Syllabus

Co-requisites or Pre-requisites:

Co-requisite: MATH 201

Pre-requisites: CHEM 221 (C and higher) and MATH 120/120.5

Credits/Contact Hours: 5 credits; 7 hrs/week (lecture 3.0 hrs, recitation 1.0 hrs, and Laboratory 3.0 hrs)


Learning Outcomes:      

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

  1. Draw structures of organic compounds using both Lewis structures and atomic orbital overlap concepts
  2. Identify the common functional groups associated with organic structures
  3. Describe structural features, physical and chemical properties, and IUPAC nomenclature associated with alkanes, and cycloalkanes alkenes, alkynes
  4. Describe the concept of acids and bases as they pertain to both organic and inorganic compounds
  5. Define and give examples of the following concepts as they pertain to the stereochemistry of organic compounds: chiral atom, enantiomers, Geometric isomerism, conformation, chirality, absolute configuration, resolution and fisher projection
  6. Describe the nomenclature, structure, formation and reactions of alkenes and alkynes
  7. Predict the stereochemistry and structure of the products and mechanisms involved, resulting from selected reagents with a given alkene
  8. Describe the formation and reactions of alkyl halides including free radical halogenation, SN-1, SN-2, E-1, and E-2 Mechanisms
  9. Predict structure of the product and the mechanisms involved from the reaction of nucleophiles or bases with selected alkyl halides or alkyl sulfonates

How to study organic chemistry?

  1. Believe that organic chemistry is not as formidable as the rumors say and is easiest to learn if it is seen as a language: reactions are the vocabulary and mechanisms the grammar.
  2. Avoid falling behind.  Make use of the office hour and ensure that you set aside short period every day for reading the book, working the problems and reviewing materials from class.  Do not procrastinate and expect to learn the material by CRAMMING before the exam.
  3. Go to Class.  Come to my office hour.
  4. Work extra problems in each chapter.
  5. Use the study guide and the summary section at the end of each chapter to look for broad concepts.
  6. Work on syntheses ties together everything you’ve learned.
  7. If you still need help?  Come see me ASAP.  Peer mentoring will be available.
  8. Finally, don’t attempt to memorize it.  You must understand the fundamentals of organic chemistry to solve problems and have fun.

Suggested Textbook:

John McMurry Openstax, 10th Ed, 2023 https://openstax.org/details/books/organic-chemistry

Required Materials:

Index cards and molecular modeling kits

College-wide Policies:

Policy on Academic Honesty

Guttman Community College considers intellectual honesty to be the cornerstone of all academic and scholarly work.   GCC views any form of academic dishonesty as a serious matter and requires all instructors to report every case of academic dishonesty to its Academic Integrity Officer, who keeps records of all cases.  All work submitted or posted by students in this course must be their own. Submission of writing or ideas which are not the original work of the student, or which is not adequately referenced, is considered plagiarism. Unintentional plagiarism is still plagiarism, so if you have any question about whether or not to acknowledge a source, acknowledge it.  And if you are still uncertain, be sure to ask.   Refer to Article II of your Student Grievance Procedures for further details on academic honesty and Guttman’s academic integrity procedures, at [Academic Policies url link]  Penalties for academic dishonesty include academic sanctions, such as failing or otherwise reduced grades, and/or disciplinary sanctions, including suspension or expulsion.

Disability Support Services

In compliance with the American Disability Act of 1990 (ADA) and with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Guttman Community College is committed to ensuring educational parity and accommodations for all students with documented disabilities and/or medical conditions. It is recommended that all students with documented disabilities (Emotional, Medical, Physical and/ or Learning) consult the Office of AccessABILITY Services located in Room 506 A to secure necessary academic accommodations.  For further information and assistance please call 646-313-8812 or speak to your Student Success Advocate or Career Strategist.

Critical Incident Management   Guttman expects students to respect the rights, privileges and property of other people.   Faculty are required to report disruptive behavior that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises the safety of the learning environment or inhibits students’ ability to learn. 

