Finals week has just started and all I can say is "Wow." It was a busy semester for me just as I am sure it was for you our loyal BITeS readers. I've added a few more things to my list of things I wish I had learned about being a professor before I got started as one. Someday that will make for an interesting BITeS, but today is certainly not that day. I've also learned that "because I am stupid" is more often than not a good answer to any question that starts with "Why did you...?" (Followed by "and I'm sorry" when appropriate.)

It's been a long, a long time coming

But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.-  Sam Cooke

A few changes have happened to the VIPEr website overnight! We're rolling out the web content for the next phase of the NSF supported IONiC VIPEr project! And we're super excited to introduce the first cohort of VIPEr Fellows, along with Flo's new snakey BFF, Feller!

Your old friend Flo here just giving you a reminder about the great rates you can get from Progressive. 

Wait, what? Sorry wrong Flo.

Here on VIPEr, we share our LO’s with the community so that they can implement them in their classrooms and provide feedback. These LO’s are meant to be small pieces that can be dropped in to any course. We have recently been expanding our views, looking at whole classes (See the "Grand Experiment").

Once again it is Nobel season and in about 1 day from writting this post we will know who has taken home the chemistry prize. From the variety of predictions this year it seems like the field is wide open. The RSC has put together a nice summary from various sources here.

That's right! You read that correctly, meetings plural. I'll start with the one that is currently accepting submissions - the Spring 2019 meeting in Orlando. My minions, Emily Sylvester and Chip Nataro, will be doing all the leg work (which they have to do, me being a snake and all) for our annual symposium. We are now accepting submissions here. We expect to have three oral sessions as well as a poster session. Consider this your invitation to present. We will limit oral presentations to one per research group.

It's hard to believe that the academic year is about to start for many of us. I'm slowly making it through my pre-semester to do list. I spent the morning trying to pick the perfect paper and theme for my junior level LIterature and Seminar class where we explore everything from close reading strategies for reading the literature, searching, and data management to ethics and science in society. I have several good themes - I just need to pick one. I also found a paper on CO₂ conversion that I might be able to use to drive much of my Inorganic II class.

Has the end-of-summer, classes-start-in-less-than-a-month panic set in yet? I’ve started to feel it*, and I imagine we all have to a degree. Some of us VIPEr folks remember how especially anxious we were approaching our first year teaching general chemistry, having to start from scratch with lecture notes and course materials. How much anxiety (and time!) could have been saved if we had found a treasure trove of hand-picked gen chem teaching resources, located conveniently in a single location.

At the recent Organometallic Chemistry Gordon Research Conference there was a noticible fashion statement being made on Wednesday night. Four people were wearing identical shirts. And just to show how cool the shirts are, a fifth person wore their shirt on Thursday night during a special session. I would give more details, but what happens at a Gordo stays at a Gordo. What was this shirt you might ask?