• Requirements to Pass this Unit

To pass this unit you must achieve a total mark equal to or greater than 50%. There are no hurdle assesments in this unit. 

• Late Assessment Submission Penalty 

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark of the task) will be applied for each day a written report or presentation assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a grade of ‘0’ will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. The submission time for all uploaded assessments is 11:55 pm. A 1-hour grace period will be provided to students who experience a technical concern.

For any late submission of time-sensitive tasks, such as the problem sets, and/or scheduled practical assessments/labs, please apply for Special Consideration.

• Special Considerations

The Special Consideration Policy aims to support students who have been impacted by short-term circumstances or events that are serious, unavoidable and significantly disruptive, and which may affect their performance in assessment. If you experience circumstances or events that affect your ability to complete the assessments in this unit on time, please inform the convenor and submit a Special Consideration request through ask.mq.edu.au.

This unit requres150 hours of work over the semester (formal contact hours and self study time). This is an average of 10 hours of work per week over each of the 15 weeks of semester. For students with weaker chemistry backgrounds, more time per week will likely be needed to perform satisfactorily in this unit. Formal contact hours for Analytical Chemistry and Measurement consist of 2 hours of lectures and a 1-hour interactive SGTA per week, along with 5 x 4-hour laboratory classes throughout semester. Students are expected to participate in all lectures, SGTAs and laboratory classes. Active participation by students in all of these activities will be essential for success in the unit.

Lectures

The unit will cover 2 hours of lecture material each week. This will consist of a mixture of pre-recorded lectures (uploaded prior to the lecture) and interactive (live) lectures. Some lecture material will be available on the unit web site, while other material will be provided during the lecture classes.  You should use these lectures as a starting point and supplement their content with material from the text book, the scientific literature and from other online sources. Much of the unit content builds on content covered in previous weeks, so it will be essential to keep up to date with the lecture material throughout the semester. 

Interactive Classes (SGTAs)

A 1-hour interactive classes (SGTA) will be held each week. This is your opportunity to interact directly with the teaching staff, to ask lots of pertinent questions and to identify any weaknesses or clarify misconceptions you may have. Learning is an active process, and as such, you must engage with the material. This means reading the textbook (and beyond) before and after lectures, attempting the assignment questions and discussing the concepts with your classmates and lecturers. Do not be afraid to ask questions – everyone benefits from a robust and open discussion of the topics. 

Problem Sets

There will be two open book problem exercises that will be issued towards the mid-semester break and towards the end of the semester. They are designed to challenge your learning and revise the material covered in prior weeks. You will be given suffient time to cover these exercises (typically 7-10 days). 

Laboratory Classes

Laboratory classes will be conducted in small teams and require a highly collaborative and investigative approach. You will be designing and synthesising a series of sulfonamide antibiotics and subsequently testing them for antibacterial activity to determine the important features for their antibacterial activity. This laboratory work is designed to give real-world experience in research by involving you in the design of the experiments, using literature procedures as a guide, and troubleshooting to identify the best experimental conditions. The classes will emphasise the importance of teamwork and being well prepared and efficient. You will need to be fully aware of safety procedures, proper recording and reporting of raw data and interpretation of results. This will require an analytical and inquisitive approach. The first (dry) laboratory class starts in Week 1, where you will meet your fellow team members, plan your synthetic routes and complete risk assessments. There will then be 5 wet labs sessions run in two streams (Group A and Group B) on alternating weeks, starting in Weeks 2/3.  To maximise the amount of wet lab time available to complete the experiments, you will need to be highly organised and to have prepared thoroughly BEFORE entering the laboratory. If you are not able to "hit the ground running" each laboratory class, you will almost certainly run out of time by the end of semester.

Methods of Communication

We will communicate with you via your university email or through announcements on iLearn. Queries to convenors can either be placed on the iLearn discussion board or sent to the convernor directly from your university email address.

COVID Information

For the latest information on the University’s response to COVID-19, please refer to the Coronavirus infection page on the Macquarie website: https://www.mq.edu.au/about/coronavirus-faqs.