Students select, research, and then post an article on an inorganic compound to Wikipedia. The compounds are chosen from a list of “stubs” (short articles that need to be expanded) found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Inorganic_compound_stubs and might include such items as the synthesis, processes of isolation, structure, interesting facts about the compound in history, and/or an application of the compound.
I am using Google Docs in my research lab for a variety of purposes, and I thought it might be helpful to share how I am using them. Google docs allows simulataneous editing by multiple people, and everyone needs a Google ID to do that. My research group and I are using one document to write up research results in paper format, one document to keep track of weekly goals, one document for general instrumentation and experimental technique trouble-shooting, and one to keep track of any work that occurs after hours when I am not around.
The ACS has posted slides and audio for selected talks from recent national meetings. Students have the opportunity to listen to talks by research leaders whose work may relate to a topic discussed in class or to an undergraduate research project. This will also be a great resource for students who are gathering information about potential graduate research groups.
This activity leads students through the synthesis of compound nanoparticles and examines how key physical properties such as band gap vary with particle size. Prior to doing this, students should have some exposure to the structure of solids, band theory, and band gap as a periodic property (see, for example, Lisensky, et al. J Chem.
This learning object was developed collaboratively by members of the IONiC Leadership Council. The overall goal is to provide a general overview of metals in biological systems and introduce students to several of the important ideas in the field of bioinorganic chemistry. Topics include toxic metals, metals used in biological systems and the overlap of these categories; issues associated with the uptake, transport and storage of metal ions; and the benefits gained by using metals in biological molecules.
This website is a video put out by UCLA and is a good general introduction to using pyrophorics. It would be good for required viewing for ALL researchers who intend to use Grignards, alkyl metals, organometallics, LiH, etc.
Updated June 2015 to provide a new link; the old link no longer worked.
I teach my organometallics course, a junior/senior level half-course, entirely as student-led presentations of the primary literature. In the past, the course was populated almost entirely with seniors who had already taken a one-semester advanced inorganic course. This past year, I taught it to juniors and seniors, and the juniors had not taken inorganic yet. A description of the course first appeared in J. Chem. Educ. in 2007 (link below). This VIPEr learning object is an update of the original paper based on my experience over the past two years.