Chemistry/Geology-4

Class Head: Dr. D. Stirling

Class Handbook

Chemistry/Geology-4H
Chemistry Component


Course Head: Dr Diane Stirling
Course Secretary: Mrs. Liz Hughes

CONTENTS PAGE

Timetable 3
General information 4
Project timetable 5
Safety 5
Guidelines for writing a thesis 6
Booklist 8
Aims & objectives of courses 11


POLICY ON SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
All feedback on coursework used in assessment, including mid-year class exam/class test marks and laboratory grades, is strictly provisional for your guidance only, and is subject to ratification by the Board of Examiners and external examiners at the end of the academic year. You must retain all copies of assessed work (lab notebooks, exam scripts, etc.) and have them available for inspection by the examiners if requested at the end of the year. You will be given reasonable advance warning should this be required.

PLAGIARISM
Degrees from Glasgow University recognise personal achievement. Plagiarism or copying is academic fraud and a serious offence against University discipline.
Plagiarism is the submission of someone else's work as one's own without acknowledgment. If you use someone else's work - words, ideas, data - you should say so. Direct quotations should be placed in quotation marks.
This regulation applies to all work submitted for assessment, including lab reports, class tests and research projects unless you have specifically been told otherwise, for example in the case of a group project or when a number of students share experimental data.

GENERAL INFORMATION:CHEMISTRY/GEOLOGY-4H SESSION 1997-98

The Class Head is Dr Diane Stirling.
If you are absent because of illness or for other reasons, Dr Stirling should be notified as soon as possible and, if appropriate, a relevant medical certificate should be submitted to her.
If you believe that your performance in the course has been adversely affected for medical or other reasons and you wish to draw this to the attention of the Board of Examiners it is essential that you write to the Class Head to inform her of the circumstances.

LECTURE COURSES

Compulsory Lecture Courses: The six compulsory courses are listed in the timetable. They are given during weeks 1 -6.
Option Courses: You must attend three option courses. You can choose any three from the list of seven shown in the timetable. The courses on offer cover a wide range of topical subjects in modern chemistry.
All courses consist of eight lectures. They will be given in the Physical Lecture Theatre.

TUTORIALS

Organic: Term 1: Weeks 1-10 Tuesdays at 4 pm in tutor's office.
Physical: Term 1: Weeks 2-10 Wednesdays at 4 pm in the Organic or Physical Lecture Theatre.
Inorganic: Term 2: Weeks 11-18 Wednesdays at 4 pm in the Organic or Physical Lecture Theatre.

STUDENT PROGRESS

Your performance of class work will be considered satisfactory only if you:

(a) regularly attend lectures and tutorials,
(b) carry out a research project in weeks 2-18 following the timetable given later in this handbook,
(c) give a short oral presentation on your project in week 19, and
(d) provide the Chemistry Department with one copy of a thesis on your project by the first day of the third term.

EXAMINATIONS

The Chemistry component of the degree examinations consist of a research project (jointly with geology) and four written papers. There is also a third year carry-over mark.
All students must be available for oral examination by the external examiners on Tuesday, 16th June, 1998. This is an integral part of the degree examination.

CAREERS TALK AND DISCUSSION

Tuesday 4th November 1 pm Organic Lecture Theatre.
Dr N Winterton, ICI, "To do or not to do a PhD", followed by open ended discussion.
Professor Winfield and Dr Muir will arrange individual interviews for all students early in Term 1 to discuss their choices of a future career.
LECTURES

Alchemist Club and local R.S.C. meetings: Attendance at these talks, which are held on Thursdays at 4 pm, and at the Irvine Review Lectures is recommended and encouraged. The Irvine Review Lectures will be given in St. Andrews during April, 1998.

FOURTH YEAR CHEMISTRY/GEOLOGY PROJECT TIMETABLE

Dr Peacock (RDP) is in overall charge of the chemistry component of the fourth year projects. The Chemistry/Geology project will be jointly supervised by Dr Stirling (Chemistry) and Dr Hall (Geology).
Practical work may begin from the start of week 2 provided a COSHH form has been completed, signed by the supervisor and given to Mrs M Nutley (Room B4-20a). If the nature of the research changes during the project new COSHH forms must be completed.
The project will be assessed by one assessor from Chemistry and a second from Geology. Students should give their thesis introduction to RDP in week 10 and he will pass it on, with any comments, to the supervisor. The supervisor will return the introduction in the first week of term 2.
The Introduction should be around 5 -10 pages, word processed, and include a full list of references. Friday, week 18 is the last day of practical work and the final draft of the thesis approved by the supervisors should be available by Friday of week 20.
Oral examinations will be conducted by the two assessors at an agreed time following the submission of the thesis.