Viewpoint Tolerance     Some of the issues covered during the seminar may evoke strong emotions.   Students, faculty and staff must be able to disagree respectfully with others on topics that are personally very important to them.   Civility is essential to all scholarly discourse.

Expectations for Out-of-Class Time

For every one instructional credit hour in class, a Guttman student is expected to spend at least two hours out-of-class studying, reading, writing, researching and working on projects, and preparing for tests.  E.g. for a 3 credit course that meets for 3 hours each week, a student is expected to spend at least 6 hours outside of class time doing related course work. If a course provides more time in class than one hour for one credit, the additional time may offset out- of- class time expectations.

Requirements & Course Policies:

Be on time for class. Do not use your phone in class.  

There is no food allowed in the lab.Finish your food outside before entering class.

Because of the tight schedule there will be no makeup labs. Late work will not be accepted.

Expectations for Participation & Engagement:

Students are expected to attend all classes and to fully participate in each experiential learning activity. Students are responsible for making sure that their lab space is clean and orderly before leaving for the day. Students are also expected to do the required readings prior to coming to class. Students should work collaboratively with their laboratory groups/partners. This does not mean submitting identical work. See Statement on Academic Integrity.

Grading:    

Weekly Quiz15%
Assignment10%
Lab Work25%
3 Exams (out of 4)40%
BBK Project (recitation)10%

Graded Assignments:

  1. Attendance – Students are expected to attend all classes. You are expected to be actively engaged in the class lectures and labs.
  2. Homework – Homework assignments will be based on lectures.  Homework sets are from our OER textbook.
  3. Lab Work This includes participation in the labs, bench cleanup, and post-lab assignments. Your lab bench and equipment must be clean and dry at the end of every lab according to the instructor’s directions. You are expected to be on time for lab and fully participate in the lab. For safety reasons, those who misses the lab instruction will not be able to take part in the activity.  Please be on time. There are no makeup labs.
  4. Exam – There will be four exams, and the lowest one will be dropped. No make-up exam!
  5. Quiz – Quiz (open notebook??, 10 mins long, 1-2 questions based on what we learn in the lecture) will be given in the beginning of the session on Thursdays; two lowest ones will be dropped so no make-up quiz will be given.  Please be on time.
  6. BBK Project- more information later (During Recitation we will use A.I. as a tutor)

How to be successful in this class:

1. Attend all classes on time and actively participate during the lecture.

2. Check your grade frequently on Blackboard. Complete all of the assignments on time.

3. Attend Meetups and Office Hours regularly. Email me if you have questions about the material and to set up appointments (or through Starfish). You are encouraged to complete Homework sets in Meetups.

4. Be prepared to take notes during lecture. Do not copy every word on each slide. They are posted online. Take notes on the concepts and discussion.

5. Study for exams by looking through the lecture slides and reading the corresponding book sections. This material requires repetition to learn so you will have to review it several times.


Tentative Lecture Schedule

Week #1                             CH 1: Structure and Bonding

                                             CH 2: Polar Covalent bonds; Acids and Bases

Week #2                             CH 3: Organic Compounds: Alkanes and Their Stereochemistry

Week #3                             CH 4: Organic Compounds: Cycloalkanes and Their Stereochemistry

                                             Exam 1

Week #4                             CH 5: Stereochemistry at Tetrahedral Centers

Week #5                             CH 6: An Overview of Organic Reactions

                                             Exam 2

Weeks #6                           CH 7: Alkenes: Structure and Reactivity

Week #7                             CH 8: Alkenes: Reactions and Synthesis

Week #8                             CH 9:  Alkynes: An Introduction to Organic Synthesis

                                             Exam 3                                                            

Weeks #9-11                     CH 10: Organohalides

                                         CH 11: Reactions of Alkyl Halides: Nucleophilic Substitutions and Eliminations

TBA                Exam 4