Chem316 Syllabus (Spring 2016)
| Dr. Chris Stevenson GOTW C-209, 289-8635 cstevens@richmond.edu | Office Hours M 2-3pm, F 3-4pm TR 10-11am by appointment | Textbooks None required, detailed lecture notes available. See reference section for useful sources. |
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Homework Articles
The ability to read and understand the peer-reviewed literature in environmental chemistry and related fields is possibly the single most important learning outcome of the course.
Every two weeks or so you will summarize an environmental chemistry (or closely related) article from a peer-reviewed research journal in 2-3 pages. When choosing an article, although there is room for some flexibility based on your interest, you should pick an article should be related to the topics we are discussing at the time: articles before test #1 should be related to biogeochemical cycling and general pollution modeling; articles before test #2 should be related to atmospheric chemistry; while articles before test #3 should be related to aquatic chemistry.
In your summary you should (a) explain the context/significance of the work, (b) summarize the methods used or experiments performed, and (c) describe the conclusions, how they were reached, and their significance. These points follow the usual outline of a research paper, but be sure to use your own words and ideas as much as possible. You want to demonstrate that you have understood and internalized the work, try not to just follow along with the paper outline, cutting and pasting and paraphrasing as you go.
Realize that I will read the paper, and so you can refer to it for some details. This is most likely important when summarizing the methods or experiments. You should focus in on those aspects that are most unique to this work and are most important in obtaining the results and conclusions from the data. When describing results/conclusions, feel free to refer to a figure or table from the orignal work or even use them in your summary if they are particularly useful in summarizing the results. Obviously you shouldn't just say "refer to the paper" for everything, summarize the key points from whatever figure/table you are citing.
In order to understand or fully appreciate the significance and scope of the work, or some of the methods used, you might need to utilize external sources. This is not a requirement of the assignment but might be useful, and will be rewarded if done well. This aspect might be as simple as doing a quick Google search or looking up important topics in Wikipedia, or it might involve looking at other research papers that are cited by your article, or that cite your article. And sometimes you might also want to look up other research articles to see if they confirm or refute the findings presented in your source article.
As much as possible, I would like grade pressure to be removed from this exercise but I am not naïve. If you choose reasonable articles, demonstrate that you've made a good-faith effort to understand and summarize your article, and turn in your assignment on time, you will get a grade in the B/B+ range. I will guarantee that such grades will NOT harm your course grade if you are achieving A/A- grades on the tests, and for others it will likely help (or at least not harm) your course grade.
It is possible, however, to get better than the usual B/B+ grade. Letter grades will be assigned roughly according to the following criteria.
- A-/A. These will be fairly rare and will be given to students who go "above and beyond" the usual work. This might reflect a significant amount of external research on the topic covered in the paper, as evidenced in your summary (be sure to cite these extra sources). Other ways of earning these grades is to demonstrate an unusual command of the concepts presented in the source article, and/or using a particularly complicated or long source article and summarizing it well.
- B+/B. This will be the usual grade range. It is awarded to summaries that were submitted on time and contain no major errors or omissions. No major external sources were used to understand the source article.
- B-. This is a summary similar to the one above but that contains one significant deficiency, such as omitting a major point from the source article or misunderstanding an important concept. Summaries that are one day late but would otherwise get a B+/B might get this grade as well.
- C+ or lower will be given to articles with two or more major deficiencies, or summaries of articles that are not peer-reviewed research articles. Summaries that are submitted two or more days late might also receive this grade.
As I said, as much as possible I'd like to remove grades from the equation. If you make a good faith effort to find an article and summarize it, you should be fine: you will certainly not hurt your overall course grade and you may possibly help it a little. Going "above and beyond" to get a better grade should -- ideally -- be motivated by your curiosity in the subject and your burning desire to understand more fully your article and its significance. A (somewhat extreme) example of going above and beyond is shown in this article summary of this source article. The summary given there is beyond what I typically expect of students even for an A/A- grade, but it should give you some idea of how you might go the extra mile if you wish.
One last thing: as mentioned, the ability to browse, read and summarize the literature in environmental chemistry (and related fields) is a major desired learning outcome of the course. Time and effort spent on your articles should have some benefits carry over into the test portion of the course, particularly since some articles will be designated as testable material; see below.
After you have summarized 2-3 articles, you will divide into groups 3-4 students to select the article you find most interesting and share it with the class in a 3-5 minute presentation followed by class discussion. One of the articles you choose will be posted to Blackboard and will be considered fair game on the test.
Article summaries are due at the beginning of class on the due date. They are to be submitted via Blackboard as a Word or PDF document. A copy of your article must also be included. Please include a citation to your source article (with title, author and publication info) as well as any supplemental sources of information you used.
Tests
There will be three tests. These are all closed-book examinations; however, you will be allowed a single, two-sided "cheat sheet" for each test. Each test will also cover two homework articles presented to the class and chosen by the instructor; these articles will be printed and distributed with the test.
The first two tests will include a take-home, open book component which is based on another article chosen by the instructor. The third test will not include a take-home component but will take place during finals week.
The Final is a take-home test on two articles chosen to cover at least the first two parts of the course, environmental models and atmospheric chemistry; aquatic chemistry may be a component of the articles as well. The Final will be handed out at the beginning of the last week of classes and will be due on the last day of Finals.
Policy for Late Assignments
Late assignments will not be accepted for credit.
Honor Code
All work submitted under your signature in this course is pledged as being your own work.
Attendance
Although your presence is expected in class, no attendance will be taken (except to check the roll). The only exception is on the days that homework articles are presented by your classmates.
You are responsible for all announcements and material covered in class. Any missed tests or homework assignments will count as zero points unless it is an excused absence (illness, participation in a scheduled University event, etc.) which should be cleared with me before or immediately following the missed class. Anyone can be put on attendance probation if I feel they are missing too many classes and the absences are negatively affecting their performance. Missing classes while on probation may result in penalties on the final class grade.