SAFETY

The Departmental Safely Committee has issued the following guidelines.

1. Experimental work should normally not start before 9.00 am and should normally finish by 5.00 pm.

2. Should it be necessary to work outwith these hours for short periods this must be approved by the supervisor and the usual rules of late working will apply. If the supervisor has to leave before experimental work is complete written permission must be given and in such cases a designated proxy ( academic, post-doctoral or senior technical staff) must be present in the building.

3. Access to IT equipment will be available only when Janitors are present in the building.


GUIDELINES FOR PRESENTING AND WRITING A THESIS

The thesis is the only tangible result of the sixteen weeks of work which can be shown to the External Examiners. It is therefore important that you do not let yourself down by a badly written or produced thesis.

Technical Points

The thesis should be word processed (the Department now has an adequate number of PC's with WORD 6 installed).

The font should be clear. Fonts normally used are Times New Roman or Arial (usually 10, 11 or 12 point). This document is written in Arial 10pt. with main headings in 12 pt bold.

The thesis should use 1.5 line spacing and have a reasonable margin on the left hand side to allow for binding. (WORD 6 gives default margins of 3.17 cm left and right and 2.54 cm top and bottom which are acceptable).

Pages should be numbered consecutively, as should diagrams and spectra. Since the word processor will do the numbering for you, it is easier if you do not include whole page diagrams or spectra in the page numbering, but this is a matter of choice.

Chemical structures can be drawn using ChemWindow and copied into WORD 6. On the other hand there is nothing wrong with Xeroxing in structures (and indeed diagrams) provided that the result looks neat and clear.

References

Referencing work is very important and is frequently badly done. The format shown in the following examples is that employed by the Royal Society of Chemistry. It should be used unless your supervisor suggests an alternative.

1. Journal articles: (Journal in italics, year, volume no in bold, page no)

I. A. Fallis, L. J. Farrugia, N. M. Macdonald and R. D. Peacock, J. Chem. Soc. Dalton Trans., 1989, 931.
P. R. Mallinson and K.W. Muir, J. Appl. Crystallogr., 1985, 18, 51.

other possibilities are:

unpublished work, in press, personal communication.

2. Books: (Title in italics, publisher, place, year, vol no, page if necessary)

International Tables for X-ray Crystallography, Kynoch Press, Birmingham, 1974, vol 4.

3. Theses:

N. M. Macdonald, Ph. D. thesis, University of Glasgow, 1994
P.A. Lovatt, B. Sc. thesis, University of Glasgow, 1993

Content

The thesis should contain

Title page
Acknowledgements
Contents page (with page numbers)

A one page Abstract

Introduction
Experimental Section,
Results and Discussion (or Results and Discussion as separate sections)
Conclusions
References

The above is the logical order, but in some areas it is normal to put the experimental section at the end - consult your supervisor.

The INTRODUCTION should set the work in context, review previous work (fully referenced), describe any techniques or theories with which you were unfamiliar when you began the research, and describe what you intended to do.

The EXPERIMENTAL SECTION should give full experimental details of all reactions or experiments carried out. It is particularly important to indicate which are literature preparations and which are novel. If a literature preparation is reported it is important to note if you modified it or if it behaved in an unexpected way. New compounds should be as fully characterised as possible and it is a good idea to include the actual spectra of new compounds.

The DISCUSSION is extremely important and is often where students do not do themselves justice. A project where absolutely nothing has worked can be made interesting by discussing WHY things went wrong. In any case the discussion is often where you show how much of the project you understood!

The CONCLUSIONS should summarise the work and suggest how it could be continued in the future.

The ABSTRACT will be similar to the Conclusions but should be concise and incisive - it is the first thing an examiner will read, and should encourage him or her to read the rest of the thesis!

Finally: SPELL CHECK YOUR THESIS.


CHEM/GEOL-3H & CHEM/GEOL-4H: RECOMMENDED CHEMISTRY TEXTBOOKS FOR 1997-98


MOLECULAR MODELS: It is essential that all students possess a set of molecular models.
Orbit Molecular Building System: Organic and Inorganic Chemistry Individual Set, Cochrane, £10.75. (Approx)


INORGANIC CHEMISTRY: It is essential that all students have a copy of:
Inorganic Chemistry, Second Edition, D F Shriver, P W Atkins and C H Langford, Oxford University Press, 1994, £19.50.

The following three books are strongly recommended for purchase:

Basic Solid State Chemistry, A R West,John Wiley, £18.50.

