Course: Chemistry
Teacher: Art DeJohn
Room: Chemistry Lab
Email: art.dejohn@ssfs.org
Phone: 301-774-7455
Office Hours: 1st, 2nd, lunch, and after school.
Ch. 1 through Ch. 11
Ch. 13 - Ch. 19
Notebook Checks: 15%, notebooks are similar to journals and everything you do for the course is written in your notebook. They consist of notes from class discussions (lecture and homework review), and homework assignments in chronological order. Notebooks are collected approximately every two weeks. I check organization, and completeness in terms of class notes from discussion and homework review. Many of the assigned problems require multi-step solutions, and I expect to see complete solutions, not just a final answer. I'm interested in process as much as the correct answer.
Lab Write-ups:: 15%. Lab write-ups are based on organization, and thorough analsysis.
Warm-ups: 20%. Warm-ups are brief, unscheduled assessments given at anytime during a class period. They are designed to measure understanding of the basic concepts and the degree to which students are keeping pace with the course.
Quizzes: 50%. Quizzes or Chapter Tests, are given once or twice per chapter. They could be 30 to 45 minute assessments.
Semester Exams: are cumulative with calculator and non-calculator sections. They are weighted 15% of your semester grade if your exam score is less than your two quarter average, and weighted 20% of your semester grade if your exam score is greater than your two quarter average.
> I have high expectations for mutual respect and academic honesty among our students and the community as a whole. Further, I am always open to discussing issues or concerns of any kind. Please bring your textbook, notebook, and graphing calculator to class every day. Write in pen if your are neat and it is erasable ink.
> Although I don't collect or check daily homework, I expect you to honestly attempt all homework assignments. If you don't complete a given assignment, I expect you to engage in the class discussion, and to ask questions about difficult problems, or to take notes on problems that you may not have attempted. The point is for you to keep pace with the course, and to follow through on missed assignments immediately. Notebook checks are designed to check the quality of your work, meaning your thought process in approaching a given problem, rather than 100% of the problems completed. However, I expect all class notes to be in your notebook and all of the homework problems at the time I collect the notebooks to be completed.
> Quizzes (Tests) and warm-ups will consists of a variety of formats including written equations, graphical, data sets, and verbal with and without diagrams. You will be required to develop flexible skills in approaching a variety of problems. You will need to be fluent in procedural and conceptual skills.
> I permit the use of notebooks on all assessments, except for the semester exams on which I give you a formatted formula sheet. My goal is for you to develop good note taking skills, and to have a good reference for studying the process of problem solving, rather than having pages of short answers that have no context for which to learn the material. CAUTION, notebooks are not meant to be used like an encyclopedia during assessments, because there is not enough time for you to look up every type of problem, and not every type of problem asked of you to solve will be in your notebook. It will be most useful as a reference for formulas, and to assist you on a couple of challenging problems.