Welcome to CHEM 101! As the science that describes matter and changes it undergoes, chemistry is central to our understanding of many fields, from health and medicine to agriculture and environment to engineering and evaluation of materials. Knowledge of chemistry is an important ingredient in a liberal arts education and an essential foundation for a technical education. Check with your advisor if you have any doubts concerning the suitability of this course to your degree.

        Chemistry 101 and 102 are the first-year chemistry sequence in the core curriculum. Because chemistry is important to many fields, this is a very large course at Texas A&M. Although the large enrollment does place certain limitations on us, we in the First Year Chemistry Program are committed to providing you an interesting and stimulating course. To this end, the lecture and laboratory are together in one 4-credit course. We try to make ourselves approachable both in and outside the classroom. There will be teaching assistants available most hours of the day in Room 116 HELD to answer both lab and lecture questions. My office hours are discussed below.
        Sections 565-576 of CHEM 101 represent a group of sections within a much larger program. Each grouping of sections is independent of the groups led by other instructors although we strive to cover common content, etc.
        Information related to sections 565-576 of CHEM 101 can be found on the web. I plan to have this syllabus, lecture notes, sample problems, homeworks, course announcements, etc., on the web. The course's web pages can be accessed through the First Year Chemistry Program's homepage (www.chem.tamu.edu/class/fyp/fypintro.html) or by going directly to http://www.chem.tamu.edu/class/fyp/shatruk.
        I will strive to make this course a meaningful and enjoyable experience for you.  My goal is to make this class interesting for yu and give you the necessary knowledge. I also would like to see each of you getting a high grade. A part of my teaching philosophy is to treat each student individually and try to offer the students as much help as possible from my side in order for them to succeed.  Please feel free to call upon me whenever I can be of assistance. If I'm not around you can always reach me by e-mail. I will be available in Room 407 HELD during office hours to answer both laboratory and lecture questions.
        Please let me know which of our efforts are most (or least) helpful.

Lecture Attendance:

Even though I'm not going too check attendance, all students are required to attend the lectures in their registered section. During the lectures I will work many sample problems similar to those which you will later encounter at exams. Commitment to attend each class will help you to succeed in this course.