Syllabus

• Junior Seminar I: Chemical Literacy (CH389, Fall 2018)

The official description of the course is provided in the Loras College Undergraduate Bulletin.  This is the first in a four course series that focuses on chemical literacy, which will include chemical safety, retrieval of scientific information, reference management, analysis of technical writing, and oral communication of primary scientific literature.  Students will develop professional relationships through mentoring, professional society membership, and alumni interaction.

Prerequisites: Junior standing.  Chemistry or Biochemistry major.

Where & When

• Monday from 6:00-6:50pm
• Catherine Byrne Hall, Room 304 at Clarke University

Staff

• Lecturer – Dr. Adam Moser (adam.moser@loras.edu), Science Hall 213
  • Office Hours: TBA

Materials

1. Student membership in the American Chemical Society.

Grading

• Professional Memberships, Tools, and Participation – 10%
  Students will become undergraduate members of the American Chemical Society and learn to use resources provided through their membership. Students will set up Zotero accounts and use it to manage chemical citations.
• Tertiary Source Report (Outcome 1) – 10%
  Students will pick an article from a tertiary source (e.g. Chemical and Engineering News) and summarize it. They will then find the primary source to compare to the tertiary source.
• Search Result Report (Outcome 2) – 10%
  Students will perform a primary literature search that is of appropriate scope and relevance to their thesis topic.
• Annotated Bibliography (Outcome 1 & 2) – 25%
  Students will generate an annotated bibliography related to their thesis. This will be managed by their citation management system.
• MSDS & Chemical Safety Worksheet (Outcome 2) – 15%
  Students will complete a worksheet assessing their understanding of chemical safety and chemical safety information.
• Oral Presentation on Published Results (Outcome 3) – 15%
  Student pairs will present the results of a single, peer reviewed article.
• Mentoring (Outcome 4) – 10%
  Students will be paired with interested first year students, participate in community-building activities with them, and meet with them to provide mentorship. Students are required to identify meaningful mentoring goals and assess their progress on them. Mentees are surveyed as well.
• Alumni Phone Interview (Outcome 4) – 5%
  Students interview a Loras alumni to help determine their professional path and discuss connections to their vocational goals.

Schedule

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