Unit information: Study in Continental Europe and Advanced Distance Learning in 2019/20

Unit name	Study in Continental Europe and Advanced Distance Learning
Unit code	CHEM30001
Credit points	120
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Professor. Carmen Galan
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	CHEM20170, CHEM20180, CHEM20190, CHEM20480 or CHEM20210
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Chemistry
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Description including Unit Aims

The unit comprises a year spent on an exchange in a partner university in continental Europe, studying advanced chemistry in a foreign language. The students follow advanced lectures, and perform practical chemistry either in the teaching lab or as part of a research project. The courses followed are at a level similar to that corresponding to Year 3 chemistry in Bristol (generally year 3 or 4 in our partner universities). Students receive mentoring and support for the courses followed overseas from a member of academic staff in the School of Chemistry. Students also undertake coursework consisting of distance learning of key Year 3 lecture courses.

This unit provides the experience of studying in a different language and a different university system, thereby providing the students with language and transferable skills on top of their learning of advanced chemistry. This provides them with skills they will use in a career as a professional chemist, or in an area of employment requiring the skills of scientific reasoning, critical evaluation and numeracy – especially if such a career requires working day-to-day and technical knowledge of a major European language. The courses followed in the partner university and through distance learning aim to provide an advanced understanding and knowledge of chemistry, reinforcing and building on year 2 material in order to provide a well-rounded general education in advanced chemistry. These courses also lay the basis for the more specialized topics covered by courses and the research project in the final year.

Intended Learning Outcomes

• Advanced chemistry content in inorganic, organic and physical chemistry as taught in the partner universities.
• Advanced practical chemistry training through advanced practical units or small research projects.
• The ability to manage their learning in an overseas university.
• Language skills covering both active and passive skills and written and oral skills.
• Transferable skills in terms of using chemistry content learned in years 1 and 2 in a new context – and also learning to adapt the learning obtained abroad to the content of year 4.
• An appreciation of conformation in both saccharides and protein structure
• An ability to predict selectivity in organic reactions and suggest how it may be controlled
• Understanding the link between potential energy surfaces, reaction dynamics and kinetics
• Appreciation of the role of molecular structure and interactions in defining phase behaviour
• Ability to draw flow diagrams of industrial chemical processes
• Analyse and explain electronic Spectra for some simple octahedral transition metal systems
• Explain how diffraction experiments are carried out for crystalline solids and how the results of these experiments are interpreted
• Analyse and interpret multi-nuclear NMR spectra for transition metal compounds

Teaching Information

Most of the teaching will be through a traditional mix of lectures, workshops and laboratory practicals in the host universities, with some of the students also carrying out a research project in one of the labs of the host university. Additional formal academic teaching will be provided by distance learning using e-learning methods.

Assessment Information

Students will be assessed in the host university for all courses followed there. They will also be assessed for the remote learning component by online assessment. This latter assessment will account for 25% of the course mark with the remaining 75% assigned based on the moderated marks obtained for the assessments undertaken in the partner university.

Students will need to take a minimum of 45 ECTS as the remaining 15 ECTS are made up of distance learning.

Reading and References

The reading needed for this course will be made available via the Distance Learning module.