CHEM 204 1 Credit Hour

Practical Chemistry

This information is for second semester 2017/2018 academic year

Teacher responsible

Augustine Donkor

Availability

This course is available open to all visiting students but only as a second semester course.

Course Content

Organic chemistry is very interesting and exciting especially when a practical component complements the course work. Thus, this course has been designed to assist students undertaking Level 200 Organic Chemistry to appreciate and understand theoretical concepts. The activities have been designed to help students develop skills and to extend the contexts in which understanding and application of chemical ideas are relevant.

Moreover, students learn skills such as synthesis of organic compounds (e.g. esters, acids, ketones) requiring basic heating under reflux, distillation, crystallization, extraction, filtration and melting point determination. Additionally, students are made to engage in the qualitative analysis of alcohols, carboxylic acids, aldehydes, ketones, amines and phenols.

Teaching

 Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30pm – 4:30pm for 14 weeks

Each practical includes detailed instructions and is supposed to take three hours to complete. Lastly, at end of each practical are questions designed to encourage students to think about what they are doing rather than performing operations mechanically.

Formative Coursework

This will be in the form of pre-lab lectures, demonstrations, and discussions. Your participation is very important for your final scores.

Indicative reading

NB: Some of these books may have several different editions

James W. Zubrick (1998) The Organic Chem Lab Survival Manual: A Student’s Guide to Techniques; John Wiley And Sons, New York.

Wade Jr. L.G. 2013. Organic Chemistry, Pearson Education Inc. New York.Castellan, G.  Physical Chemistry.  3rd ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1983

Assessment and Grading

Continuously assessed

Grading Scale: