Unit information: Building Blocks of Chemistry in 2020/21

Unit name	Building Blocks of Chemistry
Unit code	CHEM10009
Credit points	40
Level of study	C/4
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Dr. Chris Russell
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Chemistry
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Description including Unit Aims

Building Blocks of Chemistry aims to focus on the core knowledge and skills that underpin a degree in Chemistry. These are centred around three key themes:

• Structure
• Change
• Analysis

These in turn will be broken down into eight components: Models; Periodicity; Shape 1; Shape 2; Reactivity 1; Reactivity 2; Characterisation; and Molecular Orbital Festival.

In teaching these themes, we aim to emphasise skills/problem solving over knowledge, to form explicit links between seemingly disparate content, and to show how chemistry addresses real-world problems.

Aims:

To ensure that chemistry students have the skills and knowledge to understand chemistry as a single, seamless discipline.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit students should be able to:

• Analyse systems and data to predict and rationalise reactivity
• Infer atomic structure and properties from the periodic table
• Critique, compare, appraise and apply different scientific models
• Accurately draw, model and predict molecular shape
• Identify molecules and their behaviour from data and spectra
• Discuss how chemistry can help solve real-life problems

Teaching Information

We aim to use a blended learning approach involving a mixture of lectures, online resources, and individual and team-based student-led enquiry-based learning. Embedded within the unit we will use cornerstone and capstone components to address the role of chemistry in addressing global problems (e.g. Climate Change, Energy, Plastic Fantastic?, Health, How things work/Technology, Nanotechnology). The synoptic questions that will be used in the end-of-year exam will come exclusively from these capstone/cornerstone components.

Summary of approximate student workload:

• Self-study and continuous assessment: 24 x 13 hours: 312 hours
• Lectures/lecture equivalents: (24 x 3): 72 hours
• Tutorials/workshops: 16 x 1 hours: 16 hours
• Total: 400 hours

Assessment Information

Formative Assessment:

Students will complete regular marked exercises as part of tutorials/workshops. Tasks leading to summative coursework will also be underpinned by either staff-led or peer-to-peer formative feedback.

Summative Assessment:

The unit will be assessed by coursework (50%) and a single end-of-year exam (50%). The exam will employ synoptic questions drawn from the cornerstone and capstone components of the unit problem-based chemistry questions. The coursework will be assessed by means of:

• A number of small online activities, each contributing a percentage of the overall mark
• Lab-report style extended written report
• Assessed group work

Reading and References

Chemical Structure and Reactivity: An integrated approach, by James Keeler and Peter Wothers, 2^nd edition, OUP, 2014.