Tentative Laboratory Schedule Chemistry 131 Winter 2004

Due dates are Monday for the night class and Tuesday for the day sections. Labs are taken down and replaced on Tuesday before 3 pm.

2nd time REVISED schedule

**Labs must be stamped on the front by the Monday before the lab is due. No stamps will be given on a Tuesday for a lab due on that day.

Bring your goggles, lab packet, Laboratory Handbook for General Chemistry, and a calculator to lab each week. If you are not dressed appropriately (closed-toe shoes, long pants/skirt, no tummies or shoulders), you will be asked to leave the lab.

Open Hours[return top of page]

This schedule is tentative and is subject to change during the first two weeks of the quarter.

Students are allowed in the lab only at the scheduled times when the lab is staffed.

The shaded blocks indicate the open lab times.

A maximum of 24 students are allowed in the lab at any given time. The lab door will be locked when the maximum is reached and a sign-up sheet will be posted on the door. You must be present when space becomes available or you will forfeit your spot on the waitlist.

You must attend one of the first week orientation times! If you cannot attend, contact your lecture instructor. Don't forget to sign in!

Open when staff names are listed.

Chemistry 131 and 132 Open Laboratory Procedures[return top of page]

Multiple college-wide abilities are addressed in the Chemistry 131/132 laboratories. One of these is the Communication Ability. In the laboratory it is very important that you follow both written and verbal instructions carefully. You must also convey your understanding of the experiments through written exercises and laboratory reports.

Another college-wide ability addressed in the laboratory is the Critical Thinking/Problem Solving Ability. In the laboratory you are required to synthesize information and formulate conclusions based upon your experimental results.

The third college-wide ability covered in lab is the Life-Long Learning Ability. You must take responsibility for managing your time and arranging times conducive to you and your partner. You must prepare for the experiments by reading an experiment in advance and finishing any pre-lab assignments before coming to the laboratory.

Open Lab Requirements and Procedures

The chemistry lab is an "open" lab. This is convenient because it allows you some flexibility in the times that you may come to the laboratory. It does require vigilance on your part to make sure that you allow enough time to do the labs properly so that you can get the most out of your laboratory experience. You should allot yourself three consecutive hours per lab, some labs may take less time and a few may take more time, especially if things do not go quite right. Lab hours will be announced by your instructor and posted on the laboratory door, SCI 120. You may only work in the laboratory during the times listed. Each experiment is available for a period of two weeks. You must finish the experiment and get it stamped before it is taken down. It is usually better to do the lab during the first week it is set up.

No more than 24 persons will be allowed in the lab at any one time. A waiting list will be available for those crowded days. Plan ahead! Priority access will be given to students who have completed the pre-lab.

Points shall be deducted from your lab score if you do not wear your safety goggles or if you violate other safety or cleanliness procedures. For repeated violations, you will be asked to leave the lab for the day. If you are unable to comply with the safety and cleanliness requirements of the laboratory you shall be dropped from the course.

1. Sign in and out of lab: Write your name, title of the experiment, course number and time of day on the sign-up sheet when you arrive. Take a cork and record the number. Write in the time you finished and get your laboratory handout stamped by the instructor before you leave, even if it is only partially completed.
2. Pre-lab: A pre-lab assignment is often part of the experiment. You must show the complete and correct pre-lab and get it stamped by the instructor before beginning the experiment. If you have not done the pre-lab in advance, you may not be able to get into the lab and sign-in.
3. Partner: You may work with one partner (no groups of three or more). You must both start at the same time. If you are late and your partner starts without you, then you must start on your own or with someone else. Do not begin a lab somewhere in the middle, or come late and copy someone's work (or you will receive a zero grade). You may work with others while doing the write up portion of the lab but your words, graphs, calculations etc. must be your own.
4. Time: Labs are usually set up for two weeks. You must finish the experiment and get it stamped before it is taken down. It is usually better to do the lab the first week that it is up to avoid having to wait during the rush during the end of the two week period.
5. Quantity: You must do eight labs during the quarter. The labs are either fill-in-the-blank or formal write-up formats as noted on the top of each lab.
6. Speed: Try not to hurry through the lab exercises. Rather, try to understand them as you go along. The lab instructor is there to help you (but not too much) if you experience difficulty. If you think something is unsafe, either for you or the equipment, please check with the instructor before proceeding. Finish all calculations and questions in the lab. You will get a final stamp only after everything is complete.
7. Courtesy: Do not hoard equipment or chemical reagents. There is no horseplay in the lab! No unauthorized experiments. Return all equipment/glassware to their source clean and in good condition.
8. Observe and read all labels of reagents carefully. Never pour material back into the original container. If you get too much, share it with your neighbor or put it in the collection bottle.
9. Cleanliness: Please clean and straighten up your lab area when you finish so that the next person, or worst yet, your lab instructor, does not have to do it for you. Clean all lab equipment after using it and before you put it back where it belongs.

