Office Hours

There are no formal office hours for this unit. Dr Jamie is happy to receive students outside of the formal lecture and tutorial times but 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”, 7^th ed, Oxford University Press (2005) is suitable. The 5^th and 6^th editions are 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.

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, very importantly, 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. It would be wise to anticipate using Word or similar word-processing software to construct your practical reports.

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. There is an add-on for Microsoft Windows (2007 and later). Do a web search using the search term “Microsoft Mathematics”.

Students can install the Microsoft Office free-of-charge.  See http://students.mq.edu.au/events/2016/06/09/microsoft_suite_available_for_free/

Items of interest, links to other on-line material and lecture notes will be placed on the unit website.

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 tutorials, 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 given in the textbook. On the other hand, do not assume that all examinable material is to be found in the lecture notes.

Workshops and Laboratory Work: The practical sessions commence in Week 2. The practicals are held in E7B 348/349/350. You will be allocated to an "A" or "B" Week group after Week 2, after which which your will attend mostly fortnightly, with some variation due to the mid-semester recess and end-of-semester scheduling requirements. The wet-labs will generally be considered to two-week exercises.. 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 demonstrator at the start of the lab class. A random subset of these questions is to be answered online as a iLearn quiz, to be completed 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.

The practical component is a "hurdle" requirement. You must complete the laboratory component of CBMS207 to a satisfactory level to be able to pass the unit overall. That is, the aggregate mark for your practical component must be 50% or greater to allow a pass mark to be awarded for the unit overall. Without appropriate medical or other permitted reasons for absence, an unattended practical session will result in a grade of zero being given for that practical as no practical report can be submitted. One missed practical, for valid reasons, will be allowed, in which case the mark given will be the average taken over the other practicals (including zero-mark practicals). If a practical was attended and a serious attempt made at both the laboratory component and the report, but the mark received was less than 50%, the report may be rewritten and resubmitted. The maximum mark then to be given will then be no greater than a credit-level mark. 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. 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 can be anticipated, 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 may 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 and Penalty for Late Submission: Pracs 1 and 6 will be submitted in the day of your practical session. Pracs 2 to 5 will be due 14 days after the  practical session, except if this falls in the mid-semester recess, in which case it will be due at your next practical session. You are permitted, and encouraged, to submit your reports early, especially towards the end of semester.

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:  Check the times and rooms on the MQ Timetable page as these may have change after construction of this Unit Guide

Attend both lectures. Commence in Week 1

    Wednesday, E5A 110, 10-11

    Thursday, E3A 166, 9-10

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:   Check the times and rooms on the MQ Timetable page as these may have change after construction of this Unit Guide

Commence in Week 2

Choose one of

    Wednesday, C5A 232, 11-12

    Thursday, E6A 131, 11-12

Practicals:

Commence in Week 2

Choose one of

    Wednesday, E7B 347, 2-6 pm

    Thursday, E7B 347, 2-6 pm

The following schedule may be changed to accommodate unforeseen circumstances. Changes will be notified via iLearn announcements and in  lectures.

There are no significant changes from the previous offering.

For many of your assessment items, you will be given a Grade rather than a Mark. This means that you will have a good indication of your achievements in the unit, but won't be tempted to look for "one mark more".

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.