Chemistry
Applications
in the
Community
Mr. Harville
SY 2004-05
COURSE TITLE: Chemistry Applications in the Community
TEACHER: Brian Harville
ROOM: B3.1, B2.9
E-MAIL: brian_harville@eu.odedodea.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION: ChemCom is an entry level high school chemistry course. The course integrates science as inquiry
with technology, social perspectives, and history. At least 30 percent of class time is spent in activities in or
related to the laboratory. Practical /
meaningful aspects of the subject are emphasized.
COURSE
GOALS/OBJECTIVES/STANDARDS: As
a result of taking ChemCom, students should be able to:
Engage in scientific
inquiries to design, conduct, and communicate investigations into the natural
world.
Use scientific inquiry to
design investigations to meet a need, make a decision, solve a problem, or
develop a product.
Recognize and describe the
interrelationship between science and technology.
Apply computers to
scientific endeavors.
Identify qualities inherent
in scientific behavior.
Discuss contributions of
people of various backgrounds to science and technology.
Apply science concepts to
weigh risks and benefits for health and well-being.
Understand the structure of
atoms.
Understand the interaction
of energy and matter.
Investigate and explain
chemical reactions.
Explain forms of energy
found in the earth.
Investigate geothermal
cycles.
Appreciate the value of
environmental quality and the importance of natural resources.
Understand the role of
natural and human induced hazards in personal and community health.
SCOPE & SEQUENCE: Chem Com roughly follows the following sequence of topics. Since the course is partially project based
and since projects change from year to year, the exact amount of time spent on
each topic and each topic’s sequence in the semester are adjusted
accordingly. Topics covered early in
the year are often revisited at a more advanced level in later work, so the
total time for a given topic is not necessarily contiguous.
The chemistry of water
Conserving chemical resources
Petroleum and other energy sources
The chemical nature of food
Nuclear chemistry
Chemistry of gasses and the atmosphere
COURSE GRADING/ASSESSMENT: Grading is based on quizzes, projects, tests,
and a semester exam. Some or all
projects may be evaluated as part of a portfolio of work. Group work with shared grading is
common. A point system is used to
weight assignments, as follows:
Quizzes – 50 points, each
Tests – 100 points, each
Projects – 50 to 200 points
each, depending on the level of difficulty and the time required to complete
them.
The
first and second quarter grades and the semester exam are weighted 40%, 40%,
and 20%, respectively in calculating the semester average. Video recording may be used
to help the instructor assess his own and students’ interactions. Students will be informed when video is in
use.
CLASSROOM
EXPECTATIONS/CONSEQUENCES: Headwear is not permitted in
the classroom. Because students are
frequently required to present projects and/or ideas to the class, any behavior
that ridicules or appears to ridicule other students is unacceptable
behavior. Students are expected to
conduct themselves in ways that do not interfere with the rights of other
students to learn or the ability of the instructor effectively to conduct his
lesson. Students may be removed from
the classroom to immediately restore an acceptable atmosphere, possibly without
other warning. Students will be
counseled, when amenable, or referred to administration, when not. A parent conference and/or an acceptable
written commitment to manage behavior may be required before re-admitting a
student.
CONTINUOUS SCHOOL PROJECT
GOAL: AFNORTH International Middle/High School’s
CSP (Continuous School Progress) goal is, “All students will improve their
written communication skills across the curriculum.” The 6 + 1 trait is the
model selected to improve school-wide writing in all subject areas. The 6+1
Trait writing framework is a powerful way to learn and use a common language to
refer to characteristics of writing as well as establish a common vision of
what “strong” writing looks like. Teachers and students will use the 6+1 Trait
model to identify areas of strength and weakness as they continue to strive
towards continued writing improvement. Success of all students requires that
the 6 + 1 Trait become a consistent and integral component of each course
taught at AFNORTH International Middle/High School.
Chem
Com students will demonstrate mastery of the appropriate elements of 6+1 traits
through project and laboratory write-ups.
Not all traits will be demonstrated or evaluated in every lesson.
TEXTBOOKS:
Chemistry in the Community,
Kendall / Hunt, 1998
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: A wide variety of instructor generated supplemental handouts are
used. Relevant videos or parts of
videos on chemistry related topics as well as other multimedia resources are
frequently used.
SUPPLIES
(REQUIRED/RECOMMENDED): Students should use a
loose-leaf notebook or folder in preference to a bound notebook because of the
large number of supplemental handouts they receive. Students will also create project papers and lab write-ups that
will need to be retained in a loose-leaf form.
HOMEWORK POLICY: Homework assignments are both explicit and
implicit. Explicit assignments are
often related to preparing or researching, outside of class, data that will be
processed during class time. Implicit
assignments include the review of information, such as vocabulary lists, class
notes, and project assignments, which relate to on-going success in the
course. Failure to keep up with
homework assignments usually results in wasting the class time allocated to
completing projects, in turning in incomplete work, in being unprepared for
quizzes, and, therefore, in lower grades.
Homework assignments my occasionally be collected to check for
completeness, but will primarily be evaluated by the student’s preparedness to
perform successfully on other classroom tasks, especially labs and unannounced
quizzes.
MAKE-UP WORK POLICY: As a general rule, any project due during a period of planned
absence must be done before the absence in order to get credit. Athletic events and family trips (among
other things) are planned absences.
When projects are due soon after a planned absence, the student is
normally expected to have his work ready to turn in with the rest of the
class. This may require the student to
work ahead and to do parts of assignments before his departure in order to be
ready fully to participate in the class on return. To this end, students may arrange to do work during lunch, after
school hours, or during the seminar period before a planned absence. In all cases, a plan for dealing with a
planned absence should be discussed with the instructor before the
absence. This policy is intended to
help students avoid getting hopelessly behind and becoming overwhelmed with
make-up work.
