Instructor: Dr. Jeffrey Potratz Office: JBWN 115

1-30-2014

CHEM 4157.05RESEARCH

SYLLABUS -- Fall, 2014

Instructor: Dr. Jeffrey Potratz Office:JBWN 115

Email: Phone: 512-637-5614

Website: (all passwords are- chemistry)

Office hours: (If my door is open, come in! Other times by appointment)

Office MONWED FRI

10-11 AM 10-11 AM 10-11 AM

PREREQUISITES: CHEM 2000(Chemistry Seminar) and 2323 (Organic Chemistry I)

DEADLINE FOR DROPPING: The deadline for dropping a course is Tuesday, Nov. 4th (with a grade of W). To drop a course you must submit a completed Schedule Change Request form to the Registrar's Office before the published deadline.

GRADING:Numerical Grade CalculationLetter Grade Equivalents

Speaker Attendance (see below) 90.00-100.00...... A

Lab Notebook………...20% 80.00-89.99...... B

First and Last Semester: Oral Proposal….....……40% 70.00-79.99...... C

Written Proposal………40% 60.00-69.99...... D

Middle Semester(s): Progress in Project……80% 0.00-59.99...... F

ATTENDANCE OF GUEST SPEAKERS:

(updated on- )

You are expected to attend all chemistry guest speaker presentations during the semester. Please see the above website and please be aware that more speakers can be added to the schedule throughout the semester. A student missing no more than one presentation during the semester may earn a grade as high as an A for the course. A student missing two presentations during the semester cannot earn a grade higher than a B for the course. A student missing three presentations during the semester cannot earn a grade higher than a C for the course. A student missing more than three presentations during the semester cannot earn a grade higher than D for the course. Email announcements will notify/remind you of specific dates and times. Usually these are held Friday afternoon after 3 pm in JBWN 206.

If you have missed more than three presentations before Nov. 4th, you could be dropped from the class with a grade of “WA”.

DROPPING, INCOMPLETES:

Nov. 4this your last day to drop the course.

A grade of “I” (incomplete) may be given only in exceptional cases in which extenuating circumstances that occur in the last 10 days of the semester interfere with the completion of final course work.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

to learn how to search and read the primary chemical literature
to become more independent in the laboratory
to make progress on your research project and communicate your progress to others
to learn more about the opportunities offered at SEU and beyond

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

This is a multi-semester faculty-mentored undergraduate research experience with varying activities each semester. Every semester, however, you will keep a laboratory notebook. The permanent form of this notebook will be in electronic form but you will use a hard copy in the lab. You can use Word or Excel but there are a number of software programs available that are designed specifically for this purpose.

Purpose of the Laboratory Notebook

The laboratory notebook is the research group’srecord of what you did during an experiment. This means it is your account of the purpose, method, procedure, and all data you acquired. Upon graduating this notebook will be submitted in its entirety to your research supervisor. Laboratory notebooks cannot be too detailed and are more than likely not detailed enough. In reality, no experiment is just done once, but repeated many times over the course of weeks or months or even years. If you are repeating an experiment, you can refer to the protocol followed earlier in your notebook. You will need to note any variation from the previously performed experiment. The laboratory notebook is there to go back to when you do repeat something so you know how you did it the previous time. If your initial record of the experiment is not complete, it will be hard to repeat the experiment and impossible to compare the results. Whether you enter industrial, government, or academic research, a well-kept laboratory notebook is very important.

Writing in the Laboratory Notebook

Each person has his or her own style of keeping a laboratory notebook. It is your responsibility to maintain your laboratory notebook graded. If I see you working in the lab without a notebook, I will ask you about it. A few general guidelines for keeping a notebook:

a) Don’t hesitate to put down too much detail. Even things that seem obvious can be forgotten later if they are not written down. Even writing down the location of reagents/equipment is helpful.

b) Try to use complete sentences. Invariably, a cryptic note in the margin of the notebook cannot be deciphered later and important information will be lost.

c) Write everything in the notebook!Don’t write a weight measurement on a paper towel and stick that in your notebook to transfer later. Record observations and data immediately. Having tables made before hand for measurements will save time and insure that you did not forget an important measurement.

d) Errors you make in the notebook should be crossed out but still legible in case what you crossed out was actually correct. Don’t erase, white out, or tear pages out of your notebook. Keep your notebook as an honest account of the experiment; mistakes do occur.

e) Number the pages in the notebook sequentially and save room at the beginning for a table of contents.

f) Date each page and record the time. New financial aid regulations may require you to refund aid if you cannot prove that you have spent an average of 3-4 clock hours on this course per week.

From: Lab Manual, Instrumental Analysis Laboratory, 2002-2003, La Salle University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Michael J. Prushan ,

At the end of the semester, you will turn your electronic notebook in to your supervisor.

First Semester of Research

In the first semester you will not only begin your research but also become familiar with previous work. To do this you have two requirements: a research proposal and an oral presentation.

Research Proposal

In the first semester you will write a proposal for the project assigned to you. The document should use Times New Roman 12 font and consist of the following sections.

Project Title: You should create a title for your proposed research. The title should be centered at the top of the first page.

Research Goal:Describe in 1-2 pages the general goals of the proposed research.

Background: Summarize in 2-5 pages prior studies done by workers in this group and/or other groups. Include figures and tables as needed.

Proposed Project:What are your goals?Describe the proposed project in 2-5 pages using figures and tables as needed.

Safety: Try to anticipate the reagents you will use in this project. Look up and summarize the MSDS for each and explain any precautions, if necessary, you will take.

Each section will have appropriate references from the chemical literature. Cite references as appropriate using the style of the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry or Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Your research proposal should be well-organized, coherent, and grammatically correct. We can only improve our writing if we are expected to write using appropriate grammar. Your supervisor must approve the proposal.

Presentation

When you have finished the written portion you will make a formal presentation of your proposal, receive suggestions and answer questions from other faculty members and students. For this activity you are responsible for:

Arranging a time and date for the presentation.
Please invite all chemistry faculty members to your presentation. A simple email message including the date, time, location and title of your presentation will suffice. All students enrolled in CHEM 4157 are expected to attend these presentations.
Giving a presentation of 20-25 minutes using Prezi or power point or equivalent software.
Satisfactorily answering any questions from the audience.

All Semesters:It is expected that in the course of your work you will follow all appropriate safety regulations. It is also expected that you will have attended the safety training offered by the department. Typically this training occurs at the onset of the fall semester. The procedures that you use must not be hazardous. If in doubt, consult your supervisor.

At the end of each semester you will submit, in electronic form, a summary of your work and results. This report should have enough detail to enable another student to take up your project where you left off.

Final Semester of Research

In your final semester you will make a formal presentation of your work in Senior Seminar. The requirements for this presentation are attached. In addition you must prepare a wellwritten,comprehensive, and well-documented research report includingsafety considerations. This is to be submitted in electronic form.

Requirements for Chem 4157 final semester senior seminar research presentations:

You are to submit TO the coordinator the final version of a seminar title and abstract. The seminar title and abstract should be reviewed and approved by your supervisor before it is submitted. Please refer to the format requirements and a sample abstract both found later in this syllabus. Information that is not in the proper format, will NOT be accepted. The title and abstract should be sent to the coordinator as an email attachment. A copy of the title and abstract should also be sent to your seminar supervisor. No paper copies are necessary. Preference for seminar time will be given based upon the time of receipt of your seminar title and abstract by the coordinator. For example, the first person to send his or her title and abstract to the coordinator will be awarded first choice of presentation time.

2. Schedulea practice seminar with your supervisor. [It is strongly suggested that you will have held your first fully prepared practice session by March 19. “Fully prepared” means that all slides, PowerPoint documents, web pages, graphs, and other presentation aids should be completed (except for corrections as noted during the practice presentation).] You CANNOT present your seminar at the symposium without having at least one practice session with your supervisor present.

3. You will deliver your seminar at the Symposium and attend all the other chemistry/biochemistry senior seminar presentations.

4. On a date yet to be determined you will take the Major Field Test in a room to be announced. You must inform me ahead of time as to the day you will take the exam. I will email you information about these dates and ask you to RSVP for either the Thursday or Friday date. The MFT is a two-hour, multiple-choice, discipline-specific exam. This test is used by the School of Natural Sciences to assess the programs of study offered by the departments. This test also provides useful practice for those students planning to take the GRE, MCAT, or other related tests. Like all such tests, you should not expect to be able to answer all the questions on the MFT, however, it is very important that you answer all questions, even if you must guess. The score on this test in no way affects your grade in Chem 4157, unless you fail to take the test. Test results will be available in May. To learn your score, you should make an appointment with the Dean of the School of Natural Sciences at that time.

Seminar Organization

Your presentation should be 20 minutes long not counting questions. Slides must be created using PowerPoint. The following outline is suggested. The seminar content is to be based on the results of your undergraduate research.

A clear statement of the research problem.
Review of the literature
Experimental results.
Explanation of the results and possible conclusions.
Suggestions for further research.

Abstract

All students are required to submit an abstract of their presentation. Abstracts should be created with Microsoft Word using 12-point Times New Roman font and submitted to your instructor as per his/her recommended method. The message body should include your name, supervisor, course-section, and the attachment must have the information and format shown in the sample entry below:

1. Student Name (in bold print)

2. Degree to be awarded

3. Friday, March 21, 2013 (or another date in certain instances)

4. Time of presentation*

5. Location of presentation*

6. Faculty Advisor

7. Seminar Title (in bold print)

8. Seminar Abstract (200 words or fewer,only the word “Abstract” in bold print)

* If not available at the time of submission, we will insert this information.

Preliminary abstracts should be reviewed and approved by your supervisor prior to submitting the final publishable version.

Speaker: Karolyn Barker

Candidate for Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry

Day: Friday, March 22, 2013

Time:2:00 PM

Place:JBWN 102

Supervisor: Dr. Donald Wharry

Title: Determination of Metals in Pet Food using Atomic Absorption

Abstract: A rise in the amount of pet food recalls within the past years has caused concern over the health and safety of pets, as well as regulations that have been enforced. Due to the lack of extensive regulations, the quality of pet food poses a large risk for pets. Metal contamination causing toxicity and deficiency is a concern to their health. Although metals, such as iron and copper, are essential to the body, there is still a risk of the animal not receiving the correct dosage. Other metals that are not listed on labels can have harmful impacts on the animals, especially with long-term exposure. This research has been conducted in order to determine the concentration of iron, nickel, cadmium, copper, chromium, and aluminum present in the foods through analysis using atomic absorption spectroscopy. Human RfD values determined by the EPA for humans were used for nickel, cadmium, aluminum, and chromium because there are not recommended values for these metals set for animals. Copper and iron have been further studied and have established recommended daily intake values. Concentration of these metals was determined using atomic absorption and compared to recommended values for a 33 pound dog and 9 pound cat.