CHEM11044 - Chemical Reactions

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit will provide you with an understanding of the fundamental principles of chemical kinetics, thermodynamics, redox chemistry, equilibrium, pH, basic spectroscopy and organic reactions and mechanisms. You will learn about reactions and how they can be manipulated. You will be introduced to a range of chemical calculations involving rates, cell potentials, equilibrium constants, and pH, as well as techniques for analysing spectral data for chemical structure determination. This unit will provide a strong foundation for further studies in analytical and materials sciences, physical and organic chemistry. This unit has a compulsory residential school. These laboratory sessions will emphasise laboratory safety and compliance, and introduce you to skills relating to sample preparation, data collection, synthesis, spectroscopic analyses and report writing.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 1
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Prerequisite: CHEM11043 Atoms, Molecules and Matter

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School Compulsory Residential School
View Unit Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2023

Term 2 - 2023 Profile
Mixed Mode
Term 2 - 2024 Profile
Mixed Mode

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 20%
2. Practical Assessment 30%
3. Take Home Exam 50%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2022 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 40.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 16.13% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Have Your Say
Feedback
Students found the residential school beneficial towards their learning process such as theory and difficult content, topics that were not easy to understand online.
Recommendation
The teaching team will continue to maintain the standards and quality of the residential school's activities.
Action Taken
The teaching team continued to maintain the high standards and quality of the residential school's activities.
Source: Have Your Say
Feedback
Whilst the students were very appreciative of the residential school, they also wished to schedule the second group residential school earlier during the term rather than just one week before Take-home exam.
Recommendation
Timetabling requests should be considered where possible.
Action Taken
The residential school was brought forward to week 8 this year instead of weeks 10 & 11 as in the previous year.
Source: Have Your Say
Feedback
Students recommended that they would prefer succinct and simple explanations of important concepts of some of the topics in the course.
Recommendation
The teaching team will work together to develop strategies to provide students with better explanations of important concepts.
Action Taken
The teaching team worked together to put short quizzes as pre-knowledge checks every teaching week before each lecture. The pre-knowledge check helped students identify potential gaps before they started, and brushed up on foundational concepts. The teaching team provided more work examples to help students with each new concept. Organic chemistry kits/models were used to demonstrate organic structures. This option helped students visualise organic chemistry's molecular structures in ways that previous year students could not.
Source: SUTE comments
Feedback
Res-school staff were fantastic
Recommendation
This is very encouraging feedback. Continue to deliver a high quality and engaging residential school.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: SUTE comments
Feedback
Poor audio quality in some of the videos that made it challenging to follow the teacher's lecture.
Recommendation
Review recordings and rerecord lectures with inferior audio.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: SUTE comments
Feedback
Sequencing of content (spectroscopy being split between the start and end of term) was very difficult to deal with.
Recommendation
Re-organise spectroscopy topics in a manner that shows better links between concepts and will make their learning more meaningful.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: SUTE comments
Feedback
Res school experiments need to be reviewed and rewritten to have clearer instructions + visual aids (video demonstration to watch before res school would be helpful)
Recommendation
Properly review the lab manual and PowerPoint so that the correct instructions are given to the students.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: SUTE comments
Feedback
It'll be helpful if there's minimal uploaded lecture just on the Week # that we are doing Res School.
Recommendation
Considering and minimising the learning content for res school week such as give students either that week off, or a week in lieu if it spills across multiple teaching weeks, re-map the topics.
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Apply concepts of kinetics, thermodynamics and redox chemistry
  2. Use critical reasoning to apply chemical theories to reactions
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of equilibrium and acid / base chemistry
  4. Synthesise organic compounds and examine these for purity
  5. Interpret a range of spectra and use these to identify compounds
  6. Demonstrate competency in experimental techniques and lab safety, data generation, analysis and report writing.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Written Assessment • •
2 - Practical Assessment • • •
3 - Take Home Exam • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Communication • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • •
4 - Information Literacy •
5 - Team Work • •
6 - Information Technology Competence •
8 - Ethical practice • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10