Submitted by Lori Watson / Earlham College on Sun, 03/08/2009 - 15:21
My Notes
Description
This is a guided set of questions for the paper: Group 10 and 11 Metal Boratranes (Ni, Pd, Pt, CuCl, AgCl,
AuCl, and Au+) Derived from a Triphosphine-Borane.  It was used to help students integrate the study of a variety of techniques (for example NMR, X-ray, computational studies) and basic organometallic chemistry into reading a "real" paper.
Attachment Size
ques for JACS 2008, 130, 16729.doc 31 KB
Learning Goals
A student should be able to use the experimental techniques he or she is familiar with, combined with basic information concerning d-block complex reactivity, and basic MO theory to understand the synthesis and reactivity of the complexes discussed in the paper.  Additionally, the student will gain confidence in reading the primary literature.
Implementation Notes
The paper and the accompanying questions are assigned as part of a problem set.  We then spend about 20 minutes in class discussing the paper in small groups, and answer one or two of the questions as a whole class based on small group responses.
Time Required
20 minutes in class plus about 1-2 hr out of class for the student
Evaluation
Evaluation Methods
Answers to the discussion questions are collected and graded as part of a problem set.  Students are allowed to go back and edit their answers after the small/large group discussion.
Evaluation Results
Generally they do well on the direct questions, but need prompting to think about extensions of the research or why the authors might be interested in this topic.
Creative Commons License
Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike CC BY-NC-SA