This is the second year that I’ve taught JMU’s foundation level course in inorganic chemistry since VIPEr has been around. VIPEr has allowed me to adapt and adopt ideas from the community, and I think my course is much the better for it. This year, both the existing LOs and new ones generated from our community challenges have positively impacted my class.
The semester may be over for many of us, but it's never too late to recognize our outstanding undergraduates who make research possible or excel in the classroom and lab. The Division of Inorganic Chemistry has two ways to recognize outstanding undergraduates in inorganic chemistry.
It's a little over a week since the site was updated and the LC is still hard at work on getting things in order. In particular, we are moving around some of the teaching resources. The Fundamentals of Inorganic Chemistry and General Teaching Resources will soon be disappearing. Fear not, the LOs from those sessions will still be on the site, we are just reclassifying the subdiscipline they are classified with. If one of your LOs is still classified with Fundamentals of Inorganic Chemistry and General Teaching Resources it will soon be reclassified.
With apologies to Bob Dylan...
Come gather 'round snaklings
My name is Jorge Torres and I am a graduate student at Miami University working with Dr. Ellen Yezierski in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. I am pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry focusing on chemistry education research (CER) in Inorganic Chemistry. As part of my dissertation research, I am conducting a study on the inorganic chemistry curriculum to identify both the stated and the enacted teaching and learning goals.
I can’t believe that the only thing left in my foundation inorganic course is the final final exam. (No the second final isn’t a typo. I give an assessment of key concepts exam and an ACS Exam.) I’m sure that I’m more excited about these exams than my students. A few of them are eager to prove what they know. I’m excited to see what they’ve learned (and I’m even more excited to see how the Foundations of Inorganic Chemistry exam from the ACS Exams Institute is functioning)!
The VIPEr site now has a large number of literature discussion assignments – learning objects in which students read a research article and answer questions before coming to a class discussion.
While at the ACS meeting in Denver I was simply in awe at just how amazing this community is. The talks were excellent. It is certainly a privilege to have a front row seat, but I do wish Chip Nataro would stop taking me away from my perch during his talks. Our poster sessions were terrific. I wish I could have gotten to all of the posters but Nancy Williams decided it was best I stayed at our poster.
While in Denver, I missed two days of lecture for my sophomore inorganic class. Normally I would have just skipped them, but I ended up with some pretty tough time constraints and was left in a pinch of really needing to cover some material. I decided that I couldn’t just skip the classes, but I also knew that attempting to make them up outside the normally scheduled time would be next to impossible. So, I decided to hold class remotely.
