JOHN JAY COLLEGE
OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The City University of New York
524 West 59th
Street, New York, NY, 10019
Syllabus for CHE
302, Section 01, Lab/Rec 1-2
Physical Chemistry
II
Quantum Mechanics,
Theoretical Spectroscopy,
and Scientific Programming/Data
Analysis
Professor’s
name: Nicholas Petraco
Lecture
location: 3.78
Laboratory
location: 5.67
Office
Contact hours: Thursdays 1:30pm and Open Door Policy
E-mail
address: npetraco@gmail.com
Course
website: https://npetraco.github.io/CHE302/
Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) Policies – CUNY Accommodations Policy:
Students
who need an accommodation due to a disability are encouraged to contact the
Office of Accessibility Services (OAS) within the first week of class or as
soon as possible thereafter. Accommodations can only be approved by the
OAS and will be implemented for the student. OAS is located at L66 in the new
building, Phone: (212-237-8031), Email: accessibilityservices@jjay.cuny.edu. See CUNY ADA policies for students: Effecting
Reasonable Accommodations and Academic Adjustments Procedures Relating to
Accommodations and Accessibility for Students
Course
description:
This
is a one-semester seminar course in basic quantum chemistry, theoretical
spectroscopy, materials physical properties and scientific data analysis
pertinent to forensic scientists. It is designed to give a forensic scientist a
thorough understanding of the physical principles behind the
spectroscopic/optical methods they use in the lab and how to analyze the data
they obtain. The course is also intended to prepare students for graduate work
in forensic science or chemistry. As such, the course material is intended to
further develop critical thinking and problem solving
skills.
Learning
outcomes:
By the end of the course students will be able to:
· Solve chemical
problems, especially those related to forensic science, using the methods of
quantum mechanics, classical mechanics and optics. Analyze the physicochemical/materials
data obtained from different sources using scientific computing software R (http://www.r-project.org/), Mathematica and
other scientific software.
· Identify compounds
and various materials commonly encountered in forensic science, by spectroscopy
and microscopy. Utilize scientific data
from literature searches of the scientific literature.
· Acquire deep
understanding of physical phenomena that lead to the appearance of molecular
spectra and the formation of images in microscopy.
· Describe various
perspectives how physicochemical and materials systems work. Recognize the
importance of the knowledge at the interface of physics, chemistry, computing,
engineering and forensic science.
· Analyze molecular
and atomic spectra. Extract information about chemical compounds from their
spectral characteristics.
· Recognize the
importance of accuracy and objectivity in collecting physicochemical data,
especially with applications to the law.
Science course pre-requisites or
co-requisites:
Students should have taken PHYS
203/204 (General Physics I and II with Calculus), CHE 320 (Instrumental Methods
I), MAT 151/152 (Calculus I and II) or be enrolled in CHE 320/CHE 321
(Instrumental Methods II).
Requirements/course policies:
Course announcements and important
reminders will be discussed in class and emailed to you. As such you
must give me email addresses that you check on a regular basis, including your
John Jay email. Home work,
labs and exams will be administered through WebAssign. See below for details.
Students must check the course website and
the e-mail account(s) they gave for this course regularly.
Students are
responsible for all course information, assignments, announcements, and
communication that occurs in class, through the course website and your email
accounts.
Students must be in possession of a
laptop running Windows, Mac OS or Linux for this class. If a student is
not in possession of a laptop, one can be borrowed from the school. A tablet or
Microsoft surface will not suffice for this course. Students are responsible
for being in possession of a laptop installed with the course software (R https://www.r-project.org/ and RStudio https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/) before each
and every lecture and laboratory session.
Attendance
in lecture and laboratory is mandatory. More than three
unexcused absences from any of these components will result in an automatic
failing grade. Unexcused lateness or early departure will count as ½ an
absence, up to 30 minutes. After 30 minutes students will be marked absent.
Unethical/unprofessional conduct which
includes cheating will result in a failing grade and referral for additional
action. These include copying others’ work and sharing work when explicitly
forbidden. Exams must be taken in person, in class. No make up exams will be given without
prior instructor approval. Failure to take a scheduled examination in
person, in class without valid and independently supported official
documentation from a medical provider at least 48 hours in advance (unless the
emergency is induced by force majeure, subsequent to the 48-hour cutoff, where
in valid and independently supported official documentation from a medical
provider is still required) will result in a zero grade for that examination.
Statement of the College Policy on
Plagiarism:
“Plagiarism is
the presentation of someone else’s ideas, words, or artistic, scientific, or
technical work as one’s own creation.
