One of the Leadership Council's New Year’s resolutions for 2015 is to get the IONiC community more involved with small projects on VIPEr.

It may be the first day of class, but my first inorganic exam is already coming up (January 28). We thought it would be fun to get some great exam questions on the website in time for everyone's first exam. Exam questions are easy to write and post (as problem sets). We’d love it if you participate in our first-ever exam question challenge.

Are you getting excited about the upcoming academic term? Are you looking for new things to use in the classroom or trying to find your old favorites on VIPEr? VIPEr’s Team Bug has something that might help!

Where did it go? It has been a roller coaster fall for the members of the leadership council, one we will never forget. But time continues to march forward. So, for our last BITeS post for 2014, I thought I would tell you a little bit about some of the exciting happenings with VIPEr. First of all, I think I should provide the 'answer' to our current poll. The answer is that there are registered faculty users of VIPEr in 36 countries around the world! It was quite a bit of work, but also a lot of fun to map this out.

Maggie Geselbracht.

The following was presented at a memorial service for Maggie.

(Adam)

I used to think that I was a creative teacher… and I probably was/am… but the resources on VIPEr have opened my eyes to what true creativity can be…especially when you’re not afraid to let your students have a little fun with the science.

VIPEr workshop on “hetero-genius” catalysis!

Chip, Joanne, and I are spending a blustery fall break in Québec City connecting with the SoTL community for the 14th annual International Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference (ISSOTL 14).  We’re excited to be sharing some of the things we’ve learned from the VIPEr community and workshops with this broader education and faculty development audience.

This is a question that has been asked and answered from time to time on VIPEr.  Back in 2008, Hilary Eppley stared a forum post to ask people for suggestions on fun science reading over the semester break.  This turned out to be a very popular thread that yielded many good titles for my reading list.  We’ve had people post in forums about books they’ve used to highlight the historical aspects of chemistry, and we even

On being a scientist, a feminist, and a mentor…

Some of my primary childhood passions were natural disasters, math, and cooking. I ran the baking soda and vinegar experiment over and over again, gleefully causing the “lava” to overflow down the sides of the volcano I had made in a pottery class. I even added red food coloring for a more realistic touch.