10. Use product collection bottles for products at the end of the experiment; if appropriate. Look carefully at the labels to get the correct collection bottle.

11. Safety: Work safely, following the General Laboratory Rules Handout.

12. Have your lab stamped by the instructor before you leave the lab, even if you are not finished.

13. Schedule: The lab schedule is given in this packet, but a more detailed and up-to-date schedule is posted on the door of the laboratory, SCI 120. Refer to it before you begin a lab. The schedule in your packet will tell you the dates that the lab is up. Notes, changes, and hints may be posted on the chalkboard in the front of the room. Your Laboratory Handbook contains valuable time-saving hints as well as information on how to safely operate the equipment without breaking it.

14. DUE DATES: Laboratory Reports must be turned in to your LECTURE INSTRUCTOR on the Monday night or Tuesday following the last day that the experiment is set up. You must have a stamp on the front of the experiment hand-out before turning it in. You will not be able to receive a stamp after the experiment has been taken down. Your report will not be graded without this stamp.

See the assessment checklist for minor, moderate and major errors. Use this list to check your own report before you turn it in.

Note: Reagents are pure chemicals, mixtures or solutions of chemicals that are to be used for an experiment or process.

Fill-in Style Lab Reports [return top of page]

These labs are usually of the fill-in-the blank variety and as such there is not much that you have to do in the way of formatting the write-up. Usually, except for the homework or questions at the end of the lab handout, your report will be finished when you leave the lab, including all calculations and questions relating to the data. There are however some important guidelines regarding your responses in these labs:

1. Your work should be as neat as possible under the circumstances. Organize your work so that someone else in the class can follow it. All data should be completely labeled and include appropriate units. If one is to measure the diameter of a ball, for example, you might write: "The diameter of the ball is 5.37 cm." Not "d= 5.37" or just "5.37"
2. Normally use complete descriptive sentences in your responses, for example: "We noticed that the magnitude of the cart's acceleration was greater on the way up the ramp than on the way down". Not: "It was bigger." or just "Bigger."
3. Sometimes a small table may be the best way to display the data and/or result.
4. Graphs should be neat and carefully done. Graphs should be titled and have their axes labeled and numbers put in if appropriate. Some graphs may be done on the computer or neatly by hand.
5. Calculations should be laid out with the appropriate equation(s) in a neat and orderly way.
6. Questions and homework at the end of the labs should be carefully done. Do not leave out any parts of the experiment or questions.

Write-up Style Lab Reports

The data and calculations must be neatly organized so that your lab instructor can stamp your experiment handout before you leave the lab. You may rewrite the information when you complete your report.

Experiments labeled Write-up should be written up in ink on engineering paper or computer generated using a word processor. Each person will write and turn in a report. Read the Laboratory Handbook for General Chemistry section on lab reports. The grading criteria are listed below.

