Office Hours

There are no formal office hours for this unit. Dr Jamie and Dr McRae are happy to receive students outside of the formal lecture and tutorial times but please be aware that we are not always to be found in our offices. It is generally wise to organise an appointment in advance.

Required and Recommended texts and/or materials

Recommended Text Book:  For those continuing to CBMS307, we recommend that you obtain Atkins & de Paula “Atkins’ Physical Chemistry” 10^th ed, Oxford University Press (2014). The 9^th edition is also acceptable.

For those students not continuing to CBMS307, the smaller text, Atkins & de Paula “The Elements of Physical Chemistry”, 6^th ed, Oxford University Press (2005) is suitable. The 5^th edition is also acceptable.

Recommended Supplementary Text: The Library and the University Co-Op Bookshop carries copies of Monk “Maths for Chemistry: a Chemist’s Toolkit of Calculations”. This text might be of use to you if you wish to revise some mathematics.

Alternative Text Books: Raymond Chang “Physical Chemistry for the Chemical and Biological Sciences”, 3^rd ed, University Science Books (2000) is reasonable, and somewhat more readable than "Atkins’ Physical Chemistry", but a bit light in the spectroscopy section. Some students find “Physical Chemistry” by Alberty, Silbey and Bawendi provides readable introductions to some topics, but is less helpful when it comes to problem solving. The library also carries older editions without Bawendi as a co-author.

Your first-year textbook and lecture notes may be referred to in the lectures on molecular spectroscopy and the second year textbook “Organic Chemistry” by J. McMurry may also be referred to on occasion.

Summaries of lecture material, lecture guides or directions to web-based material may also be provided.

You can find a number of textbooks with “Physical Chemistry” in the title in the University library. All cover similar material, but often use different notation. You may find that some of these other books explain certain topics more clearly. Two older books that can provide an alternative introduction to aspects of molecular spectroscopy are “Fundamentals of Molecular Spectroscopy” by C.N. Banwell and “Introduction to Molecular Spectroscopy” by G. M. Barrow.

Text titled “Environmental Chemistry” or similar tend to be too broad with respect to the chemistry, so the depth of the discussions on the Physical Chemistry aspects tends to be restricted. However, good background information on the broader aspects of chemistry in the environmental context can be obtained from these texts.

There also many web resources, but material placed on the web is not necessarily checked for accuracy, so be careful when using it.

Technology Used

It is important that you have a scientific calculator as hand-held calculators will be used in tutorials, practicals, for assignments, tests and in the final examination. Note that text-retrieval calculators are not allowed in the in-semester tests or final examination.

Use will be made of Excel and other data processing and display software. Computers carrying this software are available in the teaching laboratories. Items of interest, links to other on-line material and iLectures will be placed on the unit website.

A piece of software from Microsoft called Microsoft Mathematics might be of use. It is a sophisticated graphical calculator, equation solver and data provider. It can solve calculus problems and provide many of the commonly used equations, operations and constants. installing in January, the software seemed to be a little temperamental but usable. There is an add-on for Microsoft Windows (2007 and later). Do a web search using the search term “Microsoft Mathematics”.

General use computers are provided by the University, but it would be advantageous to have your own computer and internet access. During lab sessions you will be using provided laptops or desktops computers to acquire, process and analyse data. Data processing and analysis will be done primarily with Excel. While it is not required, most students will want to generate their reports using a word processor. In some respects, hand-written reports will be easier to prepare, but it is your decision as to the method that you use.

Classes

Timetable:  Please check www.timetables.mq.edu.au for the official timetable of the unit.

Lectures and Tutorials: There will be some overlap between the lectures and tutorial, in that the lectures are expected to be interactive and have time for problem solving.

All of the material presented in the lectures is important and you should not assume that all examinable material is available in the textbook or in printed notes. On the other hand, do not assume that all examinable material is to be found in the lecture notes.

Workshops and Laboratory Work:  You must complete the laboratory component of CBMS207 to a satisfactorily level to be able to pass the unit overall.

Workshops and laboratory sessions commence in Week 2. The practicals are held in E7B 348/349/350. You will be allocated to an Odd or Even Week group.

The wet-labs will be run over two weeks, except for the last practical. The first week is the "at-bench" component (running the experiment, collecting data) and as much data processing as possible. The second week is used to continue your data analysis and complete the write-up. It may be possible to arrange for you to have access to the instruments and/or data, but it will not be possible for you to continue “wet-work” in the second week.

