Foundation Chemistry

This Course Guide outlines the course structure and content for SCI S124 Foundation Chemistry. SCI S124 is a 5-credit, one-semester fundamental course in the Bachelor of Science with Honours in Applied Science (Biology and Chemistry), and an elective course for other UG programmes. There are no prerequisites for this course, but you are expected to be confident with basic mathematical skills and with gaining access to the Internet.

The course is designed to equip you with the basic knowledge of chemistry, from stoichiometry and change of matter to chemical reactions. Chemistry is a subject closely related to our daily lives, so this course will specify its application with examples from today's world so you can see how chemistry appears everywhere. This course encourages you to apply subject knowledge to describe and explain the issues involved in chemistry and enables you to pursue your study further in various science disciplines.

The rest of this introductory section lists SCI S124's aims and learning outcomes; and provides an overview of the course's organization. The following sections explain the course materials, learning support, and course assessment details.

Course aims

SCI S124 is a fundamental course universally relevant to all HKMU programmes. The course will introduce you to basic conceptual knowledge in chemistry that provides a platform for further study in middle and higher level science courses. It aims to:

• Develop your understanding of the essential basic principles of general chemistry.
• Enable you to apply knowledge of chemistry in solving scientific problems.
• Develop your capability to articulate abstract chemical ideas and construct scientific explanations based on evidence.
• Help you to critically discuss the connections between science, technology, society and the environment through the use of practical examples of real-world applications.

Course learning outcomes

Upon completion of SCI S124, you should be able to:

• Relate the macroscopic, microscopic and symbolic views of chemistry, and apply the mole concept in stoichiometric calculations involving reacting masses, volumes of gases and solution concentrations.
• Describe the electronic structure of atoms, periodicity of elements and chemical bonding.
• Use molecular concepts to explain the properties of the three states of matter and the transitions between them.
• Apply the concept of thermodynamics to examine the enthalpy changes of reactions.
• Identify the factors governing the rate of chemical reactions and affecting the equilibrium position of chemical systems.
• Illustrate knowledge of chemistry and chemistry principles in the development of electrochemical chemical cells, nanotechnology and industrial processes.

Course organization

The table below gives an overview of the course structure and also shows the distribution of assignments.

The presentation of SCI S124 includes readings, tutorial and surgery sessions, laboratory experiments, and the assignments. You are advised to attend the tutorials, surgeries and laboratory at your option, but you are required to submit the assignments.

Study units

SCI S124 is structured into five study units and is intended to take about 16 weeks to complete. Each study unit is organized into a number of topics, each of which covers key chemistry concepts with elaboration of ideas in different sub-topics to ensure students' understanding.

Each unit opens with the descriptions of the main headings to provide an overview of the unit's contents. The introduction includes real-world everyday phenomena or misconceptions that are centred on the core chemical ideas and underlying chemistry principles in the unit. Some of the topics are more obviously quantitative / mathematical in nature, while others have a greater descriptive content.

The worked examples and self-tests with full solutions throughout each unit illustrate how to apply the chemistry concepts and principles in solving contextual problems. They demonstrate the importance of chemistry in different aspects of everyday life. You can use these questions to decide whether you are ready to move on to the next unit. Lastly, a summary is provided for each unit that is organized according to the main headings in the unit and which incorporates the key terms in bold.

This course has a printed course guide and five study units. There will also be a small number of supplementary readings, case studies or articles taken from relevant journals and textbooks.

Optional reference book

There is no compulsory set book for this course. However, the following is a recommended reference book for the course:

Chang, R and Goldsby, K E (2013) Chemistry, 11th Edition, New York: McGraw Hill.

Online and multimedia materials

OLE

SCI S124 has a companion website hosted on HKMU's OLE (Online Learning Environment) containing online course materials and URLs from the study units for reference and further readings.

E-Library E-Reserve readings

You may be instructed to read articles in the E-Library E-Reserve. To read these items, go to the University's E-Library and click on 'E-Reserve'. Log in, click 'Accept/Agree' on the Copyright Restrictions page, fill in the 'Course Code' box, and click 'Search'.

Other online resources

You are encouraged to explore and read other online resources from the
Internet that are freely available at popular websites below.

• ChemMatters, Washington, DC: American Chemical Society: http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/ chemmatters.html
• Animations, simulations and interactive self-assessment quizzes are found on the reference book's companion website: http://highered. mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073402680/student_view0/
• Chemistry comes alive! videos: http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/JCESoft/CCA/pirelli/index.html
• The periodic table of videos: http://www.periodicvideos.com/
• PhET interactive simulations of University of Colorado Boulder for various topics: http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/ chemistry

Equipment needed (IT resources)

Hardware:

• 1 GHz CPU or above
• 1 GB RAM or above
• 100 GB or more free hard disk space
• SVGA display card and colour monitor
• keyboard and mouse
• sound card and speaker
• network interface card.

Software:

• MS Windows XP or above
• Mozilla Firefox 4
• Internet Explorer 9
• Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1.

Internet access:

• You should have access to a POP email/Webmail service.
• The Internet access time required for this course is around two hours on average per month, depending on your study plan and pace.

SCI S124 includes two assignments and a final examination. Assignments serve as the continuous assessment during the study period and account for 50% of the total course assessment. The final examination to be conducted at the end of the course accounts for the other 50%.

There are a number of rules and regulations relating to both, given in the Student Handbook. You are strongly recommended to read this handbook, as it explains the general requirements for all assessment and the way grades are actually determined.

Assignments

During the course, your performance is continuously assessed by the assignments, which act as a benchmark to check your learning progress, and test your understanding of the lessons and your capability to apply the knowledge learned in real-life situations.

Assignments generally contain problem-solving questions which resemble the one asked in the final examination. You must submit the assignments on time; they will be marked by the tutors and returned together with feedback and comments, which in turn serve as a learning tool to help you in gaining understanding of your strengths and weaknesses on the topics, and to use as a guideline for preparation toward the final examination.

There will be two assignments in SCI S124. The total marks of these assignments will be counted as 50% of the final mark in calculating the course grade.

Assessment items

The assessment items are outlined in the following table:

SCI S124 offers you three types of teaching and learning support: face-to-face tutorials and surgeries, laboratory sessions and online support in the form of a discussion board on HKMU's OLE, and course coordinator consultation. You should contact your tutor as the first line of support.
There are a number of means by which you can contact your tutor for help, which include telephone, email and other online communications.

Tutorials

There are a total of five two-hour tutorial sessions throughout the course, comprising 10 hours of contact time. You are strongly recommended to attend the tutorial sessions for in-depth discussion with your tutor. The tutorial sessions enable tutor-student interactions through learning activities to help you gain a firmer comprehension of the course contents. You can seek advice from your tutor regarding the study units.

Surgeries

There are a total of two two-hour surgery sessions in the course that are often scheduled between tutorials. Surgeries allow you to address your questions on the study units and assignments to the on-duty tutor for consultation.

Laboratory sessions

There will be two optional laboratory sessions for you to acquire knowledge and techniques about chemical experiments. These experiments enable you to integrate theories into practice and to reflect on what you have learned in the course materials. These hands-on experiences can help you tackle more complicated chemical experiments in your future study.

Online Learning Environment (OLE)

This course is supported by HKMU's Online Learning Environment (OLE). You can find course materials, supplementary materials delivered in tutorials, hyperlinks for accessing web-based multimedia resources and the latest course information from this online platform.

You are strongly recommended to post any problems and share your learning experiences with fellow coursemates on the OLE discussion board.

Finally, you may contact the course coordinator for consultation. The course coordinator is responsible for preparing the presentation of the course, ensuring that it progresses smoothly, overseeing the work of tutors, monitoring the standard of the assessment and grading students with the external examiner at the end of the course.

Dr Lam Ching Kin received his BSc (Hons) and MPhil degrees in chemistry from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), and his MEd and PhD degrees in the field of learning sciences from HKU by part-time study. He has extensive experience in curriculum development, learning and teaching, and assessment in the domain of science at both secondary and tertiary levels. His research interests focus on how the design of collaborative knowledge-building environments can promote effective learning in science classrooms. He also has rich experience in teaching chemistry in the distance learning mode at Hong Kong Metropolitan University as he has been a part-time tutor for the course SCI S121 A Foundation Course in Physics and Chemistry for 15 years, and has been teaching the course CHEM S251 Organic and Physical Chemistry since October 2003.