A little bit about your instructor:

“An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.” - Niels Bohr

My name is Jeff Spraggins (you can call me Jeff), and I am a third year graduate teaching assistant here at the University of Delaware . My professional interests focus around chemical instrumentation and how it is used in the analysis of biomolecules. More specifically, my research focuses on the oxidation of peptides and how we can use mass spectrometry to determine the mechanisms by which this process occurs. Although I am training to be an analytical chemist, my true passion is education. With that said, although I have listed my official office hours above, feel free to stop in any time or drop me an email if you run into troubles in this course. I do my best to maintain an open door policy with my students. I will be expecting you to have questions and to make mistakes throughout the semester and I will be there to help you with them. Good luck this semester!

Course Description:

Instrumental Methods Laboratory (CHEM 438) is the complementary laboratory for CHEM 437. This course will focus on the principles of design and application of spectroscopic, chromatographic and statistical methods in chemical analysis. From psychology to physics, and all fields in between, instrumentation plays a vital role to both quantitative and qualitative experimentation.

This course is structured to highlight the material covered in CHEM 437. The lecture will be used to provide necessary background material while the laboratory will provide a “hands on” learning environment for you to apply the concepts covered in the lecture. We will be highlighting this connectivity between the theory we learn in lecture and the “real life” applications we will be going over in lab throughout the semester. Although anyone is capable of succeeding in this course, it is recommended that you have prior knowledge of basic chemical principles and statistical analysis.

Course Objectives:

• To provide a basic understanding of common instrumental methods of analysis and their role in analytical problem solving.
• Develop critical thinking skills through pre-labs and laboratory experiments.
• Enhance both written and verbal communication capability via laboratory reports and group discussions.
• Improve teamwork capacity by means of group work activities throughout the semester.

Laboratory Schedule:

Lab and office hours:

Course Instructor: Murray V. Johnston

Office: LDL 102

Office Hours: M 1-2, W 11-12

Email: mvj@udel.edu

Chem 438 Teaching Assistants and Contact Information for Fall 2005

Laboratory Rotation Schedule – Section 014 (Mondays 6:00-10:00 PM ):

Laboratory Grading:

All labs will be graded in the same fashion

10 points will be assigned for you laboratory notebook that you will be required to keep that I will be assessing weekly.

30 points will be assigned for you Pre-lab which will be checked at the beginning of each lab period. It should be noted that you cannot begin an experiment until your Pre-lab is completed.

60 points will be assigned for the type written lab report. Although laboratory experiments are completed in groups, everyone will turn in their own completed report. Reports are due at the beginning of the lab period one week following the completion of the laboratory experiment. If not on time, 5 points will be deducted for every business day that it is late.

Total: 100 points/experiment