Spring 2027

Chemistry Across the Periodic Table

Inorganic chemistry course covering coordination, bioinorganic, solid-state, and main-group topics, including synthesis and characterization of inorganic compounds.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · John Moore

Students reported a heavy workload involving weekly typed lab reports of 5–6 pages, problem sets, and occasional online tutorials. Grading criteria were clear, and tests were considered fair if students participated in class and completed homework.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Construct and use appropriate chemical models and structural representations to explain observed differences in the physical and chemical properties of substances in terms of electrostatics, orbital overlap and energy.

  • Construct and use appropriate models of chemical bonding and reactivity (e.g., acids/bases, redox, complexation) and relative energies to justify why a particular reaction system is likely to produce the product formed most quickly or which is most stable.

  • Identify and use molecular symmetry to predict a molecule’s chemical and physical properties (e.g., chirality, polarity, and vibrational spectroscopy).

  • Describe the nature of solid-state compounds and their atomic arrangements and use their structures to predict and rationalize their chemical and physical properties.

  • Conduct, modify, and analyze experiments for the synthesis and characterization of inorganic compounds, using inorganic laboratory techniques, apparatus, and instrumentation.

  • Obtain, analyze, evaluate, and effectively communicate scientific research findings orally and in written form (ex: abstract, introduction, procedure, results, discussion, and references).

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

CHEM 104, 109, or 116

CHEM 311 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

CLARK LANDIS is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JOHN MOORE is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2009, Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Spring 2018. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JUDITH BURSTYN is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Spring 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2017, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MAHESH MAHANTHAPPA is recorded teaching in Spring 2010. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 640
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 302Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 303Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 304Classroom Instruction0 / 140

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Clark Landis

Clark Landis taught this class with clear lectures and extensive outside availability. He was described as a caring professor who was fairly forgiving and lenient with grading despite a difficult workload.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.35 GPA, 63.6% A/AB (n=55 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.25 GPA, 60.7% A/AB (n=28 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.56 GPA, 72.5% A/AB (n=40 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · John Moore

Students reported a heavy workload involving weekly typed lab reports of 5–6 pages, problem sets, and occasional online tutorials. Grading criteria were clear, and tests were considered fair if students participated in class and completed homework.

Past student reviews · Sam Pazicni

One student found the assessment schedule overwhelming, noting that take-home exams took a full work week and weekly quizzes lasted two hours. They also mentioned that pre-lectures were overly long and the online platform was inconvenient.

Topics

  • Coordination chemistry of transition-metal ions
  • Bioinorganic chemistry
  • Solid-state structure
  • Main-group elements
  • Synthesis and characterization of inorganic compounds

Skills

  • Use chemical models and structural representations to explain properties via electrostatics and orbital overlap.
  • Apply molecular symmetry to predict chemical and physical properties like chirality and polarity.
  • Conduct and analyze experiments for synthesizing and characterizing inorganic compounds.
  • Communicate scientific research findings orally and in written form.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.18 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
CHEM 311 · Spring 2027

Chemistry Across the Periodic Table

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:224:021698",
    "course_id": "CHEM 311",
    "course_uid": "course_0d267b79490aeb7664694e7f",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "021698",
    "source_subject_id": "224",
    "title": "Chemistry Across the Periodic Table",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "c19384580db68fc52ed2f29bd408c2c1fe5a094a7d3c29f3e6aba1a2f1bf7be2",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}