This is the 3rd SLiThEr (Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: a Hosted, Engaging Roundtable) in the series, hosted by both Drs. Anthony Fernandez and Meghan Porter, who discuss how they flip their classrooms. One of the classes discussed was a general chemistry course, and another was an intermediate inorganic chemistry course. The SLiThEr was recorded and posted on YouTube (see web resource link below).
This is the link to the first SLiThEr (Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: a Hosted, Engaging Roundtable), presented by Kyle Grice and Hosted by Chip Nataro. The SLiThEr was recorded and posted on YouTube (see the web resources link).
These are two "Livescribe Pencasts" I have used for inorganic chemistry. I made them with an Echo 2 Livescribe pen for my 10-week Junior/Senior Inorganic chemistry course. We teach with MFT and I use these as supplemental materials outside of class (both for f2f and online versions of this class).
This article provides an entry point for students to apply their knowledge of electron configurations and molecular orbital theory to the lanthanide and actinide elements. We have provided a large number of possible questions to use, grouped by theme. Instructors can pick and choose questions that best fit their course.
This literature discussion explores the physical structure, electronic structure, and luminescent properties of a lanthanide coordination complex (dysprosium) through discussion of “Synthesis, Structure, Photoluminescence, and Electroluminescence Properties of a New Dysprosium Complex,” Li et al. J. Phys. Chem.
This literature discussion was based on a short, readable piece from the trade magazine Chemical and Engineering News. Since this was written in a more general tone, it served as a reasonable introduction to carbenes for students in my advanced inorganic class. I have been looking to expand the examples of carbenes presented to students beyond those in the text. Simple examples of Fischer, Schrock, and N-heterocyclic carbenes are plentiful, but modern applications haven't been featured in the text that I use.
When transitioning into inorganic chemistry from organic chemistry, students are surprised by the complexity of metal complexes. To ease this transition, students are asked to look at the crystal structure of a coordination complex [(+/-)cis-dichloro-bis(ethylenediamine)-cobalt(III) chloride monohydrate], make some observations about what they see, and provide a list of questions that they would like answered. Students usually note that there are atoms/ions that are "floating" and are seemingly unattached to anything else in the structure.
In this experiment, Students synthesize a Schiff Base and the corresponding aluminum complex to measure fluorescence. The lab provides exposure to air-free synthetic techniques, including the use of Schlenk Line techniques and safe handling of sure-seal bottles. Following data collection, students will be able to explain fluorescence spectroscopy and compare it to absorbance spectroscopy.
We have developed a set of icebreaker activities that could be used at any course level, either in an online video chat or in a classroom. These are based on the popular Mad Libs game in which some words are left out of a story and players are asked to provide words to fill in the blanks without knowing much about the story. We've provided an introduction to the game, definition of typical parts of speech that are requested (ie, adverb, noun, adjective, etc), and three starter activities.
In 2019, the journal Inorganic Chemistry updated it's scope (https://pubs.acs.org/page/inocaj/about.html). This updated scope inspired me to update my first day of class activity for Inorganic (which was typically a version of the excellent first-day LOs from VIPEr).
I asked students to read the journal scope (web link or hard copy provided) and answer a few questions in small groups: