‘Environmental Chemistry’, 3rd edn, Baird and Cann, W.H.Freeman

It can be purchased from UniBooks and is on reserve in the Barr Smith Library. (The 2nd edition is also suitable and some copies may be available second-hand).

‘Quantitative Chemical Analysis’ (Harris, 6th or 7th Edition, WH Freeman) and “Principles of Instrumental Analysis”, (D.A. Skoog et al., 5th edition, Harcourt College)

It can be purchased from UniBooks, but copies have been placed in the Barr Smith library.

MyUni: Teaching materials and course documentation will be posted on the MyUni website (http://myuni.adelaide.edu.au/).

• Lectures 36 x 50-minute sessions with three sessions per week
• Tutorials 12 x 50-minute sessions with one session per week
• Practicals 9 x 5-hour sessions (including the lab familiarisation session

A student enrolled in a 3 unit course, such as this, should expect to spend, on average 12 hours per week on the studies required. This includes both the formal contact time required to the course (e.g., lectures and practicals), as well as non-contact time (e.g., reading and revision).

The course content includes the following:

• Lectures 1-9: Water chemistry The chemical environmental impact of human activities such as farming, mining, and other industries, and of fossil and nuclear fuel usage, are considered in both general terms and through case studies.
• Lectures 10-18: Methods in Analytical Chemistry This section introduces students to a wide variety of instrumental methods in analytical chemistry including electrochemical, spectroscopic, and x-ray methods, and instrumentation.
• Lectures 19-27: Atmosphere, Soil/Terrestrial The atmospheric, terrestrial, riverine and oceanic chemical compositions, and their interactions to produce climate and other environmental variations are studied. The natural chemical cycles of major environmental importance, such as those of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen-ozone, phosphorus and sulphur, are examined.
• Lectures 28-36: Statistics, Chromatography, Separation Methods Students will be introduced to the underlying principles of quantitative chemical analysis. Specifically, the following topics will be covered: Experimental design of chromatography and separation methods, experimental error and statistics, calibration, chem.-metrics, ethics.

Practicals There will be 8 sessions from Weeks 2 – 11. The 3-hour session in Week 1 is devoted to analytical techniques, data acquisition and data handling with a variety of software. The remaining sessions will be divided equally between environmental chemistry and analytical chemistry.

Practical work is compulsory – This includes conduct of required experimental work, attendance at demonstrator interviews (as required) and submission of the laboratory reports.

To pass this course students must:

• Attain a minimum of 60% for the practical reports:
  • Students who do not attain this minimum requirement will not be offered an additional assessment.
• Attain a minimum of 45% for the exam:
  • Students who attain a final course grade of at least 45% but do not attain a minimum of 45% for the exam may be offered an Additional Academic Exam during the Replacement/Additional Assessment period, in line with the Modified Arrangements for Coursework Assessment Policy.

Presentation 10% - This assessment activity covers a topic beyond the lecture course content and is designed to assess students' ability to apply general knowledge to real world situations. It will also develop team work, time management and verbal presentation skills within the context of environmental and analytical chemistry. This presentation is 10 minutes long and is given by a pair of students (average presentation time for each student is 5 minutes).

Extended Practical Report 5% - This assessment activity addresses the scientific communication aspects in the chemical laboratories. Students will write the extended practical report based on the contents in one of the short practical reports.

Practical Reports 25% - This assessment activity comprehensively addresses the practical aspects of chemistry and competent training in the techniques employed in chemical laboratories (8 short, hand-written practical reports submitted in class).

Final exam 60% - This assessment activity comprehensively addresses the learning outcomes.

Submission of Assigned Work Coversheets must be completed and attached to all submitted work. Coversheets can be obtained from the School Office (room G33 Physics) or from MyUNI. Work should be submitted via the assignment drop box at the School Office.

Extensions for Assessment Tasks Extensions of deadlines for assessment tasks may be allowed for reasonable causes. Such situations would include compassionate and medical grounds of the severity that would justify the awarding of a supplementary examination. Evidence for the grounds must be provided when an extension is requested. Students are required to apply for an extension to the Course Coordinator before the assessment task is due. Extensions will not be provided on the grounds of poor prioritising of time. The assessment extension application form can be obtained from: http://www.sciences.adelaide.edu.au/current/

Late submission of assessments If an extension is not applied for, or not granted then a penalty for late submission will apply. A penalty of 10% of the value of the assignment for each calendar day that is late (i.e. weekends count as 2 days), up to a maximum of 50% of the available marks will be applied. This means that an assignment that is 5 days or more late without an approved extension can only receive a maximum of 50% of the mark.