Using the ideas or work of another is permissible only when the original
author is identified. Paraphrasing and
summarizing, as well as direct quotations require citations to the original
source.
Plagiarism may
be intentional or unintentional. Lack of dishonest intent does not necessarily
absolve a student of responsibility for plagiarism. It is the student’s
responsibility to recognize the difference between statements that are common
knowledge (which do not require documentation) and restatements of the ideas of
others. Paraphrase, summary, and direct
quotation are acceptable forms of restatement, as long as
the source is cited.
Students who are
unsure how and when to provide documentation are advised to consult with their
instructors. The Library
has free guides designed to help students with problems of documentation.”
Policy and
Source Material: http://johnjay.jjay.cuny.edu/files/cunypolicies/JohnJayCollegePolicyofAcademicIntegrity.pdf
Required
Resources and Electronic Text:
· Computer:
A laptop running Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
or Linux operating systems is required for this course. If a student is not in
possession of a laptop, one can be borrowed from the
school.
A tablet or Microsoft surface will not suffice for this course.
·
Text (Online Open Educational
Resource):
Physical Chemistry (LibreTexts)
·
Supplementary Text:
Physical
Chemistry: A Molecular Approach.
D.
A. McQuarrie and J. D. Simon
Not required, but recommended. It is commonly available at very
low cost (~$30 - $50), ISBN-10: 0935702997.
John Jay Library does not own a copy unfortunately.
· The Assignments can be purchased on WebAssign:
· In order to
purchase, got to:
https://www.webassign.net/wa-auth/class-key/enroll
and
click
on “Enter Class Key” FOR YOUR SECTION:
· You
should see a place to enter the class key:
· Students
Registered for Thursday MORNING, 10:50am
Recitation 01R1 10:50am-12:05pm
§ Class Key: jjay.cuny 1351 4301
· Students
Registered for Thursday AFTERNOON, 12:15pm
Recitation 01R212:15am-1:30pm
§ Class
Key: jjay.cuny 0850 9261
· After
entering class key, eventually the website will prompt you to purchase the
materials for the class:
· Purchase
the Homework
Only single-term access, which should be $25.95
Grading:
Exams
There will be
two regular exams and a final (exam III). Regular exams will take place during
the lab period to minimize time pressure. The final (exam III) will take place
during the scheduled time, finals week. Exam II and the final (exam III) are
semi-cumulative in that all exams build on the concepts of the previous exams.
Concepts and methods from the earlier parts of the semester will appear on
exams during later parts of the semester. That said, reviews before each exam
will be thorough, and each exam will emphasize material that has not yet been
tested. All exams must be taken in person, in class. Failure to take an exam in
person in class without prior instructor approval and/or arrangements will
result in an automatic grade of zero for that exam. Each exam (i.e. exam
I, II and III) will be worth 25% of the total class grade. See course policy
above for missed exams.
Workshops/Laboratories
There will be a
workshop and/or computational laboratory exercise for each lab period to
accompany lecture. Workshops consist of extended guided tutorials and problem
solving with R programming and/or use of a methodology in R followed by a short
series of graded questions. Laboratories consist of a short pre-lab discussion
of R methodology or programming the student should be familiar with, followed
by extended scientific case studies with graded questions. The workshops and
laboratories train students on standard statistical analysis tasks for the lab
sciences and research. They are designed to make the concepts in lecture
concrete and use lab relevant datasets as a medium. The R language and RStudio
software will be used throughout. The questions consist of a mixture of
numerical, graphical and short responses associated with the example datasets.
Collectively the laboratory exercises and workshop questions will be worth 15%
of the total class grade and are due approximately one week after they have been
introduced. Labs up to one week late can be turned in for a 25% penalty. After
one week of unexcused lateness, a lab will receive a zero grade.
Home Work Sets
Each week there
will be a short home work
set consisting of exercises which reenforce and illustrate the material being
discussed in the lecture. They are due one week after they have been assigned.
Collectively the homework exercises will be worth 10% of the total class grade.
Home works up to one week late can be turned in for a 25% penalty. After one
week of unexcused lateness, HW sets will receive a zero grade.
In summary, the grade for this
course will be based on two exams (50%), a final (25%), weekly homework sets
(10%) and workshop/laboratory exercises (15%). Thus, the lecture portion of
this course is worth 75% of the final grade [50%(Exams
I, II) + 25%(Exam III-Final) + 10%(HW Sets)] and the laboratory portion of the
course is worth 15% of the final grade.
Course
lecture/laboratory/exam calendar:
*Thursday
May 22: Final Exam (Exam 3), 8:00am-10:00am. Spring
2025 Final Exam Schedule is posted here.