This is an in class activity that I just used to replace a lecture! After students have the basic ideas of how to perform symmetry operations and put molecules in point groups, I like to reflect on the idea of a 'mathematical group' and what that means in terms of symmetry and group theory in inorganic chemistry.
I saw Amanda Cook present this work (and another paper, Organometallics, 2022, 41, 997) at the Organometallics Gordon Conference in summer 2023 and while I was furiously taking notes, I knew that I wanted to teach this paper. The paper elucidates the mechanism of oxidative addition of tertiary silanes to palladium zero phosphine complexes.
This is a collection of LOs that I used to teach a junior-senior seminar course on organometallics during Fall 2023 at Harvey Mudd College. There were a total of 11 students in the course. Most of the students had taken one semester of both organic and physical chemistry, and about half had taken inorganic (none from me, though, as I was on sabbatical). I used the Stanley textbook hosted on this site (linked below).
I am moving away from teaching the Goldberg paper (still one of my favorites) and instead wanted to teach just the highlights as part of my seminar class in organometallic chemistry this fall. I created this shorter version of the activity to use in class. I did NOT have them read the paper in advance, hence the summaries in the LO itself.
This is a computer-based activity intended for a bioinorganic chemistry course composed of upper-level undergraduate students. It is helpful for students to be familiar with concepts of electron transfer, including a surface-level introduction to Marcus theory and the inverted region, and photosynthetic charge separation before beginning this activity. However, this activity can easily be adapted to students with other levels of preparation in a bioinorganic course.
In this SLiThEr, Sarah St. Angelo from Dickinson College shares some of her strategies for helping students remember concepts and skills from prior coursework that they "should" remember before her junior/senior inorganic course. Student-led review presentations, LMS-based warm-up topics and quiz, and a rapid collaborative recollection of models of bonding help Sarah's students remember important ideas and take ownership of their learning from early in the semester.
I am currently in the process of teaching flipped General Chemistry I for the second time. The first time I did it, I do not think I did a great job of 'selling' the students on this modality of learning. I received some very negative student comments including one that suggested this was just a lazy method of teaching. So, I've made some changes the second time, in particular my pitch of the idea.
In this SLiThEr, Amanda Reig (Ursinus College), Caleb Tatebe (Presbyterian College), and Ariela Kaspi-Kaneti (University of La Verne) discuss the process of applying for PUI faculty positions from both the point of view of the search committee and the recently hired.
This is a digital "escape room" where students determine point groups of molecules and answer follow-up questions to determine four digits. The four digits can be used to unlock a physical lockbox which is brought to class with small prizes inside.