This is a group activity I developed for my "Introduction to Chemistry" class, which is set up primarily to cover the topics we consider to be prerequisites for the first course in our chemistry sequence at Carleton. However, it covers aspects of thermodynamics (e.g., particularly Hess's Law) that are core topics for most intro courses.
In this in-class activity, students are broken up into teams of 4, which are then sub-divided into two teams of two for the building of the structures. The activity makes use of the ICE Solid State Model kits, and each group should have their own full kit.
The activity has 6 sets of structures for the teams to build; depending on the length of your class, you could have each team build all six sets OR have each team build one of the six sets to then share with the rest of the class.
A - HCP and CCP
B - Primitive cubic and CsCl
This is a jmol display of the atomic orbitals from 1s to 4f that can be rotated in space. They are plotted relative to the x, y, and z-axes.
Recent versions of Wolfram's Mathematica software have access to a variety of curated data sets that are relevant to Chemists. This activity is an example of how one can use the ElementData dataset to develop an on-line tool to explore periodic trends. Wolfram provides a free web-based platform (the FreeCDF plugin) to view and interact with specifically designed Mathematica files. The activity can be accessed in one of three ways:
I found this great website linked from somewhere a few days or a week ago and already forgot where. But I am teaching organic lab this semester and convinced one of the students to do a little research. As a reward, I am going to buy her, and the whole class, gelly roller pens for keeping their notebooks.
This is a GREAT site that has so much detail on keeping a lab notebook. There is a lot of great stuff in there.
I am always interested in building/modifying equipment and glassware, and the following C and E News article led me to an interesting website, also linked, where details on building homemade rotators and stir plates are in place. Both models can be constructed with materials for less than $30. As I'm always looking to keep costs down for equipment like this, I thought I would share it. If anyone knows of other links, please let me know.
I learned of this website after attending the Computational Chemistry for Chemistry Educators (CCCE) workshop last summer '11. In this webpage you will find all the workshop lectures intended for audiences who do not have a computational expertise. You will also find lab exercises already written.
This is a great web resource for all types of nano materials. There are lesson plans, demos, activites, labs and lots of background information. It is very easy to navigate and there are videos of the labs so you can see each step - very useful when doing a type of synthesis or technique new to you.
ChemTube3D is a website maintained by the University of Liverpool that has interactive 3D animations ans structures. The content is broken up into several areas:
There is a lot of information on the site, and the information could be used in many courses. The areas that I find most useful in my sophomore-level inorganic chemistry course.