Course Policy for CHEM 104A

Instructor:
Office Location:
E-mail:
Telephone:
Office Hours:

Dr. Kelly Marville

367A Noyes Lab
[email protected]
(217) 244-0402
Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 3 - 3:45 pm;
Tuesday and Thursday: 10 - 11 am and 2 - 3 pm

My lunch hour is 11:30 am to 12:30 pm, Monday to Friday, and I finish work every day at 4
pm. These times are non-negotiable. Students seeking help at times that conflict with these
times will not be assisted.
Please e-mail me using an @illinois.edu address to schedule an appointment if you need to
see me at a time outside of the office hours given above.
E-mail Policy:
In order for me to assist you as quickly as possible and for you to receive a prompt reply to
your concerns, please do the following when sending me an e-mail:
(i) Start the e-mail cordially and please address me as Dr. Marville or Professor Marville.
(ii) I teach 3 classes this semester so please state your full name, your net-id and class name
(CHEM 104A) at the start of the e-mail.
(iii) Place only relevant information in your e-mail and please get straight to the point. The
more precise an e-mail, the quicker I can determine if and how I can help you.
(iv) All e-mail correspondence related to this course should be sent via your @illinois.edu email account. E-mail messages received from any other account may not be recognized or
may be incorrectly trapped by spam filters and I therefore may not be able to reply to such
e-mails.

Course Information:
When and where we meet:
Lectures and Reviews: Monday, Wednesday and Friday 2:00 2:50 pm in 100 Noyes Lab
Discussion: Please find out the time and location for your discussion section.
(Please note that discussion is held only once a week in CHEM 104)

Course Website

This course will be run out of the Lon-capa (The Learning Online Network on Capa)
website (https://access1.lon-capa.uiuc.edu) which requires that you log-in using your
net-id and password.

All materials needed for the course; i.e. homework, lecture notes, worksheets and
quizzes will be found in Lon-capa. Links for the online grade book and that will allow
you to access your exam error sheets can also be found in labeled folders in Lon-capa.

Every week, before the first lecture, please log into Lon-capa and read the class
announcements for that current week. It is YOUR responsibility to know what is
happening in your class at ALL times in order to do well and reading the class
announcements allows you to do this.

REQUIRED MATERIALS:
1. Chemistry, 9th ed. by Zumdahl & Zumdahl or earlier edition of this text can be used but
no earlier than the 7th ed.)
2. Electronic calculator with log function Electronic calculator with log function
(TI-Nspire calculators cannot be used during exams for this course)
3. An i-clicker with the ability to answer multiple choice questions
4. The CHEM 104 Course Policy and Course Syllabus.
5. CHEM 104 Lon-capa E-text (Relevant Chapters from this free resource will be
provided in Lon-capa as the course progresses. Please see your syllabus for when
reading from this resource must be done)

RECOMMENDED:
1. Partial Solutions Guide for Chemistry, 9th ed., Hummel, Zumdahl and Zumdahl
2. Organic chemistry molecular model kit (purchase this only if you plan to continue to take
higher level organic classes and try to buy a used kit if possible).

Guidelines for Classroom Conduct

I have been directed by the Department of Chemistry to advise students of the following:
The campus Student Code, in particular Article 1 on Student Rights and Responsibilities
(http://admin.illinois.edu/policy/code/article1_part1_1-102.html). Section 1-102(d) states as
follows, in full:
(d) The instructor is in charge of the orderly conduct of the class and may exclude a student or
an auditor who does not comply with a reasonable request in this regard. If the student is
registered for the course and if the disruption is repeated or so egregious as to violate other
conduct regulations, (usually 1-302(f)), the instructor, after consultation with the department
head or designee and the Executive Director of the Senate Committee on Student Discipline,
may exclude the student from the class until such time as the disciplinary matter has been
resolved. If the disciplinary matter is resolved in a manner that permits the student to return to
class, the instructor, in consultation with the department head and the Executive Director of the
Senate Committee on Student Discipline or designee, shall decide whether and to what extent
the student will be permitted to make up course work missed while excluded from class.
The referenced Section 1-302(f) states as follows, in full, with the main section preamble of
"Conduct for which students are subject to discipline includes, but is not limited to the
following" (http://admin.illinois.edu/policy/code/article1_part3_1-302.html):
(f) Any conduct that substantially threatens or interferes with the maintenance of appropriate
order and discipline in the operation of the University. Without excluding other situations,
examples include shouting, noise making, obstruction, and other disruptive actions designed or
intended to interfere with or prevent meetings, assemblies, classes, or other scheduled or
routine University operations or activities.

