Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Everyday Chemistry is a course that is completely on-line (you never need to come to campus).  The lectures are interactive presentations in an eBook (free).  You will typically need to set aside 1.5 hours a week to watch the lecture content.  There is no physical textbook required for the lecture portion of the course.

CH100OL will introduce topics relating to the interaction between chemistry and society that may spark an emotional response. Specifically, Week 5 of the term will address the topic of smoke grenades, present available health and safety data, and ask you to reflect on its use. We are not taking a political stance or endorsing one viewpoint over another; we are encouraging evidence based decision making. The topic is included not only to teach the chemistry of the chemicals in the smoke grenades, but also to demonstrate how society impacts our use of chemistry, which supports the PCC Core Outcome titled Community and the Environment: apply scientific perspectives to our social systems. You can find a complete list of PCC Core Outcomes here. We encourage you to contact your instructor with any concerns that come up.

The lab experiments are performed using a lab kit that you MUST purchase and have delivered to your home by Week 3 of the term. The lab kit costs ~$120 and can be purchase directly from Carolina or a voucher with a code can be purchased with financial aid from the PCC Bookstore and then the code entered into the Carolina website.  The link to order the kit will be in the syllabus.  You shouldn't order the kit before the term starts as their are no returns for the kit.  Note: cost of the kit will be much higher when purchasing through the PCC Bookstore.  To minimize your expenses purchasing the lab kit directly from Carolina is preferred.  The PCC Bookstore cannot physically stock the kits on-campus.

It is required that you take selfie photos of yourself doing each experiment to verify you are completing it independently.  Those uncomfortable documenting their lab experience with photos should consider other courses.  Additionally, one laboratory experiment requires you visit a body of water such as a lake or river to obtain water samples.

The weekly hourly demands for this on-line course are as follows:

• 2-3 hours to view the video lectures and complete the accompanying homework problems and take the weekly quiz
• 30 minutes to 2 hours to complete the weekly discussion post
• 3 hours to complete the weekly lab

If you have further questions please e-mail me at ted.picciotto@pcc.edu!