Has the end-of-summer, classes-start-in-less-than-a-month panic set in yet? I’ve started to feel it*, and I imagine we all have to a degree. Some of us VIPEr folks remember how especially anxious we were approaching our first year teaching general chemistry, having to start from scratch with lecture notes and course materials. How much anxiety (and time!) could have been saved if we had found a treasure trove of hand-picked gen chem teaching resources, located conveniently in a single location.

Enter our “New Faculty Survival Kit” devoted exclusively to first-year general chemistry. Want some in-class activities to keep your students engaged during lectures? You will find them here. Want some advice about using clickers or tablets in the classroom? You’ll find that here, too. This collection isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list for you to sort and sift through, however. We culled the site for Learning Objects (LOs) in each content category that are most germane to first-year general chemistry, focusing especially on those that have been marked as “Favorites” or “Adopted” by other users. So whether you are looking for a problem set or a forum topic, all the relevant resources are listed here.

How do I get in on the action?

You can find the General Chemistry Collection for New Faculty by scrolling to “Content” at the top menu of the VIPEr site, and choosing the “Collections” option; most recent additions are at the top. (You could also refine the search by choosing the “Introductory Chemistry” or “First Year” tags.) If you are a faculty member but don’t have a faculty account, make sure you contact us to gain faculty privileges, including all-important access to answer keys.

How can I help make these LOs even better?

We’re glad you asked! If you use one of the items in the collection, let others know it was valuable by clicking “I’ve adopted this.” If you used it in a modified way, add a comment at the bottom of the LO – this information could be very helpful to other users. If you encounter LOs that should be in this collection but are not, let us know!

Whether you are starting your first year of teaching or your second decade, you might be in need of fresh material for your gen chem course. If so, you’ve come to the right place.

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*I used to make fun of my sister for being obsessed with The Doors in her teenage years, but every year around this time this song invariably starts running through my head…