Student Literature-Based Organometallic Lecture

Submitted by Jeffrey Rood / Elizabethtown College on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 14:42
Description
I taught an advanced inorganic chemistry course for the first time this past fall. I focused strictly on organometallic chemistry and we used Spessard and Miessler's book. Because this book is focused on transition metal organometallics, I wanted the students to appreciate some of the organometallic chemistry of the s- and p-block (and zinc). Students worked in pairs (the class size was 12) and had most of the semester to research the literature and develop a 40-50 minute lecture. I also had them develop homework questions and an in class activity to help engage the other students.

First Isolation of the AsP3 Molecule

Submitted by Anne Bentley / Lewis & Clark College on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 13:47
Description

Early in 2009, Christopher Cummins’ group at MIT reported (in Science) the synthesis of AsP3, a compound that had never been isolated at room temperature.  Later that year, a full article was published in JACS comparing the properties and reactivity of AsP3 to those of its molecular cousins, P4 and As4.  The longer article is full of possibilities for discussion in inorganic chemistry courses, with topics including periodic trends, NMR, vibrational spectroscopy, electrochemistry, molecular orbital theory, and coordination chemistry.

Introduction to the Synthesis and Properties of Nanoparticles

Submitted by Brian Johnson / St. John's University/College of St. Benedict on Fri, 04/30/2010 - 09:59
Description

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.

Video explanations and practice problems of basic chemistry and math topics

Submitted by Lori Watson / Earlham College on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 15:34
Description

This is a website which links to a wide variety of good quality YouTube mini-lectures on basic topics in chemistry, mathematics, physics and a variety of other sciences.  Each video is about 10 minutes long and many go through example problems slowly and completely.  

Bioinorganic Chemistry- Metals in Purely Structural Roles

Submitted by Sheila Smith / University of Michigan- Dearborn on Sat, 10/17/2009 - 14:28
Description
This is a discussion leader to bring students into the topic of "Metals in Biochemistry- Structural Roles" by reminding them of pieces they already know from General Chemistry and other courses.

First Day Review of Atomic Orbitals

Submitted by Maggie Geselbracht / Reed College on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 22:30
Description

This is an interactive small-group discussion activity I did on the first day of sophomore-level inorganic chemistry to get students to interact with each other and brainstorm to collectively review what they knew about atomic orbitals.  I also wanted to "set the stage" for non-lecture type activities in this class.  I adapted this in-class activity from one posted by Joanne Stewart (Hope College) with additional questions from a fundamental quiz posted by Barbara Reisner

Molecular Orbital Diagrams

Submitted by Adam Bridgeman / The University of Sydney on Tue, 07/07/2009 - 03:51
Description

http://firstyear.chem.usyd.edu.au/calculators/mo_diagrams.shtml

Flash based tools to help with the construction of MO diagrams:

  • "energy levels" shows how the form of the bonding and antibonding orbitals, the bond order and atomic charges vary in a diatomic molecule with the electronegativity of the two atoms involved
  • "Molecular orbital diagram maker" shows how a complex MO diagram can be made by a drag and drop approach using symmetry adapted components

 

Materials Chemistry: UW MRSEC Library of Slide Shows for Class Presentations

Submitted by Maggie Geselbracht / Reed College on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 17:43
Description

The Interdisciplinary Education Group at the University of Wisconsin Madison Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) has a fabulous website with a wide variety of great resources for teaching about materials and the nanoworld at all levels.  A favorite "corner" of this website that I refer to a lot in my own teaching is the library of so-called Resource Slides on a variety of topics.  These Resource Slides are divided up into 36 topical Slide Shows and include wonderful graphics to use in class presentations.   Slide Shows include:

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