12 Slides About African American Contributions to the Chemical Sciences

Submitted by Sibrina Collins / College of Arts and Sciences at Lawrence Technological University on Wed, 07/21/2010 - 23:53
Description

This presentation provides a brief overview of the contributions of five AfricanAmerican chemists, including two inorganic chemists. George Washington Carver is quite often themost celebrated African American chemist (soil chemist), but he is only one individual! There are many other African Americans that have made important and significant contributions to the chemical sciences. The profiles include inorganic chemists, namely, Professor Gregory H. Robinson, University of Georgia and Dr. Novella Bridges, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

Formal NSF Styled Proposal Writing in Preparation for Original Multi-Week Laboratory Projects

Submitted by Lon Porter / Wabash College on Sat, 07/17/2010 - 13:23
Description

The advanced inorganic chemistry course is completed by all chemistry majors at Wabash College during the fall of their senior year. The capstone character of the course provides an excellent opportunity for utilizing an investigator model of laboratory learning. Student teams are responsible for the preparation of a formal, National Science Foundation (NSF) styled proposal stating the goals, context, experimental timetable, safety considerations, and budget for the execution of an original laboratory project.

Google Docs for Summer Research

Submitted by Hilary Eppley / DePauw University on Thu, 06/10/2010 - 08:51
Description

I am using Google Docs in my research lab for a variety of purposes, and I thought it might be helpful to share how I am using them. Google docs allows simulataneous editing by multiple people, and everyone needs a Google ID to do that.   My research group and I are using one document to write up research results in paper format, one document to keep track of weekly goals, one document for general instrumentation and experimental technique trouble-shooting, and one to keep track of any work that occurs after hours when I am not around.   

ACS Meeting Content- Slides and Audio

Submitted by Margaret Scheuermann / Western Washington University on Sat, 05/15/2010 - 23:08
Description

The ACS has posted slides and audio for selected talks from recent national meetings. Students have the opportunity to listen to talks by research leaders whose work may relate to a topic discussed in class or to an undergraduate research project. This will also be a great resource for students who are gathering information about potential graduate research groups.

The Chemmies: A Descriptive Chemistry Audio/Video Research Project

Submitted by Neal Yakelis / Pacific Lutheran University on Mon, 03/29/2010 - 01:31
Description

This project was initiated as a way to enhance the descriptive inorganic chemistry unit presented in our General Chemistry II curriculum.  As the time available in the term prohibited the amount of lecture time needed to cover this vast array of material, the idea of a research project allowed for students to investigate an inorganic chemistry topic of keen interest to them over the course of the semester.  A previous term's attempt using a research paper project was quite unpopular, so the idea of a multimedia presentation was devised as an alternative to achieve similar learning goals.  S

Video explanations and practice problems of basic chemistry and math topics

Submitted by Lori Watson / Earlham College on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 15:34
Description

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.  

Pyrophoric Liquid Safety Video

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Wed, 01/13/2010 - 14:18
Description

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.

Chemistry Bingo Generator

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 10:59
Description

I used this Excel spreadsheet to generate bingo cards for teaching *organic* nomenclature and functional groups to first year students during a recitation section.  I gave each student a handful of pennies and a bingo card generated randomly.  The topics could be easily changed to inorganic nomenclature, solid state lattices, you name it.  Its a quick way to review a small amount of material before an exam.

Theo Gray's Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do at Home--But Probably Shouldn't

Submitted by Hilary Eppley / DePauw University on Wed, 07/08/2009 - 16:18
Description

Theo Gray has compiled some of his Popular Science columns into a beautiful book of sometimes dangerous experiments, many of them with particular relevance to inorganic chemistry! With chapter names like "Experimental Cuisine", "Doomsday DIY", and "Twisted Shop Class", you know you in for a wild ride. Some particularly intriguing experiments include electroplating a copper design on your iPod, making glass and elemental silicon out of sand, making a burning Mg/dry ice sculpture, anodizing Ti for cool color effects, and creating a "hill billy hot tub" using 600 lbs of quicklime.

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