In my senior level inorganic lab, I've tried to incorporate full semester research projects.  Since I love synthesis, I have tended to assign synthetic projects.  Students have learned a lot during these experiences, but there are the obvious challenges of multistep synthetic work in a 3 hour a week lab. I'd like to try to develop projects that are more mechanistic in nature, but am struggling to come up with ideas that are both compelling and achievable.  We will be working in lab this spring with social distancing and some restrictions, but should be able to do all the things we normally

I teach a one-semester upper-division course where, as we all know, tough decisions need to be made.  I have always taught symmetry, but it has become apparent that our students enter their senior year weak in kinetics, so I am considering swapping out symmetry/group theory for a more advanced treatment of kinetics and mechanisms.  This pains me, because these two topics are are two of my favories.  Then again, so is everything else...

Thoughts?

Karen