Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Thank you for your interest in this course!

This course introduces general principles of chemistry. It is designed for students in a health science program, e.g. Nursing, Medical Laboratory Technician, Vet Tech, or for a laboratory science elective. It is the first course of a three course sequence. 

This is an in-person on-campus course that meets on the SE Campus.

In-person lectures at the Southeast Campus:

Four hours per week are scheduled for on campus lectures, practicing course material, and working in small groups (Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:00 pm to 01:50 pm). 

In-person labs at the Southeast Campus:

Three hours per week are scheduled for on campus labs (Tuesdays 2:30 pm to 05:20 pm). Students will need to attend the lab sessions in person. There are no remote labs for this course. Labs will reenforce the materials discussed in lecture through hands on learning and experimentation.

You can preview our chemistry lab space using this immersive, virtual model: SCOM 306 Virtual Twin

In-person exams at the Southeast Campus:

The top four out of five 1-hour tests, and a 2-hour final exam during finals week will be given in-person on campus during our regularly scheduled lecture time and during the regularly scheduled finals time for this course. All exams are cumulative.

Required materials:

Your textbook and online homework system are both free and open source. You will not need to purchase a textbook or access to an online homework system! However, you will need to purchase an inexpensive lab manual at the Southeast campus bookstore. There is no need to purchase the lab manual before the term starts. We will further discuss the required materials during our first meeting, and you will have time to purchase the lab manual on the day you come to campus for the first time. Our lecture room, the lab, and the bookstore are all in the same building. Thus, you will have time to visit the bookstore when you get to campus on the first day. You will also need a scientific calculator. You may use a scientific calculator that you have already purchased for another course, but it must be capable of scientific notation, logs, exponents, etc. I do not recommend the inexpensive scientific calculator sold in PCC Bookstores, but I do have some suggested alternatives that I will discuss during our first meeting. Please do not rush to purchase a fancy graphing calculator or the inexpensive scientific calculator sold in PCC Bookstores until after our first meeting. 

Registered students will receive a welcome email with more details and a syllabus when the term starts. Please reach out to the instructor if you have any questions before then.