An interesting discussion took place on the Discord last week (not on Discord - learn more here). The conversation was about Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) analysis and it mostly involved Anthony Fernandez, Lori Watson and Adam Johnson. But towards the end of that discussion, Kyle Grice jumped in with a great link to a site describing NBO. Although I wasn't that interested in learning more about NBO at that very moment, Kyle's link certainly found its way into my bookmarks.

Hello IONiC VIPEr and friends!

Do you ever wish you could glean the best ideas from other VIPEr users and not have to wade through a bewildering array of content that the site hosts now?  Do you wish you could share all the learning objects that you use in a particular class in one place?  You need to check out our Collections!

Interested in alternative grading methods? Challenged by the idea that your grading might not be measuring actual student mastery of the material? Join us for a presentation and conversation with Santiago Toledo (St. Edward's University) about the use of an outcomes based grading system. Attendees will be introduced to an alternative grading structure centered around student learning outcomes. This methodology was implemented in general, organic, and inorganic chemistry courses. 

Just in time for the fall semester, our next roundtable discussion will address assessment of student learning in the time of COVID. As with many other aspects of teaching, the pandemic has affected assessment activities at the course and departmental levels. Shirley Lin (US Naval Academy) will facilitate this SLiThEr on how to use literature discussion LOs, a VIPEr speciality, as an assessment instrument. She will briefly discuss how to adapt/design literature discussions for this purpose and how to use chemistry education research methods to analyze and report results.

Next week Joanne Stewart (Hope College) will host a discussion about facilitating group work in an online environment. Just like our other SLiThEr’s, this is meant to be an informal discussion about strategies for faculty teaching. Join us on Zoom on Thursday, August 13th at 4 pm EDT (GMT-4) for this sixth VIPEr SLiThEr (Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: a Hosted, Engaging Roundtable) event.

Next week, Kari Stone (Lewis University) and Anthony Fernandez (Merrimack College) will facilitate a discussion about their favorite LOs and how they use these LOs in their courses. Come prepared to talk about your favorites as well or ask others for suggestions to help you teach a particular topic. Join us on Zoom on Thursday, August 6th at 4 pm EDT (GMT-4) for this fifth VIPEr SLiThEr (Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: a Hosted, Engaging Roundtable) event.

It is hard for me to believe that five years ago I was writing up a manuscript for submission to a special issue of Polyhedron focused on undergraduate research. Jared Paul of Villanova University and Rob LaDuca of Michigan State served as guest editors for this issue. Their initial goal was an issue with around 25 papers. They shattered that goal putting together a collection of 63 papers!

Join us on Thursday July 30th at 2 pm eastern (GMT-4) for the fourth VIPEr SLiThEr (Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: a Hosted, Engaging Roundtable) event. Our roundtable host this week will be Caroline Saouma of the University of Utah. The event will begin with a ~30-minute presentation by Caroline followed by a period of discussion and reflection for all participants.