The Journal of Chemical Education has released a trio of articles in the past couple of days that should be of interest to inorganic chemists.  Two were highlighted as the ACS Editor's Choice selection for Tues, March 3 and Wed, March 4.

The first two papers (both by Raker et al.) provide an analysis of the results of a survey of U.S. inorganic chemists – you may recall participating in this survey yourself! The authors applied fancy analytical tools to identify four separate approaches to teaching foundation inorganic courses and three types of in-depth courses offered at the participants’ institutions. These variations have occurred because individual institutions developed their inorganic curricula from the bottom up rather than by a top down process requiring a uniform curriculum. The survey results also showed that on the whole, inorganic courses are including less main group and descriptive chemistry and are devoting more time to materials chemistry and nanoscience topics.

The journal also released an article by Schaller and colleagues at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University that details a series of modules used to introduce organometallic chemistry at the foundational level. The electronic structure of organometallic compounds, their reaction mechanisms, and their utility in catalytic cycles were introduced alongside the concepts of chemical structure and organic reactivity in the first two years of coursework.

All three articles were released in the journal’s ASAP section: foundational, in-depth and OGM modules.

IONiC VIPEr reminders: The symmetry and MO monthly challenge is under way, with all entries due on March 6.  And, stay tuned for information about VIPEr events at the ACS meeting in Denver later this month.