Environmental Chemistry

Course manual 2018/2019

Course content

This course describes the behaviour and fate of natural and man-made chemicals in water, soil and air and the organisms present therein. Topics include transport and distribution processes, and physico/biochemical reactions of compounds in environment(al conditions); environmental soil chemistry; bioavailability, bioaccumulation, metabolism, and degradation of chemicals; biomonitoring, prediction and fate modelling in environmental compartments; biogeochemical cycles, structure property/activity relationships.

The course Environmental Chemistry will consist of classes, workshops, a computer practical and an exam. Tutors are Dr. Steven Droge and Prof. Dr. Pim de Voogt. The computer practical will introduce students in modeling the fate of chemicals in the environment using modeling software. 2 Workshops will be dedicated to exercises typical of questions posed during the exam. The students, divided into groups, will be tasked with one question for each group, that will be answered and presented during the final workshop in the presence of the other groups.

Study materials

Literature

• Schwarzenbach et al., 'Environmental Organic Chemistry', 3rd Ed., 2017 John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-76723-8

Practical training material

• handouts (doc)

Other

• handouts (ppt)

Objectives

At the end of the course the student will have acquired

• an understanding of the processes that chemicals undergo in the environment
• the ability to Identify the major distribution and transformation processes of chemicals
• the ability to calculate distribution and partitioning of chemicals to environmental compartments
• the ability to identify key properties of substances and environmental compartments that determine the substance's fate
• the ability to derive simple structure-activity models
• an understanding of where to find (online) tools for substance properties

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Computer lab session/practical training
• Seminar
• Presentation/symposium
• Self-study

Classes provide the basic knowledge to gain an understanding of the theory of environmental processes 

Practicals will be dedicated to learn (i) how to use computer fate models, (ii) to solve exam questions including mass balance equations

Demonstrations will be used to show how to use online tools for substance property retrieval.

At the closing seminar the students will present their group results while listening to those of other groups 

Learning activities

Attendance

The programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (OER-B).

Additional requirements for this course:

attendance and participation at the workshops on Oct 15th and 18th is highly recommended; they will culminate in the group presentations on Oct 22nd that will be part (20%) of the overall mark.

Assessment

The final mark of the course is based on the results of both the written exam (80%) and group presentation of a question from the computer practical/workshop (20%), scheduled on Oct 22nd, 15:00-17:00h. The exam will take place on Thursday Oct 25, 2018, 09:00-12:00, in the SP building (D1.112). A resit will be held on Jan 07, 2018, 17:00-20:00h in room D1.162, Science Park. The exam usually consists of 7 or 8 questions. For each question  a maximum of 10 points can be obtained. The final mark for the exam is the total sum divided by the number of questions. During the exams, use of notes, books, cell phones, etcetera is not allowed. Calculators (but not those in cell phones) will be allowed. The exam will evaluate your knowledge of contents presented during classes (and posted on blackboard) and workshops/practicals, designated sections from the course book and your skills in calculating mass balances for chemicals in the environment based on compound properties. Examples of previous exams with answers will be made available. The group assignment will allow students to learn from each other how to best answer a question related to environment distribution or environmental risk assessment, and present/discuss this question in front of the class.

Assignments

Oral Presentation of response to quation

• Group will prepare an answer to a question provided at one of the workshops and present this answer at the final workshop (on Oct 22nd)

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Contact information

Coordinator

• prof. dr. W.P. de Voogt

Staff

• dr. Steven Droge