Structural Methods in Inorganic Chemistry, Second Edition, E A V Ebsworth, D W H Rankin and S Craddock, Blackwell, £19.95.
Particularly useful for laboratory and tutorial work and helpful in problem solving.

The Mechanisms of Reactions at Transition Metal Sites, R A Henderson, Oxford Science Publications, £4.99.


ORGANIC CHEMISTRY: Students should already own

Organic Chemistry, Fifth Edition, R J Morrison and R N Boyd, Allyn/Bacon, £24.00 OR

Organic Chemistry, Third Edition, J McMurry, Brooks/Cole, £23.50.

It is essential that all students have a copy of:
Spectroscopic Methods in Organic Chemistry, Fourth Edition Revised, D H Williams and I Fleming, McGraw-Hill, £15.95.


PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY: It is essential that all students have a copy of:

Physical Chemistry, Second Edition, R A Alberty and R J Silbey, John Wiley, £21.00.
Chemical Bonding Theory, B.C. Webster, Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, 1990, £19.95


NOTE: ALL PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BY PUBLISHERS AT ANY TIME.

REFERENCE BOOKS HELD IN THE CHEMISTRY BRANCH LIBRARY

INORGANIC CHEMISTRY

Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, Fifth Edition, F A Cotton and G Wilkinson, John Wiley.

Chemistry of the Elements, N N Greenwood and A Earnshaw, Pergamon.
More of a reference book than a textbook, but contains factual information, particularly for main group elements, which is more complete than in Cotton and Wilkinson.

Some Thermodynamic Aspects of Inorganic Chemistry, Second Edition, D A Johnson, Cambridge U.P. (Out of Print)

Inorganic Chemistry, Third Edition, A G Sharpe, Longman.

Orbitals, Terms and States, M Gerloch, John Wiley, out of print.
A small book which should help to classify difficulties in understanding the nature of orbitals, terms and states. Relevant to many courses in Inorganic and Physical Chemistry.

The Elements, Their Origin, Abundance and Distribution, P A Cox, O.U.P.
Useful background and revision materials for Radiochemistry courses.

A Guide to Modern Inorganic Chemistry, S M Owen and A T Brooker, Longman.
Sets out to answer the questions that are asked most often by students. A revision aid.

Heterogeneous Catalysis. Principles and Applications, G C Bond, O.U.P.

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

A Guidebook to Mechanism in Organic Chemistry, Sixth Edition, P Sykes, Longmans.

Some Modern Methods of Organic Synthesis, Third Edition, W Carruthers, Cambridge U.P.

Guidebook to Organic Synthesis, Second Edition, R K Mackie, D M Smith and R A Aitken, Longman.

Organic Synthesis: The Disconnection Approach, S. Warren, John Wiley & Sons, 1994.

Physical Organic Chemistry, N S Isaacs, Longman.

Secondary Metabolism, Second Edition, J Mann, Claredon Press, Oxford.

Heterocyclic Chemistry, T L Gilchrist, Longman, (Out of print).

Non-Benzenoid Conjugated Carbocyclic Compounds, D Lloyd, Elsevier. (Out of print)

Molecular Biology of the Gene, Volumes 1, & 2 Fourth Edition, J D Watson et al., Benjamin//Cummings.

Advanced Organic Chemistry - Reactions, Mechanisms and Structure, Fourth Edition, J March, John Wiley.
The definitive reference work which is an excellent and complete source of references.

Organic Chemistry - A Guide to Common Themes, T Kitson, Edward Arnold.
A very readable overview of concepts and reaction types.
PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY

Chemical Applications of Group Theory, Third Edition, F A Cotton, John Wiley.

Group Theory for Chemists, G Davidson, Macmillan, Out of print.

Tables for Group Theory, P W Atkins, M S Child and C S G Phillips, O.U.P.

Molecular Quantum Mechanics, Second Edition, P W Atkins, O.U.P.

Modern Spectroscopy, Third Edition, J M Hollas, John Wiley.

Fundamentals of Molecular Spectroscopy, Fourth Edition, C N Banwell, McGraw-Hill.

Crystal Structure Analysis: A Primer, Second Edition, J P Glusker and K N Trueblood, O.U.P.

Symmetry and Structure, S F A Kettle, John Wiley.

Biophysical Chemistry, C R Cantor and P R Schimmel, W H Freeman & Co.

Physical Biochemistry, D Friefelder, W H Freeman & Co.

Enzyme Structure and Mechanism, A Fersht, W H Freeman & Co.

Protein Structure - a practical approach, T E Creighton, IRL Press.

Introduction to Protein Structure, C Branden and J Tooze, Garland Publishing.

Physical Chemistry, Fifth Edition, P W Atkins, OUP.


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