I teach a one-semester upper-division course where, as we all know, tough decisions need to be made.  I have always taught symmetry, but it has become apparent that our students enter their senior year weak in kinetics, so I am considering swapping out symmetry/group theory for a more advanced treatment of kinetics and mechanisms.  This pains me, because these two topics are are two of my favories.  Then again, so is everything else...

Thoughts?

Karen

We are planning to pilot a Supplemental Instruction (SI) program in one of our general chemistry sections this fall (2013). We plan to use undergraduate supplemental instructors who will attend class and lead supplemental discussion sections for small groups of students. We are familiar with the literature on SI and we have some experience with PLTL, but we still are anxious about the logistics of setting this up.

As I was reading Kyle's post on the conversation on the Andre the Chemist blog, that go me thinking a bit about chemistry blogs and the fact that the academic year is finally over. Does anyone have good recommendations for "must read" (or even pretty good) blogs about chemistry and related subjects? I'd like to try and get in some good reading habits over the summer.

There is a discussion about the undergraduate chemistry curriculum in general going on over at Andre the Chemist (http://andre-the-chemist.blogspot.com/2013/05/lets-talkcomplain-about-u…), if anyone is interested in weighing in (I suggest recommending more Inorganic ;) ).

-Kyle

I have a 3-week lab experiment in my sophomore inorganic course that I call Project Werner, heavily adapted from Angelici's text, in which students first make their choice of 4 cobalt complexes: [Co(NH₃)₆]Cl₃, [Co(NH₃)₅Cl]Cl₂, [Co(NH₃)₄(CO₃]NO₃, or [Co(en)₃]Cl₃.  In the second week, everyone carries out ligand substitution of [Co(NH₃)₅Cl]Cl₂ to prepare the two linkage isomers of [Co(NH₃)₅(NO₂)]Cl

Dear VIPEr friends,

Not sure how well everyone's chair keeps them up-to-date so thought I would share this with the community.

I encourage you to take a look at the white paper, discuss it in your department, and send feedback to CPT. They read it all and they really use it to make decisions. 

I would also be interested in hearing what you think on this forum.

Joanne

Hi All - I am currently using Housecroft and Sharp's 4th edition with supplements from Meissler and Tarr's 3rd ed.. Both of these texts discuss [FHF]- in the early MO chapter(s) as an example of 3c-2e bonding.  I'm okay with both text's approach to this ion by using LGO's on the F atoms that combine with the central H atom to illustrate formation of a bonding, non-bonding, and antibonding level for the F 2pz ortbitals with the H 1s.  It's easy to "see" a 3c-2e interaction from that approach.

Dear VIPEr friends,

I am teaching an advanced undergraduate group theory, molecular orbital theory, computational chemistry course this semester and having a ball. My question has to do with what we expect students to learn (what will they know and be able to do) when doing computational chemistry. I'm looking for answers beyond the obvious: learning the mechanics of setting up and visualizing the results of a calculation.

Hello VIPEr Colleagues,

I hope all is well. I wanted to share an idea I had today. Some of you may be aware that I published an editorial a few years ago in Chemical and Engineering News entitled "African Americans and Science." (The link is below.) Well, I decided to post a link to the article on the homepage of my inorganic course and encourage my students to read it, because honestly I want to know what the students think about it. But, I thought it was a good way to begin celebrating Black History Month.