Like many inorganic faculty (especially those faced with trying to teach "all" of inorganic chemistry in a one-term junior/senior course), I have found it increasingly difficult over the years to include any significant descriptive chemistry content in my course. Moreover, I have a constant interest in trying to convey some of the "story behind the story" in chemistry, which in this area centers on the discovery of the elements. I was mulling this over at an ACS meeting one time and happened to be in an inorganic teaching session where Josh van Houten (St.

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.

This is an in-class exercise to be used at the end of General Chemistry (II).  I use it as a capstone exercise at the end of my second semester genchem course, but it would also make an excellent introductory review exercise at the beginning of a junior level inorganic course.  It provides an excellent review of topics from the entire semester (electrochemistry, acid-base, thermodynamics, colligative properties, solution chemistry and calculations) and shows how they are inter-related in a real world application (a car battery).