This activity leads students through the synthesis of compound nanoparticles and examines how key physical properties such as band gap vary with particle size. Prior to doing this, students should have some exposure to the structure of solids, band theory, and band gap as a periodic property (see, for example, Lisensky, et al. J Chem.
This activity makes use of Jmol animations created by Prof. Marion Cass at Carleton College to illustrate the Berry Pseudorotation in trigonal bipyramidal molecules such as PF5. Students explore the animations and answer a series of questions that lead to a description of this intramolecular motion that exchanges equatorial and axial atoms in trigonal bipyramidal molecules.
This is a great website that was forwarded to me by a friend. Broaden students' scientific communication skills by condensing the descriptive chemistry of an element down to a haiku.
This is a website which links to a wide variety of good quality YouTube mini-lectures on basic topics in chemistry, mathematics, physics and a variety of other sciences. Each video is about 10 minutes long and many go through example problems slowly and completely.
Molecular models and selected molecular orbital surfaces and slices were calculated with Spartan for HF, LiH, CO2, XeF2, and BF3, and the results were used by students in an in-class activity (covering several class sessions) to answer a series of questions.
http://firstyear.chem.usyd.edu.au/iChem/lewis.shtml
A set of Flash-based, interactive tools for students to construct Lewis structures for electron deficient, octet rule obeying and hypervalent MLx molecules and ions (x = 2 - 6).
The user chooses the number of electrons and bond type (single, double or triple) and is steered towards the correct stucture.
For cases where resonance structures are possible, the user must construct each form to complete the puzzle.
This learning object was developed collaboratively by members of the IONiC Leadership Council. The overall goal is to provide a general overview of metals in biological systems and introduce students to several of the important ideas in the field of bioinorganic chemistry. Topics include toxic metals, metals used in biological systems and the overlap of these categories; issues associated with the uptake, transport and storage of metal ions; and the benefits gained by using metals in biological molecules.
This website is a video put out by UCLA and is a good general introduction to using pyrophorics. It would be good for required viewing for ALL researchers who intend to use Grignards, alkyl metals, organometallics, LiH, etc.
Updated June 2015 to provide a new link; the old link no longer worked.
I read about these new biology examples for intro chem in a recent Association for Women in Science (AWIS) Washington Wire (December 2009, Issue II). Professor Catherine Drennan from MIT and her colleagues introduced "examples of biological and medical topics that demonstrate chemistry principles into her introductory chemistry lectures to highlight the connection between the fields of biology and medicine, that students often love, and chemistry." Their assessment showed that the examples increased student satisfaction with the course.