Teaching | VIPEr

It is too late? Energy tie-in for solid state chemistry?

Submitted by Hilary Eppley / DePauw University on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 10:47

I have three unaccounted for 60 min classes left in the semester (starting this Friday) and I'd like to give a BRIEF (I hate having a mere 1/2 credit course to cover inorganic!) introduction to solid state chemistry. My students have done structure and a brief intro to properties and bonding in solids in their intro classes, but I'd like to give them a taste of what's out there at a higher level and how it might be applicable, preferably with a paper discussion that ties into energy (solar? batteries?) on the last of the three days. What would you do if you were in my shoes?

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Learning Object Requests??

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Sat, 10/17/2009 - 11:46

Post your learning object requests here! What do you wish someone out there on the internet would create and post to this website??

Adam

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Classic experiment difficulties

Submitted by Jason K. Vohs / Saint Vincent College on Thu, 10/01/2009 - 19:24

My students are performing the classic synthesis and use of Wilkinson's catalyst lab. So far, all the groups have been able to prepare and characterize the catalyst; however, when they attempt to convert the aldehyde (heptaldehyde) into an alkane, it doesn't work. I've consulted every single write-up of this lab (taken from Microscale Inorganic Chemistry by Szafran and Pike) and the students follow the experiment to the letter, but no yellow crystals. Can anyone offer suggestions? Many thanks.

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Laboratory Equipment

Submitted by Betsy Jamieson / Smith College on Tue, 09/29/2009 - 11:17

I am curious as to how others deal with glassware, etc. for student labs. For our intro chem courses, we have lockers for each student. Inside each locker is the glassware, etc. that each student needs for the semester. She checks into the locker at the start of the semester, makes sure the equipment is there, and then checks out of it at the end. We've thought about going to a system where we just provide the equipment needed for each exercise on a common side bench, but so far haven't been able to break away from the locker idea. I'd like to hear how other places do this.

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General Chemistry Laboratory Design

Submitted by Dan Freedman / SUNY New Paltz on Thu, 09/24/2009 - 14:30

Hi,

We are in the process of designing a new science building at SUNY New Paltz and we will have space for a new laboratory that will mainly be dedicated to general chemistry. I'm looking for advice on what works the best for desgining such a laboratory. Our main parameters are:

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Anyone know of good games or activities for teaching nomenclature

Submitted by Chris Mullins / University of Kentucky on Thu, 09/03/2009 - 06:52

We are know working on basic chemical nomenclature of ionic and diatomic molecular compounds (we are in Chapter 2 of Chang) in our first semester General Chemistry course. I am looking for a good, low prep time resource for using an in-class activity to aid in the learning process. I'd like to utilize this either tomorrow (Friday) or next Wednesday (after the Labor Day holiday). I apologize for the short notice.

Things I have found online but am uncertain about are:

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Dealing with Problem Sets

Submitted by Hilary Eppley / DePauw University on Wed, 08/26/2009 - 09:39

Hi everyone, A beginning of the year question for everyone: I don't know why, but I get frustrated grading problem sets when I get students answers to problem sets on all different kinds of paper, formatted in all different kinds of ways, unstapled, etc. Does anyone have any good tips for taming the chaos of problem sets and making them easier to grade?

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September Academic Commons Paper

Submitted by Hilary Eppley / DePauw University on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 05:14

The journal Academic Commons published our description of the VIPEr project as a case study for their special issue Innovative Practices for Challenging Times. Your comments are most welcome here! If you haven't already, you can create an account in order to post, using the "Register" link at the top right.

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Using "Clickers" in teaching

Submitted by Betsy Jamieson / Smith College on Mon, 07/13/2009 - 14:03

I'm thinking about using "clickers" to get students to respond to questions during class this fall in my general chemistry section. I'd be interested in hearing from people who have used them and in what ways they were used most successfully.

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What are your favorite resources for writing research papers?

Submitted by Barbara Reisner / James Madison University on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 02:12

Yesterday, I went to an outstanding talk by Simon Peyton Jones on how to write a scientific paper. It was directed towards people in CS writing a manuscript for a conference proceedings, but it was still broadly applicable. That got me thinking about other resources on writing research papers and how can we best help students learn to write about their research.

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