Before commencing a new experiment you are required to complete the prelab questions. All questions are to be answered on the worksheet provided with the prac notes and are to be signed-off by the lecturer at the start of the lab class. A random subset of these questions is to be answered online as a iLearn quiz, no later than one hour before the commencement of the class. A delay in starting the experimental work due to poor pre-lab preparation may have a detrimental effect on your ability to perform the laboratory work satisfactorily. You should attempt the pre-lab exercises well in advance of each practical class. You are advised to read each experiment carefully.

Students unable to attend laboratory classes due to illness or misadventure (as defined in the Handbook of Undergraduate Studies) and who are unable to catch up in another session must provide formal documentary evidence to the University as soon as possible after the absence. For one such justified absence students will receive the average mark from the sessions that they did attend. For any unjustified absences students will receive a zero mark and may be liable to compulsory withdrawal from the unit. You will need to submit a “special consideration form”, information on which is given below. It may be possible to rearrange your schedule if sufficient advance notice is given and if the reason for the rearrangement is reasonable. If the absence is anticipatable, such as for religious observance days and the like, it is your responsibility to discuss this with your lecturer in advance of the absence.

Some practical work will be undertaken before the corresponding material has been covered in lectures. The notes have been written with this in mind and some allowance will be made in the marking of reports.

Due Date: Reports will be submitted at the next laboratory session, typically 14 days after doing the wet-lab of the lab but this does vary. Penalties for late submission will accumulate at the rate of 10% per overdue day.

CBMS207 Schedule

This schedule may be altered according to circumstances.

Lectures:

Attend both lectures. Commence in Week 1

    Wednesday, E5A 170, 10-11 am

    Thursday, C5A 232, 10-11 am

Weeks 1-4: Kinetics

Weeks 5-9: Spectroscopy (Quantum Chemistry)

Weeks 10-11: Thermodynamics

Weeks 12-13: Transport and Fate of Chemicals in the Environment, Revision

Tutorials:

Commence in Week 2

Choose one of

    Thursday, E3A 244, 12-1 pm

    Friday, E6A 108, 12-1 pm

Practicals:

Commence in Week 2

Choose one of

    Wednesday, E7B 347, 2-6 pm

    Thursday, E7B 347, 2-6 pm

There are no significant changes from the previous offering.

The grades that you achieve at Macquarie University are descriptive rather than numeric. The assessments and conditions on your performance (attendance, completion, etc) help to decide which of these descriptive grades applies to your work for the entire unit.

Your raw marks from assessments are combined into a weighted sum. The weighted sums for the whole class are ranked, and compared with rankings for the same unit in previous offerings and across other appropriate units for consistency. This process of comparison allows for the identification any unusual influences on class performance that might warrant the weighted sums of marks being scaled or otherwise altered. The numerical cut-offs for each descriptive grade are then determined. The numerical grade that you will be issued with (the Standardised Numerical Grade, SNG) is determined to match your descriptive grade by standardising the weighted sums of raw marks to match standard scores out of 100. The SNG gives you an indication of how you have performed within the band for your descriptive grade. As the SNG is the result of scaling the weighted sum of your raw marks, you will not be able to:

1. work out your exam mark based on the assignment marks you already know and the SNG;
2. determine that you were "one mark away" from a different grade.

It is our professional responsibility as your teachers to assign you a descriptive grade that accurately reflects your performance in a unit. Our grading decisions are subject to scrutiny from our academic colleagues within the Department, as well as within the Faculty and University Senate.

The Grades range from High Distinction to Fail, and are defined in the Handbook as follows:

Unit web Site

The official CBMS207 website is on iLearn (ilearn.mq.edu.au)

You will be asked for a username and password. Your username is your student number.

If you have trouble logging in flow the help instructions given on the web page before contacting your lecturer academic staff. You may also contact the Help Desk:

Phone: 9850-HELP (4357)

Freecall: 1800 063 191

Email: http://help.mq.edu.au/

 An unofficial Facebook group has been set up. The group name is “CBMS207”, with the e-mail address of CBMS207@groups.facebook.com and URL of “www.facebook.com/groups/CBMS207/”. You are encouraged to use this for discussions relating the CBMS207 and exchanging information, but note that the group will be monitored by the unit convenor and also note that all official information and material will be placed on the iLearn site or conducted through your official Macquarie University email address. You will need to be invited into the group, so please send an e-mail to the group address or to the unit convenor. Include in the e-mail the e-mail address that you use to log into Facebook so that the invitation can be extended to you.