 5273 0413 4)
• John Emsley, The Elements (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998; ISBN 0 1985 5818 X)
• John Emsley, Molecules at an Exhibition (Oxford UP, Oxford, 1998; ISBN 0 19 850266 4)
• Simon Garfield, Mauve:  How one man invented a colour that changed the world (Faber & Faber, London, 2000; ISBN 0 571 20197 0)
• Thomas Hager, The alchemy of air: A Jewish genius, a doomed tycoon, and the scientific discovery that fed the world but fuelled the rise of Hitler (Harmony Books, N.Y., 2008; ISBN ISBN 978-0-307-35178-4)
• Arthur Greenberg, A Chemical History Tour (Wiley-Interscience, N.Y., 2000; ISBN 0 471 35408 2)
• E. Heilbronner and F. A. Miller, A Philatelic Ramble through Chemistry (Wiley-VCH, Zürich, ISBN 3-906390-31-4)
• Bernard Jaffe, Crucibles: The Story of Chemistry 4^th Ed (Dover Publications, Mineola NY, 1976, ISBN 0-486-23342-1)
• Kerry Karukstis & Gerald Van Hecke, Chemistry Connections (2nd Ed. Academic Press, N.Y., 2000; ISBN-13 9780124001510)
• Primo Levi, The Periodic Table (English translation; Michael Joseph Ltd, London, 1985;  ISBN 0 349 12198 2)
• Kary B. Mullis, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field (Pantheon Books, N. Y., 1998; ISBN 0 6794 4255 3)
• Paul Strathern, Mendeleyev's Dream (Hamish Hamilton, London, 2000; ISBN 0 14 028414 1)
• James Watson, The Double Helix (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1981; ISBN 0 297 77899 4)
• John Ziman, Real Science (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000 ISBN 0-521-77229-X)

Copies of some of these books (and other relevant ones) will be placed in the Reserve section of the Library. 

Selected book extracts will occasionally be reproduced (to the extent permissible by copyright law) on the CBMS123/234 iLearn page.  One copy of each may then be downloaded by each student for private use.  It may also be useful on occasions to consult a general chemistry textbook (e.g., Silberberg, Smith, or Aylward & Findlay) that some students already know of.  The Library has many possibilities at call number QD33.  The University Library also has a good collection of chemistry-related videos available for viewing.  There are many useful resources on the Web.  Access to some that are highly recommended can be gained via the “Lots of Links” section on the CBMS123/234 iLearn page or by keying in known URLs  or by using your favourite search engine.

Unit web page

The web page for these units can be found at:  http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/  You are expected to access the web pages regularly, where you may find announcements, links to interesting internet facilities and sites of interest to the course, downloadable software, and lots of other interesting stuff.  In addition all the lectures and printed notes for the lectures will be found only on the unit web page and it is up to you to keep up with the lectures and assessments.

Technology Used

You are expected to have access to the internet and access the unit iLearn site on a regular basis.  Please note information may also be sent by e-mail to your student e-mail account so please look at your e-mail account on a regular basis. All lectures are on-line and are accessible via the Echo360 EchCenter page in iLearn. If you are unfamiliar with the Ech360 EchoCenter the refer to the "Student Guide to Echo360 Lecture Recordings" available from: http://www.mq.edu.au/iLearn/student_info/lecture_recordings.htm

All unit notes are presented as PDF files that require acrobat reader: http://get.acrobat.com/uk/reader/

General use computers are provided by the University, but it would be advantageous to have your own computer and internet access.  If you have problems with the streaming video/audio lectures, you can download the entire lecture series as an ISO file and burn your own CD/DVD.

Four e-lectures are nominally scheduled each week but you can go to the lectures any time you want and as many times as you like. Each e-lecture has Web-based material, comprising downloadable lecture notes (for printing) and an audiovisual presentation (for viewing, with active links) and a lot-of-links page for internet reseorces. CBMS123/234 has no final examination.  Therefore the timetable for preparing and submitting assignments must be strictly observed.  The Department reserves the right to vary details of this schedule if necessary, with an undertaking that adequate notice of any such variations will be given to enrolled students.  It is each student's responsibility to keep in regular touch with the Web-based information.

Session 3 EOY Schedule for

CBMS123/234 Alchemy, Drugs and the Quest for Immortality

Lecturers: PK = Prof.  Peter Karuso;  JJ = Dr Joanne Jamie*;  MN = Ms Maree Nelson; BO = Prof. Brian Orr*

* Please note, the e-lectures given by Prof. Brian Orr are administered by Dr Chris McRae.  Note:  CBMS reserves the right to vary details of this schedule if necessary