Greetings all. I am back from an exhausting and exhilarating trip to Denver for the ACS meeting. There were a couple of minor snafus (MAPS and Super Shuttle) but otherwise it was an awesome time. Thanks to all our participants (speakers, poster presenters, and attendees). This community continues to prove that cutting edge research can be done with undergraduates. I am already looking forward to our symposium in San Diego next spring.

One of the best and yet hardest parts of the trip was our session dedicated to Maggie Geselbracht. It was awesome to have her son Zach in the audience for that session. It was great to hear all of the speakers recount how Maggie had influenced them. She certainly was and continues to be a driving force behind this community.

With that, I am announcing the opening of our third community challenge. The topic this time is crystalline solids. I am very pleased to announce that I will be co-authoring several LO’s with Maggie as part of this challenge. She was certainly the brains and driving force behind most of these questions, while I mostly provide the fluff. I will be following Barb’s original guidelines for the challenges:

The challenge: By Wednesday, April 15^th, post your favorite exam question. It can be an exam question you’ve already used or one you’d like someone to try out. You can use any question format that you like.

The constraints: We’re looking for small contributions. Quality, low bar questions are great.

·          Your question must be on crystalline solids, lattice parameters and/or lattice energy

·          It should be posted as a problem set question with a minimum of the question, answer and student learning outcomes

·          You question must not be from a textbook – is has to be original

I’ll be doing a quick review of all of these questions (other than my own) and they will be on the website no later than April 22^nd so that everyone can try them out on their exams. I will send a prize to the first LO submitted and the one that I find most original. I hope you will join me in this challenge!