Letters of recommendation
This is a document that I hand out to every student I have, outlining what I
This is a document that I hand out to every student I have, outlining what I
In Haverford College's course Chem 111:Structure and Bonding, we have included a workshop exercise that guides students through their first experience using electronic structure calculations. We use the WebMO interface along with Gaussian03, but the exercise could be adapted for other electronic structure programs. The general structure of the exercise is as follows:
Students in the courses I teach (primarily general chemistry) have struggled with understanding the three representations of matter: macroscopic, particle, and symbolic. This is particularly evident when these representations extend into reactions. Additionally, students struggle with understanding basic concepts of aqueous solutions and, by extension, reactions in aqueous solution. This activity is designed to help the students recognize different types of representations and then generate these for simple systems.
This is written for a freshman seminar course, "Nuclear Chemistry and Medicine," open to all majors. It meets once per week for one hour, and is meant to facilitate the transition into college for first-year students by providing an informal educational experience. It should be adaptable to a lecture-format course, and I will try to do this for my Junior-year Inorganic Chemistry.
A really neat interactive periodic table
Every time I teach inorganic, I always ask myself the question: “What’s the best way to motivate the course and get the students excited?” A long time ago, I decided it’s important to start with some music. (Until last year, Tom Lehrer’s The Elements was my favorite. As a TMBG fan, I’ve swiched to Meet the Elements.)
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In this laboratory experiment, students construct a solar cell from a combination of synthetic and natural materials. It touches on a variety of chemical principles (kinetics, photochemistry, electrochemistry, intermolecular forces, material properties); however, the primary aim is the experience of turning materials into components and then assembling them into a working device. This experiment is unique in that it emphasizes each material's function, and how its properties affect this function. Students can seal these solar cells and take them home afterward.
This book was originally written (full disclosure: I am one of the co-authors) for college teachers as a resource text to encourage and support the incorporation of more solid state and materials chemistry into the general chemistry curriculum. The Companion, as I refer to it, is filled with background material, demonstrations, laboratory experiments, and end-of-chapter problems that will aid the non-specialist in enriching their teaching with examples from the world of solid state materials. Although intended for a general chemistry audience, several of the chapters present fairly sophis