YouTube: Valentine Memory Metal Candle
Happy Valentine's Day!
Barbara Reisner forwarded this YouTube link that she received via the Materials Science Department at Cambridge.
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SYMMETRY CHALLENGE!
Symmetry Challenge!
A contest across VIPEr, the Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource.
Here is a chance to show your symmetry skills to all the inorganic chemists and students of inorganic chemistry on ionicviper.org!
Given a cube and 6 equal length lines how many objects of different point group symmetry can you construct? All six lines must fit either edge to edge or vertex to vertex (it is ok to mix and match if you want), and each face must have one and only one line on it.
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Element of the Week, Try Ligand of the Week for your Inorganic Course
Oral presentations in Inorganic chemistry- Ligand of the week
I have had students in the past give short oral Element reports. They are given the following guidelines:
1. Where is the element found in nature (biology or geology)?
2. How is the element used in society? As an element or in a Compound, etc.
3. Show some balanced equations involving the element making or breaking bonds.
4. Show structures of compounds including the element.
5. Show chemistry you think is particularly interesting.
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Comprehensive Senior Exams?
We have a senior comp requirement at DePauw. Students are given a paper from the primary literature (any field of chemistry is fair game but it usually depends on the organizing faculty member's area of expertise), and they are given two weeks to digest it. They work together to understand it, and go ask questions of faculty members.
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Course Learning Goals
Thanks to some guidance and support IONiC colleagues, I sat down to critically think about what I want students to learn from my inorganic courses before I wrote my syllabi this spring. For the first time in 16 years of teaching (shamelessly admitted), I included course learning goals on my syllabi. I thought it would be interesting to share these and compare to what other folks are doing.
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Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS)
I was approached by the makers of ALEKS (Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces) and was wondering if anybody had used it - and if they did, was it helpful?
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Chemistry Demo Scripts for Kids?
I braved my son's 3rd grade classroom this week and brought in some dry ice and liquid N2 demos to couple with their science unit on solids, liquids, and gases. The kids LOVED it! And 3rd graders are such a cheap thrill after cynical college students.
Me: So what do you think is going to happen when I put this balloon in the liquid N2?
Kids: IT'S GONNA EXXXXPLOOOOOOOOOOOOODE!!!!!!! (all of them covering their ears)
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Does your inorganic course "hang together?"
Inorganic chemistry courses can suffer from the same problem as many gen chem courses: Too many topics in too little time. This can lead to student complaints (and our own complaints!) that the course doesn't "hang together." Not hanging together can be detrimental to student learning because it leads to a focus on the infinite "facts" to be learned, instead of the broader themes, concepts, and ways of thinking.
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Has anybody recorded lectures?
So, I am thinking of video-recording at least one of my lectures this term. I am teaching Organic II this spring (and possibly an Inorganic...). In my Organic class I have 1 student who needs both my class and another for her degree (2nd semester senior) at the same time, not enough students to have two sections in either course and I know mine probably couldn't have a time change nor would the senior faculty teaching the other course change his time...thus, I am looking to possibly record the lectures and share with all the students enrolled.
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Inorganic Laboratory Syllabi
As some of us are frantically "dusting off" and "polishing up" our syllabi for courses this spring, I thought it might be interesting/useful to share lists of experiments that you do in your inorganic laboratory course (if you have one). So, tell us a little bit about your course (level, lab pre-requisites, concurrent or separate with lecture) along with your list of experiment titles. It might also be helpful to indicate if any specialized equipment is needed for an experiment other than standard glassware, IR, NMR, UV/Vis.
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