VIPEr Fellows 2019 Workshop Favorites
During our first fellows workshop, the first cohort of VIPEr fellows pulled together learning objects that they've used and liked or want to try the next time they teach their inorganic courses.
IUPAC Brief Guide to the Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry
Description
This is a short nomenclature guide designed to be used by students and faculty.
VSEPR: Flash Review
Description
This presentation is meant to be a review of applying VSEPRup to steric number 6. It's designed to be viewed as a powerpoint and printed out to keep for the student's notebook.
It can be used at multiple levels: as a review immediately after learning VSEPR in general chemistry, or as a refresher before starting upper level inorganic chemistry. The instructor could add text or voice over the slides to add more detail or leave the presentation as is for students.
Molecular Orbital Theory: Flash Review
Description
This presentation is meant to be a review of constructing and utilizing an MO diagram, in this case O2. It's designed to be viewed as a powerpoint and printed out to keep for the student's notebook.
It can be used at multiple levels: as a review immediately after learning MO theory in general chemistry, or as a refresher before starting upper level inorganic chemistry. The instructure could add text or voice over the slides to add more detail or leave the presentation as is for students.
Maths for Chemists
Description
Chemistry requires mathematics in almost all areas but it is a subject many students struggle with. This short booklet introduces mathematics from basic concepts to more advanced topics. A particularly nice feature is that examples of chemistry calculations are included so that students can understand why they have learn mathematics at all. This resource comes from the Royal Society of Chemistry's Learn Chemistry website.
Helping Students with Visual Impairments See Colors
Description
I have had some students in class have a hard time identifying colors (flame tests, solution color, acid-base indicators, etc.) because of a visual impairment. There are many cell-phone apps that are helpful in aiding these students. "Pixel Picker" allows the students to load a picture from a device (cell phone, ipad). This is helpful because students are now dealing with a "frozen" image. Moving the cross-hair to different parts of the picture changes the R-G-B values. The "Color Blind Pal" app uses a more qualitative approach.
Teaching Computational Chemistry
This is a series of in-class exercises used to teach computational chemistry. The exercises have been updated and adapted, with permission, from the Shodor CCCE exercises (http://www.computationalscience.org/ccce). The directions provided in the student handouts use the WebMO interface for drawing structures and visualizing results. WebMO is a free web-based interface to computational chemistry packages (www.webmo.net).
Digital Lab Techniques Manual
Description
MIT OpenCourseWare has a great series of videos explaining (synthetic) lab techniques
CompChem 02: Introduction to WebMO
Description
This is the second in a series of exercises used to teach computational chemistry. It has been adapted, with permission, from a Shodor CCCE exercise (http://www.computationalscience.org/ccce).
It was tested on WebMO Version 18 but should work with minimal modification on earlier versions. WebMO is a free web-based interface to computational chemistry packages (www.webmo.net).
CompChem 01: Creating a Basis Set
Description
This is the first in a series of exercises used to teach computational chemistry. It has been adapted, with permission, from a Shodor CCCE exercise (http://www.computationalscience.org/ccce).