Examples of Lecture Disruptions:

(i) Phone ringing, beeping or producing musical tones when someone calls or sends a text.
(ii) The volume of devices that are being used to listen to music being set so high that others
can hear what you are listening to.
(iii) Lap-tops being used to watch videos or play games and the video or game can be heard.

Guidelines for Classroom Conduct (contd):

Out of respect for the instructor and your fellow students, please mute your cell phones and
any other electronic devices that may make a noise BEFORE CLASS STARTS and
please do not answer or make a call during class. You will need to be paying close attention
during class in order to do well. A lecture is only 50 minutes. Please refrain from texting,
listening to music, watching videos or talking loudly and excessively as all of the latter may
cause you to miss valuable hints about exams and useful clarifications that are only given when
the entire class meets. You can be asked to leave class if you are disruptive.
There should be NO recording of lectures or reviews being given and taking of pictures of
the i-clicker slides designed by Dr. Marville should not be done during or after Friday
oor Exam Reviews.

Grading Guidelines
The following Table shows the point distribution for this course:
Online Homework

55 pts.

i-clickers

35 pts.

Quizzes (best 8/10 kept; 20 pts. each)

160 pts.

Hour Exams (3 exams;150 pts. each)

450 pts.

Final exam

300 pts.

Total

1000 pts.

These are the only graded assignments that will be given for this class.
At the end of the semester, points from each of the areas listed above will be added together
(1000 total points) and overall course grades will be set according to the following:
Points Total %
970-1000
930-969
900-929
870-899
830-869
800-829
770-799
730-769
700-729
670-699
630-669
600-629
0-599

Percentage %
(97.0-100.0%)
(93.0-96.9%)
(90.0-92.9%)
(87.0-89.9%)
(83.0-86.9%)
(80.0-82.9%)
(77.0-79.9%)
(73.0-76.9%)
(70.0-72.9%)
(67.0-69.9%)
(63.0-66.9%)
(60.0-62.9%)
(0.0-59.9%)

Final Grade
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF

Depending on the distribution of points at the end of the semester, these borderlines may
be lowered, but never raised.
Once you obtain the point total that corresponds to the final grade in the table above, you
are GUARANTEED that grade. Please do not depend on the class being curved to get you the
grade you desire. At the end of the semester if you receive the grade that corresponds to the
point total shown or a grade higher than what you actually earned thanks to a curve, please be
grateful and move forward!
Requests for a grade higher than that posted at the end of the semester, especially for
posted grades that are already higher than they would have been if not for the class being
curved will NOT be acknowledged.

DISCUSSION SECTIONS
Discussion sections MUST be attended if you want to do well as this is where your TAs will go
over problems and you get to address problems you are having with the material that was
covered. Attendance will be taken each discussion class. Please note that you have only ONE
discussion section a week in CHEM 104 so please use your 50 minute discussion time wisely.
Before the start of every week a worksheet that contains problems on the topics that will
be covered that week will be posted in Lon-capa. Please print this worksheet and attempt the
relevant questions before your discussion section.
Major learning takes place during problem solving and therefore it is expected that you attempt
worksheet problems BEFORE attending discussion sections so that any problems you
encountered can be addressed during the discussion section.
Please remember that your TAs know the content being taught already! It is therefore useless
for them to be the ones that are solving the problems on the worksheet while you merely copy
the answer down to a question you read a few seconds ago.

SUGGESTED TEXT PROBLEMS

In your course syllabus, you will see a list of reading assignments,
For example: Required Reading: Zumdahl 9th edition, Chapter 7: 7.1
At the end of each reading assignment in your text you will see a list of Exercises (problems)
highlighted in yellow.
For example: See Exercises 7.39 and 7.40

This means do questions 39 and 40 at the end of chapter 7.

