Unit information: Advanced Practical Chemistry (Teaching Laboratory) in 2018/19

Unit name	Advanced Practical Chemistry (Teaching Laboratory)
Unit code	CHEM30005
Credit points	40
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Dr. Chris Adams
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	CHEM20170, CHEM20180, CHEM20190, CHEM20480 or CHEM20220
Co-requisites	CHEM30019 (or CHEM30016) Advanced Inorganic & Materials Chemistry CHEM30011 Advanced Organic & Biological Chemistry CHEM30006 Advanced Physical & Theoretical Chemistry, CHEM30018 (or CHEM30017) Advanced Computational & Interdisciplinary Chemistry.
School/department	School of Chemistry
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Description including Unit Aims

This unit further develops the practical chemistry skills introduced in CHEM20480 or CHEM20220 expanding those fundamentals of practical chemistry into this more advanced level of study. The unit contains experiments based on all areas of chemistry.

Aims: The unit provides training in practical chemistry and literature research in preparation for a research project, a career as a professional chemist, or in an area of employment requiring the skills of scientific reasoning, critical evaluation and numeracy. This course aims to provide an advanced understanding and knowledge of the main areas of practical chemistry, reinforcing and building on year 2 material and laying the foundations for independent laboratory work in later years. Students face challenging experiments, learn to research and choose appropriate techniques for a given problem and work independently, managing their own time.

The unit:

• provides open-ended activities
• requires students to manage their own learning
• requires students to apply information that they have learned earlier in the programme to consolidate and extend their knowledge and understanding of chemistry.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On passing this unit, students will be able to:

• Manage and structure their own laboratory time
• Take responsibility for their own safety in the laboratory
• Competently plan advanced laboratory experiments and investigations
• Successfully carry out complex practical operations and techniques
• Critically interpret data (which may be incomplete)
• Identify solutions to experimental problems
• Correctly report experimental procedures and results in an appropriate format
• Evaluate results and hypotheses against the chemical literature
• Write coherent, well-structures reports that place their results within the wider Chemistry context and which critically evaluate arguments, assumptions, concepts and data
• Discuss investigations with academic members of staff and demonstrators

Teaching Information

Supervised practical classes, workshops (classes of 45 students with two staff members) and independent study. The Dynamic Laboratory Manual provides important e-learning resources in advance of practical sessions.

Assessment Information

Students will be assessed by continuous summative assessment of coursework of three kinds:

• Data summaries, designed to show that an experiment has been successfully carried out and that the student understands the results
• Full reports, designed to show the marker that the experiment has been successfully carried out and that the student understands it, can place it within the wider Chemistry context and can critically evaluate the results
• A longer project report, designed to allow the student to design experiments to investigate a genuine research problem.

To receive credit for this unit, students must make a reasonable attempt at every aspect of the teaching and assessment, including pre- and post-laboratory work, practical experiments, formal reports and presentations, group-working and any workshop activities. Failure to do so may result in credit being withheld, even if the overall mark is above the pass mark for the unit. Supplementary or resit assessment of this unit is only possible through engagement in the following academic year.

Reading and References

The reading needed for this course is available to students on the Bristol ChemLabS Dynamic Laboratory Manual.