Quizzes will each have two parts, a take-home problem set assigned at the preceding class and an in-class component. All quizzes will be open book, to permit access to tables of data, constants and equations you will need. Quizzes will address both class and laboratory concepts; while the primary focus of each quiz will be the new material introduced since the previous one, the cumulative nature of the course will require some dependence on material covered earlier.

The scheduled final exam will also be open book and will cover the entire semester's material.

The six laboratory experiments will be assigned in two-week blocks, with the report due at class time on the Monday following the second week. Laboratory reports submitted after the beginning of class on the due date will be penalized one letter grade (e.g. 10%) per day late.

You will be assigned a lab partner for each experiment. Reports (one per team) should follow the format of an ACS journal paper (e.g. abstract, introduction and background, experimental details, data and analysis, results and conclusions, acknowledgements, footnotes and references) -- except that you may simply reference the source of experiment instructions and make note of any changes you made in procedures or important details about variables.

You should purchase a laboratory notebook, and record all data and observations made in the laboratory in your (or your partner's) notebook. You should append your notebook pages (either the carbon copy if you use a duplicating notebook, or a photocopy of your pages) to your laboratory report. Some advice based on past experience: placing a carbon copy or photocopy of your laboratory notes in a safe place immediately after recording your laboratory data avoids the risk of losing important information if your notebook should stray.

Physical chemistry (either CHM 307 or CHM 309) is a subject that is better learned through your own practice than through watching others do it. Therefore, homework problems will be regularly assigned and reviewed in class before each quiz. However, you are allowed, in fact encouraged, to collaborate with other students in the course in completing the assignments.You will find you gain a better grasp of the concepts when you teach them to each other.