VIPEr workshop on “hetero-genius” catalysis!

Chip, Joanne, and I are spending a blustery fall break in Québec City connecting with the SoTL community for the 14th annual International Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference (ISSOTL 14).  We’re excited to be sharing some of the things we’ve learned from the VIPEr community and workshops with this broader education and faculty development audience.

This is a question that has been asked and answered from time to time on VIPEr.  Back in 2008, Hilary Eppley stared a forum post to ask people for suggestions on fun science reading over the semester break.  This turned out to be a very popular thread that yielded many good titles for my reading list.  We’ve had people post in forums about books they’ve used to highlight the historical aspects of chemistry, and we even

On being a scientist, a feminist, and a mentor…

Some of my primary childhood passions were natural disasters, math, and cooking. I ran the baking soda and vinegar experiment over and over again, gleefully causing the “lava” to overflow down the sides of the volcano I had made in a pottery class. I even added red food coloring for a more realistic touch.

On behalf of IONiC (The Interactive Online Network of Inorganic Chemists) and the Division of Inorganic Chemistry (DIC), I would like to invite you to participate in the eighth annual "Undergraduate Research at the Frontiers of Inorganic Chemistry" Symposium and Poster Session to be held at the Spring 2015 A

How would you define the field of inorganic?  More interestingly, how would your undergraduates define the field before their first course in inorganic?  I use a first day activity from VIPEr to ask just that question each year in my sophomore/junior level Inorganic I (no P-chem pre-req) course.  This is a much used and much modified activity (https://www.ionicviper.org/class-activity/introducing-inorganic-chemistry-first-day-activities,

Does VIPEr improve teaching? The evidence certainly suggests that it does. This summer I worked with an undergraduate student investigating the impact of IONiC/VIPEr faculty participation on professional practice. And while the data is not all in yet, the results certainly look good.

This fall is going to be different!  In addition to my regular General Chemistry course, I’ll be teaching a new course in my college’s recently redesigned first year seminar program--Food for Thought: The Chemistry of Cooking.  I’m both incredibly excited about this course, and pretty nervous.  I’m excited because it’s not too often (at least at a small college with the usual staffing challenges) that you are handed a blank page and told “teach (almost) anything you want!” I’ve wanted to teach a chemistry of cooking course for a long time, and luckily many others in the chemistry community