1. Title section: This section should include the title of the experiment, the date that the experiment was performed, your name, the name of your partner (if you did not have a partner say "no partner"). IMPORTANT: Include your Lecture Instructor's Name.
2. Purpose: The object or purpose of the experiment should be stated in your own words. Make it brief, one or two lines should do.
3. Special Equipment: Any equipment that is not normally part of the laboratory environment.
4. Procedure: Write a description of what you did in the experiment in your own words. It need not be long and detailed, and should contain general information on amounts. (e.g. Into a small beaker was placed 20 mL of 0.1 M NaOH. You may have in your data section 21.4 mL)
5. Data and Calculations: This is the heart of your report. All data and calculations should be clearly labeled and written so that the reader knows exactly to what part of the experiment the information belongs. Be sure to include units and correct precision! At the end of your calculations you should state your result and the percent error or percent difference.
6. Observations: Any interesting physical or chemical changes you observe during the experiment. Such as formation of a precipitate, evolution of a gas, a color change, or temperature change.
7. Graphs: All graphs, whether drawn by hand or computer generated, should be large enough that numbers can be located on them accurately and precisely. The graph must have a title and the axes should be clearly labeled. In addition, the quantity and units must be shown for each axis. Slope calculations should be done directly on the graph. Indicate the points used to obtain the slope.
8. Conclusion: Restate and justify all the results and link your conclusion to your purpose. Conclusions may contain possibilities for error (other than human error). Discuss your result with regard to the percent error. For example: The experimental value for the mass of the moon was 7.28 x 10²² kg compared to the accepted value of 7.36 x 10²² kg; the error was 1.1 percent. Show the error calculation under the calculation section.
9. Questions: At the end of each report you should answer the questions in the lab. Answer the questions using complete descriptive sentences so that the reader will know what the question is.
10. Always do a comparison or % difference calculation when an actual or average value is known even if the experiment does not state it specifically.

131-2 Lab Policies and Grading Criteria [return top of page]

Policies

1. Lab attendance is required. Be sure to get the experiment stamped each time you are in lab. A final stamp is required before the end of the two-week that the experiment is available. A lab report with no stamp on the front cover will not be graded- a grade of zero will be given.
2. If you miss more than two experiments or miss turning in more than two lab reports, you will receive an incomplete for the quarter and be required to repeat the entire set of experiments and take the lab final in order to obtain a grade for the course.
3. If you miss the lab final you will receive an incomplete for the quarter and be required to repeat the entire set of experiments and take the lab final in order to obtain a grade for the course.
4. The safety rules must be followed.
5. Copying another student's data or results is considered cheating and will be handled according to school/department policies. You and your partner must work at the same time on an experiment.

Grading

The laboratory portion of your Chemistry class will be graded on a point basis. Laboratory reports and lab final will be used to assess your understanding of lab concepts and basic skills. As part of the lab final, your instructor may wish to give a lab practical so be sure you know how to use the equipment.

The laboratory reports and lab final (safety quiz counts as part of the lab final score) will each count as 50% of your lab grade. Example: if there are 160 pts possible for lab reports then the final and safety quiz will also be worth 160 pts.

Reports will be marked down when turned in late (each instructor has their own policy). You should follow the write-up procedures listed. You must have the appropriate stamp on the front page to prove laboratory attendance and completion of the experiment in order to get credit for that experiment. If a lab is completed in sections, each section will be stamped at the stopping point. A stamp on the front page will be given when the lab is totally completed.

General Criteria- Your instructor/grader will decide how many points to deduct for each error. Use the assessment sheet in your lab packet as a checklist.

1. follow the format listed for the write-up or fill-in lab report

2. be neat and legible. If it can not be read, it will not be graded

3. organize the information given in a clear and reasonable order

4. be complete and include all parts of the experiment

5. always check calculations for accuracy and significant figures

6. check labeling, grammar and spelling

7. give correct answers, list unknowns, etc.

DUE DATES: Laboratory Reports must be turned in to your LECTURE INSTRUCTOR on the day of the first class following the last day of the experiment. Check with your lecture instructor for additional details.

Bring your Laboratory Handbook, safety goggles, calculator and experiment packet to lab each week.

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Updated Feb. 13, 2004. Questions or comments on this Web site should go to Robin Terjeson.