CHEM 1411

So it says that Professor Morkowchuk teaches this course, but in reality all of the labs are run by one or two TAs and you occasionally watch videos explaining what you're going to do for a lab by Professor Morkowchuk. I found chem lab extremely boring. I thought CHEM 1410 was fairly good (for perspective, most people hate it), but the lab was so useless. The experiments we did were simple enough that a middle schooler could do all of them. The experiments didn't have anything to do with the content we were learning in lecture all year. They also didn't teach anything themselves. If you have intro chemistry 1 (CHEM 1410), you have to take this lab, but be warned that it is not going to be fun and it's going to take some time since the lab is a three hour chunk.

I found this course somewhat enjoyable but a fair amount of work for a one-credit class. Pay close attention to the grading rubric, as all the grading is mastery-based, and failing one assignment can bump you down a letter grade. The course experience is luck-based, as some TAs are much better than others, and you'll need to get along well with your lab group. I believe that Morkowchuk actually teaches some of the sections, but I only saw her two or three times throughout the semester. The assignments to put extra effort into are the quizzes (three total) and the group projects/presentations, as you will need to pass all of these to receive an A in the class. Additionally, pay attention to the scientific writing assignments, as the rubric on these can be harsh. Failing one quiz, group project, or writing assignment will automatically bump you down. There are retakes for the quizzes, but if you fail a second time or miss the retake period, you're screwed. #tCFF23

Intro chem lab is structured well, except your entire experience starts with a few dice roll. With the nature of the course being taught by TAs and students working in assigned groups, you better pray that your TAs are chill and that your groupmates don't suck. Luckily for me, my experience was really great, but it shouldn't be hard anyways to change the trajectory of your grade if you are indeed stuck with horrible TAs/group members.

The lab itself is a lot of work with a prelab, the 3 hour lab itself, a postlab, and several lab reports and presentations. The grading is based on mastery/not yet mastered which I think is great since you're also given a good amount of tokens to exchange for a chance to redo a writing assignment or a quiz.

The assignments and all are really simple and easy, but the real struggle is figuring out the lab procedure within the time. The TAs aren't meant to be directly involved, but mine were able to guide us in the right direction if we were really lost or screwing our self-designed procedure up. Despite being a bit stressful at times, if you can work well your group, the rest of the course is smooth sailing. Just make sure to read ALL the instructions and the course should remind you of high school chemistry lab (for better or for worse). #tCFF23

This course has a ridiculous amount of work for one credit. Avoid taking it at all costs. Dr. Morkowchuk is a fine professor and she makes expectations clear. She communicates well with the class and explains things thoroughly. The work isn't the most difficult, but the amount of work is literally absurd for just one credit.

This course should be worth more than one credit. It is an excessive amount of work. Luckily everything is graded on a mastery basis, meaning you only need to get about 80% of questions correct on assignments to get an A. Additionally, you can decide wether or not to complete the lab report assignments based on what grade you want in the course. You also have the chance to redo 6 assignments if you don't get the "mastered" grade through the token system. The labs don't seem to correlate with CHEM 1410 material and you have to have a decent understanding of stoichiometry and reactions because they won't teach you how to solve problems. Definitely watch the prelab videos if you don't have a great chemistry background. The quizzes are open notes and also contain a lot of information that Morkowchuk covers in the videos.

Lab sessions alternate each week between a 50 minute planning session and a three hour lab. Come prepared to planning sessions by reading the overview otherwise you won't be able to finish in time to get the TA's signature. My lab group was usually able to finish labs with about an hour to spare.

This course is pretty easy to do well in as long as you do all the work. It is graded on a Mastery scale, meaning you only need to get 80% on an assignment to receive credit for it. But you also have six chances, called "tokens", to redo any assignments you do not master. The assignments themselves are pretty easy, they are just tedious and annoying. It is a lot of work for a 1-credit class, I'd definitely consider this to be more like 2 credits. My best tip is to read ahead on what you will be doing in lab the day before, so you can start formulating a plan ahead of time because the TA doesn't really give you anything during lab -- you are on your own.

Lab is pretty easy but the work can take a good amount of time. Each week will alternate between either having actual lab, which is a 3 hour block, or workshop, which is a 1 hour block. In lab, you run the actual experiment and write a summary as a group. The summary is usually just a few questions and then some data collection. The lab usually does not take up the whole 3 hours and they let you leave if your lab group finishes early. In workshop your lab group creates a plan of how the next experiment will be run, it is usually a list of materials, safety and disposal, and then procedure. On your own, there is a pre lab and a post lab for every experiment. The pre lab is usually 10 multiple choice which just give you an overview of the upcoming lab. The post lab is all short answer questions about data collection and calculations. Throughout the semester there will be 3 in lab quizzes which are all multiple choice questions and ask about the labs you've done so far. There are also 2 presentations and 2 scientific writings you will have to complete. While it seems like a lot, all the work is pretty reasonable and it is very easy to get help if you need it. Also, all assignments are graded on mastery, meaning that you do not need to get every question right to get credit for an assignment. Each assignment is worth 1 point, and if you hit a certain amount of points on the rubric you get that 1 point. They are very transparent on what they are looking for and it is easy to get mastery if you just do exactly what the rubric asks of you. You also get up to 6 retries if you do not get mastery the first time, but I have found that most people I know did not need to use up all 6 of their retries. I also suggest you get to know your grading TA, mine was my lab TA but I'm not sure if some people's is their workshop TA, so that you are comfortable asking them questions about why or why you did not get mastery on an assignment and you can get feedback on your work. #tCFF23

This is kind of an annoying class, but if you give yourself enough time for the postlabs and other assignments you can get an A. Honestly, this class can depend on which TAs and group partners you get, but nothing you can do about either of those, so...

Just make sure to never miss class for any unexcused reason, because the "specifications grading" used by this class (i.e. you need to pass X amount of assignments to get an A) can make it impossible for your grade to recover from one missed class. Make sure to get very familiar with which assignments you need to pass, or "master", to get the grade you want. Most importantly, read the weekly emails they send out ASAP; it clearly tells you everything you need to do for the week.

There were definitely chemistry concepts that could've been taught better, and the last experiment required us to use software that the TAs were clearly unfamiliar with. Overall, not a great class, but it certainly could've been a lot worse.
#tCFF23

This course could be somewhat tedious for just being one credit. Each lab incorporated a variety of assignments. The group you receive for lab will make a difference on how smoothly the labs and the assignments go. Overall, Chem Lab was well organized.

#tCFF23

tCFF23 This lab was very easy although it might depend on who your group is. My group got along and divided the work well. There were a couple of really interesting labs although a lot of them were kind of trivial. It also had a grading style where all the assignments were either mastered or not mastered and to get a specific grade you had to get a certain amount of mastereds in different categories. This made the class even lower stress since your work did not have to be perfect to get a good grade.
The class structure would also alternate every other week of workshop which would only be one hour(groups were assigned either the first or last hour of the 3 hour block) and you would plan for the following week when you would actually conduct the lab which may or may not take the full 3 hours depending on lab and group speed.
Murkowchuk made videos before each lab covering all the material we needed to know. My TAs were also both hopeful and constructive.