Please attempt these and as many problems at the end of all reading assignments so you
can develop the problem-solving skills that will assist you in performing well in exams
(worth 75% of your grade).
Solutions to over one-half of the suggested problems in the Zumdahl text are available in the
recommended supplement called the Partial Solutions Guide for Chemistry. Please use this
resource in a mature way. Working backwards on a problem, i.e. from the answer to the
question asked does not provide the practice required to gain proficiency in problem solving
(numerical and conceptual).

RETAKE EXAMS
Hour Exam grades are NOT curved. After an Hour Exam has concluded, you will also have
an opportunity to take a different version of the exam online through LON-CAPA (called a
Retake).
The dates of the opening and closing times for all Retakes will be posted in Lon-capa prior
to all Hour Exams and will also be announced during the Review for each Hour Exam. A
Retake is NOT a timed exercise and you will have two attempts only at each individual
problem on a Retake.
You are not required to take the Retake, but by doing so you may be able to increase your
exam score. In fact, this is the only way that you can attempt to improve the grade you
earned on the written Hour Exam.
Now I know you are asking yourself, Why should I take the Retake when I have already sat the
exam and that exam is thankfully behind me? Why should I do more work?
Well the answer to this question is that your final score for each exam will be the greater of
Score 1 or Score 2 where
Score 1 = paper exam score (all Hour Exams are paper exams)
Score 2 = paper exam score + ((online Retake score paper exam score) * 0.3)
Please see the next page for examples on how your score can change depending on your
performance on the online Retake.

Examples of Calculating Exam Scores After Taking the Online Retake

Student 1 Student 2 Student 3
Raw (paper)
exam score / 150

Student 4

Student 5

105

120

90

135

147

(70%)

(80%)

(60%)

(90%)

(98%)

Retake exam
score / 150

142.5

142.5

142.5

142.5

142.5

(95%)

(95%)

(95%)

(95%)

(95%)

Points difference

37.5

22.5

52.5

7.5

- 4.5

Points earned

11.25

6.75

15.75

2.25

Final score / 150

116.3

126.75

105.75

137.25

147

(raw exam score

+ points earned)

(77.5%)

(84.5%)

(70.5%)

(91.5%)

(98%)

(points diff. x 0.3)

You can only benefit from taking the Retake exam, and putting in real effort should help you
gain more points and a better understanding of the concepts which should lead to a better final
exam score.
Please remember that whatever points you earn on the Final are the points that will be
used to calculate your Final point total for the class.
Final Exam grades are not scaled and there is no Retake for the Final Exam.

ONLINE QUIZZES
Please see your syllabus for the dates that you have an online quiz. Each online quiz opens
every Friday in Lon-capa at 8 am and closes that Sunday at 11:59 pm You will have ONE
chance (NO EXCEPTIONS) to take each online quiz over this time period but will have two
attempts (unless otherwise stated) at each question over a 25 minute period.
Students will have a stated number of problems to complete for each quiz and will be shown
one question at a time within the allotted 25 minute period. On answering a question correctly,

or having used your 2 tries, you will be shown the next question in that quiz. All quiz questions
and their answers will be made available to all students on Monday morning from 1 am.
Please select a good time and location when you are ready to take an online quiz. Make sure
you have studied, have an electronic calculator, list of required chemistry formulas and
constants, periodic table, scratch paper, have used the restroom, etc. before you start an online
quiz. Once you begin an online quiz you MUST complete it before the time runs out; you
cannot finish one question and go back to this quiz at a later time.
Note: The best 8 of the 10 online quizzes will be kept.

MEETING WITH DR. MARVILLE DURING EXAM WEEKS

Several of you will be seeking to gain entry into very competitive programs, like medicine, and
may need a letter of recommendation from me before graduating from this university.
Institutions, like medical schools, require that letters from references speak directly and
honestly about the applicant's problem-solving abilities, work ethic, level of preparation,
communication skills and ability to deal with stressful situations..... like the days leading up to
Hour Exams. I therefore only write recommendation letters for students that have given
me multiple opportunities to assess the prior characteristics.
All three Hour Exams take place on a Wednesday. On the Mondays and Tuesdays of exam
weeks, I will only meet with individual students for 15 minute appointments which have been
scheduled in advance. I will not be meeting with students on the day of an exam.
Scheduling for these 15 minute appointments will take place the week BEFORE the exam
week (between 7 am Sunday morning and 11:50 pm the following Sunday night) using the
reservation system in Lon-Capa.
For example, the first Hour Exam will take place on Wednesday, February 17. I will not meet
with students on Wednesday, Feb. 17. On Monday, Feb. 15 and Tuesday, Feb. 16, I will meet
only with students who have made appointments using the Lon-Capa reservation system
the week before. The reservation system for that exam will open 7 am Sunday, Feb. 7 and be
available for you to make an appointment to see me the two days prior to the exam, until 11:50
pm Sunday, Feb. 14. You will be able to sign up for only one appointment per day.

