Chemistry 1062 Laboratory Project

Chemistry 1062 Laboratory Project
(updated 08/07/2008)

There will be a total of five weeks devoted to the chemistry laboratory project, utilizing the following timeline (your instructor will provide exact dates)

Week 1	Select groups, select/reserve topic, plan timeline, assign duties, make preliminary chemical and equipment list, begin to plan experiment
Week 2	Finalize experiment plans, chemical and equipment list, timeline, duties; begin data collection, begin written report
Week 3	Continue data collection, preliminary data interpretation, preliminary calculations, work on written report,
Week 4	Finish data collection, organize data, interpret data, perform calculations, make conclusions, prepare presentation, written report
Week 5	Give presentation, turn in written report.

Additionally, the laboratory will be available for open laboratory hours during the other scheduled laboratory periods on a space-available basis throughout the week. Check out these additional times.

Guidelines
You will work in student-selected groups of 2-4 students. Individual projects may be approved by the instructor if there is a compelling reason to do so. Even though you will be working in groups, each person will be accountable for ALL of the data, reports, spreadsheets, etc., in the event that a group member is unable to finish the course. It is recommended that each person save a copy on their own H: drive and that every file used by the group is saved each week. You may also save your data onto a floppy disk or USB flash drive. You are greatly encouraged to swap email addresses and/or phone numbers to facilitate the timely completion of the report. Backup copies of all word processing and spreadsheet files are highly recommended. (Emailing copies of documents to yourself and/or your partners is an effective way of accomplishing this.)

All written reports must be written with Microsoft Word. All spreadsheets must utilize Microsoft Excel. If presentation software is used (not required), it must be done with Microsoft Powerpoint. You may also consider developing a website for presentation using Microsoft FrontPage or other HTML/web publishing software (freeware available). Some websites that offer free web page hosting include http://www.geocities.com, http://www.angelfire.com, http://www.freeservers.com, and http://www.atfreeweb.com. If you have Internet access from home, you probably have access to free web page hosting through your internet service provider.

Once you have formed your groups, select a topic from the list below. As a reminder, this is NOT a library research project, but rather a laboratory research project -- one that will require you to collect and analyze data. You will be expected to use the computer as a data collection tool (using Logger Pro) and/or a data analysis tool (using Excel). After selecting a topic, you should try to develop a procedure. You will need to develop a list of equipment and chemicals that you will need. You will be required to prepare all solutions for your analyses. For example, if you determine that you will need 250 mL of 0.10 M Na₂SO₃, you will need to prepare it yourself using the solid and deionized water. Once you have prepared your list of equipment and chemicals, give it to the professor or laboratory manager so they may be obtained for you to use. You will be assigned a space to store any chemicals that you need to prepare. Equipment or chemicals that must be shared with other groups must be kept accessible for all groups and will need to be stored in an area designated by the instructor or laboratory manager.

Available Equipment, Safety, and Disposal
Here is a list of equipment available for your project. You should follow all standard laboratory safety practices while working on this project. MSDS information for a comprehensive list of chemicals is available, along with waste disposal codes, and waste manifest labels from the departmental website. You will be required to dispose and/or manifest your chemicals with the assistance of your laboratory instructor or the chemistry lab manager.

Selection of Research Topic
The research topic is your choice, as long as it conforms to the guidelines put forth on this web page. You will need to present a topic in writing and it must be signed by the instructor. The topic must try to answer a question to a problem posed by the group, not just make a bunch of measurements. The instructor may have available and can suggest many different resources. You may select a topic from this list or use it to help you begin to brainstorm ideas. Your topic must be reserved with your laboratory professor.

Presentation
Each group will make their presentation during their assigned laboratory period during Week 5. In your presentation, you should include:

your research topic or question
an introduction to your experiment
a brief summary of your procedure (your formal written report will be more detailed)
include significant results
discussion of your findings
uncertainties in measurements (including possible sources of errors and/or suggestions for improvement...also, remember significant figures)
conclusion(s) based on your research
citations of sources used to complete your project (consider your resources carefully...experiments carried out by other freshman chemistry students are generally not considered a reliable source).

Your presentation must include visual aids of some sort. You may include paperboard charts, or ones that have been prepared with Excel or PowerPoint or on the Web (see Guidelines above). You may display spreadsheets or graphs on the instructor's computer (use large fonts) or on the document camera. You may also wish to consider preparing handouts to distribute to the students in the class. Digital photos may be inserted into a PowerPoint presentation or into any web pages that you prepare. Videos may be saved to an ordinary VHS videotape to be played on a VCR, burned onto a CD or DVD, or saved to a USB flash drive.

Here are the guidelines by which you will be evaluated.

Written Report

In addition to the presentation, you will be required to submit a Formal Laboratory Report (See Laboratory Reports). Note that the Formal Laboratory Report involves all of the components of the reports you have prepared to date. Only one report will be collected from your group. Once again, you are encouraged to swap email addresses and/or phone numbers to facilitate the sharing of information. If a group member disappears, the rest of the members will be accountable for all the work done to date. Use this checklist to ensure that all report components have been included as a part of your written report.

Evaluation
The entire project will be worth 60 points and the evaluation will be broken down as follows:

The presentation will account for 30 points and it will be evaluated by both the instructor and the students in the class. The instructor and student grades will be weighted 50/50. The written report will account for 30 points and will be evaluated by the instructor.

The group must prepare a pie chart that weights each individual's overall contribution to the project. The project score will then be adjusted to reflect each person's contribution. Interpretation: If you do less work than your peers in the group, you will get a lower grade. If you do half of the work of your peers, your grade will be significantly lower than the rest of the group.

Go here to submit your evaluation.