Criteria for Undergraduate Award in Inorganic Chemistry

Submitted by Karen S. Brewer / Hamilton College on Thu, 02/06/2014 - 12:17

This award is new for me (since I am recently back teaching from a Dean of Students position) and I would like to know what criteria others have set up for nominating students for this award. Is there a requirement or preference for the award to go to a graduating senior or a rising junior or senior? If you have given the award at your college, what kind of student have you nominated? Someone that has done well in a descriptive chemistry course? And advaned course? Both? In research as well? In both courses and research? 

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Differences in Organic labs and Inorganic labs

Submitted by Sibrina Collins / College of Arts and Sciences at Lawrence Technological University on Tue, 10/15/2013 - 12:11

Dear VIPEr Colleagues,

I had a quick question for you. We know that organic labs courses are very different from inorganic lab courses. What do you tell your students as far as the key differences and why these differences are important? I am just doing some reflective thinking about my inorganic lab course.

Thanks,

Sibrina

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Is THAT our job?

Submitted by Shirley Lin / United States Naval Academy on Sun, 06/23/2013 - 13:40

Our department is responsible for teaching a mandatory 2-semester general chemistry course to nearly the entire freshman class (~1000 students each semester). Since our section sizes are small and we have ~30 faculty teaching all the sections at once, we use 3 multiple-choice "common exams" during the semester to "anchor" the course content and pacing. These exams are mostly written in-house and administered to all students in course at the same time during a designated exam period.

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Advice for Beginning Inorganic Faculty

Submitted by Kyle Grice / DePaul University on Thu, 01/24/2013 - 14:05

Dear Viper Community,

I have finally lined up an Inorganic academic position at a undergraduate institution, and will be moving there in the summer to start preparing for teaching and setting up my lab. I am extremely excited, but also worried that in all of the excitement to come, I may  miss or overlook something important.

I was wondering if you have any advice for a beginning inorganic faculty member. Were there any challenges you had  not forseen? Was there something that you wish you had been aware of from the start?

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course evaluations

Submitted by Barbara Reisner / James Madison University on Tue, 11/13/2012 - 12:45

The end of the semester is rapidly approaching and it will soon be time to have students complete course evaluations. I don't find that my department's evaluations give me the most meaningful feedback and am going to have my students complete a second evaluation. In the past, I've used the SALG (student assessment of learning gains) to augment the course evaluations, but was wondering if VIPEr users had any other recommendations - either good models or literature on developing good evaluations.

Thanks in advance. And happy semester! 

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