Dear Friends of Viper (FoV),

Many of us who are teaching inorganic (and even me in my advanced first year course) are in the part of the semester in which we deal with symmetry and molecular orbital theory! Based on the success of our first community challenge, your friendly neighborhood VIPEr administrators thought this would be an ideal time get some great exam or problem set questions on the website in time for that next problem set or midterm. Such questions are easy to write and post (as problem sets). We’d love it if you would participate!

The challenge. By Friday, March 6th, 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. (Not sure how to submit? Take a look at our step-by-step instructions.)

• Your question must be on symmetry, molecular orbital theory, donor-acceptor interactions, or the like.
• It should be posted as a problem set question with a minimum of the question and answer and student learning outcomes.
• Your question must not be from a textbook - it has to be an 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 Mar 13th 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 also plan to post assessment data and comments on any questions that I use on my own exam. I hope you’ll join me in this challenge!

Look for upcoming questions challenges from Chip (crystalline solids) and Adam (final exam questions)!

-Nancy Williams