Submitted by Anne Bentley / Lewis & Clark College on Mon, 03/26/2018 - 13:27
My Notes
Categories
Prerequisites
Corequisites
Topics Covered
Subdiscipline
Description

This in-class activity can be used to teach structural (or constitutional) isomers. This worksheet presumes that students have already had some experience with transition metal complexes such as determining metal oxidation state, recognizing the coordination sphere, and converting between formulas and structures.

Attachment Size
structural isomers.pdf 245.52 KB
structural isomers.docx 299.75 KB
Learning Goals

A student should be able to

  • recognize pairs of ionization, coordination, and linkage isomers
  • describe the difference between ionization, coordination, and linkage isomers
Equipment needs

none

Implementation Notes

I developed this short in-class activity this spring to take the place of a lecture on the topic. The students had already spent a couple of days learning about coordination complexes and stereoisomers. I handed out the in-class activity and asked them to work in groups of 2-3.  I circulated to answer questions, and after about 5-10 minutes of work, I brought everyone back together and summarized the categories. I chose not to give them any introduction to structural isomers in the hopes that by working through the activity, the students would develop their own understanding of the types of isomers.

Time Required
10-15 minutes

Evaluation

Evaluation Methods

I did not require students to turn in their worksheets, but I did circulate to answer questions and confirm their pairings.

Evaluation Results

All my groups were able to identify the pairs.  I think learning the labels is harder.

Creative Commons License
Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike CC BY-NC-SA