CH1CC2-Chemical Concepts and Skills 1
Module Provider: Chemistry
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:4
Terms in which taught: Autumn / Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2020/1
Email: d.nutt@reading.ac.uk
Type of module:
Summary module description:
Develop the key skills necessary for success in higher level studies, including independent learning, problem-solving, team-working, time management, scientific writing and presenting, through a series of chemistry “challenges”. You will reflect on your own personal strengths and weaknesses and start to think about your professional development and career plans.
Aims:
- To help students develop the independent learning skills necessary for higher level studies.
- To introduce students to the concepts of open and closed types of problem solving and help them develop effective problem-solving strategies.
- To help students develop self-study skills to enable them to research an unknown topic, learn about it and solve a problem based upon it.
- To introduce students to a range of software packages used routinely by chemists.
- To familiarise students with a range of resources for researching unknowns.
- To help students develop effective time management, organisation and team working skills.
- To give students practice and support in written and oral communication and to develop scientific writing skills.
- To begin to consider career plans and prepare applications for industrial placements and internships.
Assessable learning outcomes:
Students should be able to:
- Tackle unseen problems and devise strategies for solving them.
- Make predictions and ‘guesstimates’ based on sound scientific knowledge or data.
- Extract and manipulate numerical data.
- Organise themselves and team members to communicate in appropriate ways or through appropriate media.
- Access a variety of resources including the chemical literature to obtain d ata and summarise findings.
- Construct a reasoned argument to arrive at a valid solution to a problem.
- Write a report using suitable scientific language to justify the methods used to solve the problem and the results.
- Present the findings and results orally.
Additional outcomes:
Students will improve their research, organisational, time management, team working, IT and oral communication skills. Students will be encouraged to think creatively, identify trends in data and ignore superfluous information. Students will learn to make value judgments about their own work and the work of peers. In addition they will improve their numeracy skills.
Outline content:
Students will be presented with a series of problems throughout the course of the module, and given preliminary sources to investigate in order to solve the problems. They will be expected to work in set teams, to analyse the problem, to decide upon an approach, to research the given sources and explore others. The problems will not necessarily have right or wrong answers. Students will be assessed on their approach to the problems and where relevant the quality of their answers.
Autumn Term
- Week 2: Thinking outside the box (2 hour lectures)
An introduction to skills development and the role of personal tutor meetings, and the concept of professional development. Introduction to team working, the Blackboard site and assessment format for the module. An introduction to unseen problem solving in a scientific context.
- Week 2-3 problem solving in t eams
- Week 3: Groups present findings orally (2 hour lectures)
- Weeks 4-8 Challenge 1 Chemical Elements in the Real World
This challenge involves students researching suitable elements to fulfill various real world applications and investigating the properties of the elements they identify and explaining their function in terms of properties and position in the Periodic Table.
- Week 4 Effective Group W orking. (2 hours lectures)
Introduction to problems for Challenge 1 and guidance on using library resources
- Week 5 Opportunity to discuss problems (1 hour drop-in session and group work)
- Week 6 Opportunity to discuss problems (1 hour drop-in session and group work)
- Week 7 Opportunity to discuss problems (1 hour drop-in session and group work)
- Week 8 Plenary Feedback on Challenge 1(2 hour presentation)
- Weeks 9 (Aut) -1 (Spr) Challenge 2 Organic Chemistry – (2 x 2 hour lectures)
Students will research the reason behind the reactivity of the carbonyl group and will build on their existing knowledge of carbonyl reactions by classifying a set of given reactions into 1 of 3 general mechanism groups. These fundamental principles will be applied to a context based problem.
Spring Term
- Week 1 Workshop based on preliminary work for Challenge 2 (2 hour workshop)
- Week 2 group work
- Weeks 3-7 Challenge 3 Physical Chemistry and IT Skills
Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
The module will be delivered by introductory talks and videos for each topic. A Blackboard site will be provided giving links and information about all the resources recommended for solving the problem. Students will be expected to research and précis appropriate literature and to discuss findings within teams or by Wikis. Opportunities are built into the module for students to approach staff for guidance and feedback. Student feedback will be delivered at the plenary sessions for oral presentations and via written comments or podcasts on Blackboard for the formal report summaries.
| Autumn | Spring | Summer | |
| Lectures | 12 | 10 | |
| Seminars | 4 | ||
| Practicals classes and workshops | 2 | 0 | |
| Fieldwork | 0 | ||
| Guided independent study: | 86 | 86 | |
| Total hours by term | 100 | 100 | |
| Total hours for module | 200 |
| Method | Percentage |
| Oral assessment and presentation | 17.5 |
| Set exercise | 82.5 |
Summative assessment- Examinations:
Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:
This module is continually assessed.
Each challenge will have a variety of assessment methods and criteria.
Thinking outside the box: Formatively assessed by peer and staff feedback on presentation. Contribution to wikis assessed by staff.
Challenge 1 (Inorganic Challenge): 35%
A group poster. Assessed by staff.
A 5 minute group presentation, summatively assessed by staff. Mark adjusted according to individual contribution to group determined by peer assessment.
Challenge 2 (Organic Challenge): 10%
Assessed by feedback on preliminary work and completion of workshop. 10%
Vacation work (Precis): 20%
A half page summary précis exercise summatively assessed by staff.
Challenge 3 (Physical Challenge): 35%
Group mark for the report will be adjusted for each individual according to:
- Anonymous peer assessment by other group members of the contribution made by the individual.
- Students’ individual contributions to wikis on Blackboard will be assessed throughout the module.
- Submission dates:
- Poster and presentation Challenge 1 Week 8 Autumn term
- Précis Week 1 Spring term
- Organic workshop, Challenge 2 Week 2 Spring term
- Challenge 3 Week 7 Spring term
Formative assessment methods:
Thinking outside the box – group work and presentation – week 2/3
Team working workshop and feedback – week 4
Penalties for late submission:
The Module Convenor will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:
- where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day[1] (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days;
- where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.
You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.
Assessment requirements for a pass:
A mark of 40% overall.
Reassessment arrangements:
Two extended individual summary reports to be written on topics other than the original ones.
Additional Costs (specified where applicable):
Last updated: 4 April 2020
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MODULE DESCRIPTION DOES NOT FORM ANY PART OF A STUDENT'S CONTRACT.