Environmental Chemistry

Course manual 2019/2020

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 Dr. Thomas ter Laak. On Mondays, the 2h lecture will finish with a request to prepare answers to questions. On Thursdays, after the 2h lecture the students can formulate their prepared answers for the whole groupe, and work on calculations typical for the topic that was addressed in the lecture. The computer practical will introduce students in modeling the fate of chemicals in the environment using modeling software. Workshops and weekly afternoon sessions will be dedicated to exercises typical of questions posed during the exam. The students, divided into groups, will be tasked with exploring two typical Environmental Chemistry processes in one relevant publication closely related to the tutors field of research, Each group will present a their findings during the final workshop in the presence of the other groups.

Study materials

Literature

• Open Online Textbook Toxicology Chapter 2 and 3

• Schwarzenbach et al., 'Environmental Organic Chemistry', 3rd Ed., 2017 John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-76723-8, for detailed background reading and training questions

Practical training material

• handouts (doc), publications (pdf)

Other

• handouts (ppt)

Objectives

• Predict environmentally relevant properties about a chemical by only evaluating the chemical structure of an organic chemical
• Explain how hydrophobicity and other key properties of organic chemicals determine the environmental distribution
• Explain how key properties of environmental systems influence the environmental distribution of organic chemicals
• Use online tools to derive key chemical properties for common pollutants
• Identify and predict key abiotic and biotic transformation processes that affect a chemical's fate
• Calculate the distribution of chemicals in simplified environmental compartments
• Connect the (predicted) environmental distribution to chemical risk assessment

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 the interpretation of the studied publication (20%), scheduled on Oct 17th, 13:00-17:00h. The exam will take place on Thursday Oct 24, 2019, 15:00-18:00, in the SP building (F2.04). A resit will be held on Jan 06, 2020, 18:00-21:00h in room D1.112, 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 read a publication in the research fields of environment distribution or environmental risk assessment, and present/discuss a summary of the findings of the publications in front of the class.

Assignments

Oral Presentation of response to quation

• Group will prepare their interpretation of two key processes as discussed in a publication 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

• dr. Steven Droge

Staff

• dr. Steven Droge

Staff

• dr. T.L. ter Laak