Miessler and Tarr is an inorganic textbook which is is best suited to an upper-division one-semester inorganic course, though there is more material than can be covered in a single semester, so some choice of topics is necessary. It is very well suited for a course oriented around structure, bonding, and reaction chemistry of transition metal compounds, but is very limited in its treatment of solids, main-group, descriptive chemistry, and bioinorganic. Pchem would be helpful but is not necessary. In particular, the treatment of MO theory is very in-depth. The quality of end-of chapter p
Housecroft and Sharpe (Inorganic Chemistry, 3ed): This is a comprehensive inorganic textbook designed primarily for students at the Junior/Senior level. P-Chem would not be needed as a prerequisite for this text, but would be helpful. It includes both theoretical and descriptive material along with special topics, enough for a two semester course though it is easily adaptable to a one-semester "advanced inorganic" course by choosing only some topics. It is written in a clear and generally readable style and the full-color graphic contribute to student understanding.
Simply take a large dish, and fill it with liquid mercury. Float things on the mercury. Rocks, iron nails, witches, lead shot, you name it. It's best to start with the least ridiculously dense things, and build up to lead shot.
WARNING: Mercury is way bad for you, kids. Use appropriate caution.
I have students construct Lewis structures on the board starting at the noble gases and working backwards to the group 14 elements. We talk about both second period then heavier elements. As we move across the period we transition from molecular solids to extended solids.
This is a nice transition from molecular chemistry to extended compounds. I use this as a bridge into the solid state portion of the course because it allows me to review Lewis structures, trends in bond energies, and provide some descriptive chemistry information.
This experiment has been modified and expanded from the J. Chem. Ed. article linked below (J. Chem.