Please remember that apart from exam weeks, I am available for regular office hours, Monday,
Wednesday and Friday, 3 - 3:45 pm and Tuesday and Thursday, 10 - 11 am and 2 - 3 pm.

Please don't wait until exam week to come to me with questions! Please plan ahead!
Please e-mail me using an @illinois.edu address to schedule an appointment if you need to see
me at a time outside of these office hours and if it is not exam week where reservations must be
made to see me.
Appointments to see me prior to the Final Exam will work the same way with appointment
scheduling opening at 7 am on Sunday, April 24 and closing Sunday, May 1 at 11:50 pm to see
me on Thursday, May 5 (Reading Day) and Friday, May 6 as the Final Exam is Monday, May 9
and I will not be seeing students on the day of the Final Exam.

Please note the following:

1) A student cannot sign up for more than one 15 minute time slot in one day.

2) In order to see me for help on the topic of your choice, during Exam week, that student
must have signed-up for a 15 minute slot of time using the Lon-capa reservation system
during the times given above.
A student may NOT bring another person with them during their reserved 15 minute slot of
time. These 15 minute slots of time are meant to help students on a one-on-one basis. Please
remember that on the day of the exam YOU will be sitting in a room and taking an exam
without being able to collaborate with anyone so please get to the stage where you are
comfortable problem-solving alone.

3) Using the Lon-capa reservation system, students will be able to see which slots of time
have been booked and will be unable to change slots of time already booked by your fellow
students.
4) If you have reserved a 15 minute time slot for exam week and then realize that you either
cannot attend or no longer need to attend this session, please cancel your session BEFORE the
deadline for booking reservations using the Lon-capa reservation system.

Students who have reserved a 15 minute slot of time using the Lon-capa reservation
system and subsequently do not turn up for their reserved time without informing me
via e-mail or word of mouth prior to the start time of that reservation will have all other
reservations that they may have booked that week canceled by Dr. Marville.
5) On Monday of exam week, 15 minute slots will be made available from 10:00 to 11:15 am
and 3:00 to 3:30 pm and on Tuesday of exam week, 15 minute slots will be made
available from 10:00 to 11:15 am and 1:00 to 3:30 pm.

STUDENT RESOURCES
1. The CHEM 104 E-text: This FREE and very useful resource can be found in Lon-capa.
The e-text consists of notes that were written by a CHEM 104 professor for the majority of
topics for this class.
It is strongly advised that you continuously access and use the information in the e-text
if you want to do well in the class. Relevant E-text chapters are opened in Lon-capa the
Friday prior to when that material will be discussed in lecture. Please read ahead!
2. The Chemistry Learning Center (CLC), located in 230 Davenport.
CLC hours: Monday - Thursday: 8:30 am - 9:00 pm
Friday: 8:30 am until 5:00 pm
Saturday: closed
Sunday: 3:00 pm - 9:00 pm
The CLC is open for students to work on LON CAPA assignments (except quizzes) or as a
place to study. There are extra textbooks and study guides available for students to use in the
CLC. Teaching assistants who can help with questions will be on duty most times when the
learning center is open, but I cannot guarantee there will always be extra help present.
The CLC is a resource where you can receive help. It is NOT where you go to have your
homework done for you. In order to receive help in the CLC you must provide the TA assigned
with evidence that you did some work on the problem you say you worked on BEFORE you are
helped. Simply stating, I have no idea where to begin will not be accepted as evidence that
you actually worked on the problem.
The CLC website is also a great resource for tutorials on a number of topics that present
students with difficulty every semester.
Please see: http://www.chem.illinois.edu/clcwebsite/clctutorials.html

