Polyhedron issue focused on undergraduate research

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Wed, 07/29/2020 - 14:40

It is hard for me to believe that five years ago I was writing up a manuscript for submission to a special issue of Polyhedron focused on undergraduate research. Jared Paul of Villanova University and Rob LaDuca of Michigan State served as guest editors for this issue. Their initial goal was an issue with around 25 papers. They shattered that goal putting together a collection of 63 papers!

A cobalt hydroformylation catalyst tribute to Malcolm Green

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Mon, 07/27/2020 - 20:00
Description

In this paper (Llewellyn, Green and Cowley, Dalton Trans. 2006, 4164-4168) the synthesis and characterization of two cobalt compounds with an N-heterocyclic carbene ligand (IMes) are reported. the first, [Co(CO)3(IMes)Me] was prepared by the reaction of [Co(CO)3(PPh3)Me] with IMes. The second compound, [Co(CO)3(IMes)COMe] is formed by the addition of Co to the first.

Impact of flipping on diversity and inclusivity

Submitted by Faculty Flo / Slitherin' State University on Sat, 07/25/2020 - 07:36

Join us on Thursday July 30th at 2 pm eastern (GMT-4) for the fourth VIPEr SLiThEr (Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: a Hosted, Engaging Roundtable) event. Our roundtable host this week will be Caroline Saouma of the University of Utah. The event will begin with a ~30-minute presentation by Caroline followed by a period of discussion and reflection for all participants.

Flipping your curriculum (instead of flipping out)

Submitted by Anne Bentley / Lewis & Clark College on Fri, 07/17/2020 - 09:39

Feeling anxious about the upcoming fall term?  Not sure how to plan a course that could ping-pong between in person and remote learning?  Consider adopting the flipped classroom approach, in which content is delivered asynchronously and "in class" time (whether that is in person or remote) is used for problem-solving activities. 

A 'traditional' course in an online environment

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Sun, 07/12/2020 - 08:21

Last week we launched a new community feature, SLiThEr (Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: a Hosted, Engaging Roundtable). Kyle Grice hosted this first event on converting labs to being virtual. We had a wonderful attendance, and if you weren't able to attend you can catch the whole thing on our youtube channel.

Blomstrand, Jørgensen, and Werner

Submitted by Brad Wile / Ohio Northern University on Fri, 07/10/2020 - 11:05
Description

This is a short set of slides I use to introduce aspects of coordination chemistry for my foundation level inorganic chemistry class. 

You Belong Here: You Care About Your Students, So Tell Them

Submitted by Michelle Personick / Wesleyan University on Wed, 07/08/2020 - 12:47

This past week at the second workshop for the Cohort 1 VIPEr Fellows we had some really great conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion. In my breakout group, one of the topics of discussion was ideas for how to make students feel welcome in our classrooms: what were the little things we could start to do that might make a big difference? One specific point a group member noted was that we all care about our students, but the students don’t always recognize that because we don’t necessarily tell them directly.

Demonstration of Hard-Soft Acid-Base Theory: An Ion-Exchanger for Recovery of Rare Earth Metals

Submitted by Gary Guillet / Furman University on Wed, 07/08/2020 - 08:19
Description

The article from The Journal of the American Chemical Society by M. Kanatzidis et al describes a new ion-exchange material (FJSM-SnS) that shows high selectivity for rare-earth metals (REE) and very fast adsorption kinetics.  A number of techniques are used to characterize the properties of the compound that students may not be very familiar with but the article presents in an accessible way.

The Global Inorganic Discussion Weekday (GIDW)

Submitted by Faculty Flo / Slitherin' State University on Sat, 07/04/2020 - 10:03

The Global Inorganic Discussion Weekday (GIDW) is a virtual inorganic chemistry symposium series organized and co-hosted by Saurabh Chitnis (Dalhousie University) and Marcus Drover (University of Windsor).

Applications of Frustrated Lewis Pairs (FLPs)

Submitted by Brad Wile / Ohio Northern University on Thu, 03/05/2020 - 11:22
Description

Short prompts for a mini review about recent applications in FLP chemistry. Trends in Chemistry also includes highlights and outstanding questions in the sidebar, which makes this an approachable review for students.