Because
most work must be done in the context of a group, with special materials, and
in the presence of the instructor, it is normally not possible to give any
significant amount of work to be completed during a planned absence. The reading of the text is normally a small
portion of the activity related to each lesson.
Late
work is not accepted. If work is
incomplete at the time and date it is due, the incomplete work should be turned
in to avoid a zero. Such work will be
partly evaluated on the extent to which the assigned task was completed as well
as on the normal criteria for that assignment.
Unplanned absences (as for illness) are an exception to this policy;
planned absences are not, if the student has failed to make alternative
arrangements with the instructor before the absence.
SPECIAL COMPUTER AND
LABORATORY REQUIREMENTS: Because
of the closeness of the environments in the computer lab and the chemistry lab,
and the presence of large amounts of expensive and delicate equipment, there
are additional rules and procedures for using the lab / classroom:
Computer
Rooms:
1. Students have assigned seats in the computer
lab and may not change seats without permission from the instructor. If classes are merged in the lab, an
alternate seating arrangement may be required, as directed by the instructor.
2. When entering and leaving a computer work
station, students must sign in and out on the use log of the machine they
use. The log for each computer is kept
in a plastic jacket placed beside each computer. A column for comments is provided on the log form. It should be used to record any problems
encountered on the machine. If the
problem is serious, the instructor should be called and he may tell the student
how to fill out the log.
3. Food and beverages are not allowed in the
lab.
4. Personal CD’s may not be used in the
computer CD drive. Personal software
may not be brought to the lab. Software
may not be downloaded or installed by students.
5. Roughhousing, pushing, running, or touching
other students, no matter how friendly or insignificant is may seem, is very
hazardous in the computer environment.
Such behavior is dealt with especially severely.
6. Damage to the computer hardware or software,
whether deliberate or accidental, creates serious problems for following
classes. Repairs take time and cost
money. Students are expected to use
computers and their associated equipment and furniture with care and
immediately to report any problems to the instructor. Unnecessary adjustment or abuse of chairs, reading boards,
monitors, mice, wires, or other equipment which subjects it to excessive wear
can cause serious damage in the long term.
7. The computer labs are crowded, so extra
books, bags, and clothing should not be brought to the computer lab. If a bag must be brought and it is too large
to fit under the student’s desk, materials needed for the class must be removed
from the bag and the bag must be left in an area designated by the
instructor. In no case will any bag or
extra clothing be taken to the computer seating area.
8. Floppy disks and CDs from outside may not be
used in classroom computers without being virus checked by the instructor. This includes disks used on other computers
in the school as well as disks from home.
In general there should be no movement of floppy disks in or out of the
classroom, except to deal with emergency situations and with the specific
permission and control of the instructor.
9. The Internet is for use only in support of
class projects and assignments. Advance
permission of the computer instructor is necessary if you need to do an assignment
for another teacher. No personal use of
the Internet is acceptable at any time, including, specifically, use of the
Internet to access personal email accounts.
10. All printers are networked. Care must be taken to insure that the
correct printer is selected prior to sending a job. Simply pressing a print icon on the desktop is not acceptable
because the correct printer may not be set up.
This is especially true the first time a student prints each day. Jobs must not be repeatedly sent to the
printer if a job does not come out. The
problem may be that the printer is out of paper or jammed or that the network
is clogged, and, when the condition is corrected, a large amount of unwanted
and wasteful output may be produced.
The control panels of printers that might be receiving a student’s work
should be checked for error messages and the instructor notified if any are
found. It is every student’s
responsibility to leave printers in proper condition for the next user. Students may be allowed to reload paper
trays from the stock of paper in the room, but only after they have received
instruction in the correct ways to do it.
11. A wide variety of software is available on
the computers, however, students are permitted to use only that software that
has been part of their formal lessons or for which they have been given
specific special permission by the instructor.
Students are not to “surf” the hard drive. Attention should always be focused on class projects or
extensions to those projects, and any extra time on the computer should be
spent exploring advanced features of the assigned software.
12. Both floppy disks and network folders are
used for storing students’ personal files.
For backup purposes, work should normally be saved in both places. Since the C: drive of each computer is
subject to periodic manual and automatic maintenance to keep it clear of
extraneous files, students will eventually loose any files placed there.
13. Work for computer based classes must nearly
always be completed in class, with specific assigned software, and in the
presence of the computer instructor.
Although preparations for computer assignments, such as reading and data
collection, are often done as homework, the execution of most assignments is
done during assigned class time. Makeup
must be scheduled during seminar or at another time that has been pre-arranged
with the instructor.
14. Computer workstations should always be left
in good order. This means correctly
shutting down the computer desktop, leaving the physical surroundings of the
computer safe and tidy, and completing the computer use log.
Laboratories
(see above, plus the following):
1. Only supervised lab work is acceptable and
only those experiments planned and presented by your instructor.
2. Avoid bringing unnecessary materials such as
book bags and jackets into the lab.
Keep your work surface clear.
3. Wear appropriate normal clothing (no shorts,
sandals, or loose hair, for example) in the lab plus the extra protective
clothing indicated by your instructor.
4. Avoid unnecessary movement and talking in
the lab.
5. Become familiar with all safety equipment in
the lab, and inform the instructor immediately in case of any accident or
spill, no matter how small.
6. Follow instructions for disposing of
chemical waste.
7. Return tools and items of equipment to their
proper locations. Make sure all
electrical equipment, valves, and taps are turned off before leaving. Wash your hands.