3. Electronic Grade Book

Wondering how you are doing in class? All grades in the course are kept ONLY in the
electronic grade book, NOT in LON-capa. Please see Lon-capa to access the link to the grade
book.
Please get into the habit of calculating your grade for the class so you can plan to make the
necessary steps (whether it be seeing me or your TA well in advance of the next major exam) if
you want your current grade to improve. An example of how to calculate your grade is at the
end of this document. The electronic grade book should also be used to register your iclicker using the bar-code number (an 8-character code) on the back of your i-clicker.
4. Pre- and Post-Lecture PowerPoints
The PowerPoints that will be used in lectures and reviews (without the i-clickers that will be
given and answers to problems that will be solved) will be made accessible in the PowerPoints
folder in Lon-capa before lecture. Since we will be covering material very quickly, it is highly
recommended, but not mandatory, that you print these PowerPoints slides and bring them to
lecture. This way you can concentrate on the material being presented during lecture instead of
furiously taking detailed notes that you already have been provided with. Pre-lecture
PowerPoints will NOT be identical to those that will be used by the Professor in lecture.
Before the end of the day where a lecture has been given, detailed solutions to these questions
will be placed in the Post-lecture PowerPoints folder in Lon-capa. Solutions to i-clicker
questions, nor the questions themselves, will be posted.

5. Detailed Worksheet Keys

Detailed answers to the weekly worksheet problems will be posted in the Worksheet Keys
folder in Lon-capa by the end of the day every Friday. Worksheet keys will be prepared by
teaching assistants (TA). The name and contact information of that TA will be on the cover
page of that worksheet. Please contact the TA that prepared the KEY asap if you have any
questions or possible correction(s) to the Key that they prepared.

6. List of Campus Services

A list of the Campus Services available to all students is listed in one document. This
document can be found in the same Lon-capa folder where the Course Policy is located.

7. Additional Learning Materials

A folder with this name can be found in Lon-capa and contains a variety of resources to assist
you in learning the material for this class. Please check this folder on a weekly basis.

HOW DO I CALCULATE MY GRADE?

It is strongly recommended that students calculate their grade in the class on a regular
basis. Dr. Marville will not be calculating grades for students.
Students seeking to drop the class must present Dr. Marville with ALL of the work they
performed to calculate their grade BEFORE she completes any of the necessary
paperwork for that drop to be processed.
Below is how the points for CHEM 104A are assigned:
Online Homework
I-clicker points
Quizzes (20 points each, best 8/10 quizzes are kept)
Hour Exams (150 pts. each)
Final Exam
Total

55 pts.
35 pts.
160 pts.
450 pts.
300 pts.
1000 pts.

Here is an example of how a fictitious students grade is calculated after they took Hour
Exam I (HEI):
Points earned by student
Hour Exam I Grade After Retake I: 135/150
(found in Hour Exams After Retake folder)
Homework: 20/25
(Say at this time total Homework
points is 25)
Homework is NOT scaled
Quizzes: 45/60
(Say at this time only 3
quizzes have been given;
each worth 20 pts)

Points used to calculate grade

Hour Exam I After Retake I: 135/150

For Homework to be out of 55 multiply both

25 and 20 by 2.2 to obtain a grade of 44/55

For quizzes: 45/60

All quiz grades must be kept at this stage in the semester as the two lowest quizzes out of the 10
quizzes that will be given are only dropped when 10 quizzes have been given.
Quizzes are NOT scaled
i-clickers: 12 points
Say a total of 18 points of
i-clickers have been asked by this time
in the semester.
I-clicker points are NOT scaled

For i-clickers: 12/18

Total possible points: 150 + 55 + 60 + 18 = 283 points

Grade calculation example continued:

Total points earned by student: 135 + 44 + 45 + 12 = 236
Student percentage of points: (236/283) x 100 = 83%
According to the following percentages shown below that govern the grades given in 104A, this
student has a B at this time in the semester.
Percentage%
(97.0-100.0%)
(93.0-96.9%)
(90.0-92.9%)
(87.0-89.9%)
(83.0-86.9%)
(80.0-82.9%)
(77.0-79.9%)
(73.0-76.9%)
(70.0-72.9%)
(67.0-69.9%)
(63.0-66.9%)
(60.0-62.9%)
(0.0-59.9%)

Final Grade
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF