Counting Orbitals: There are rules, it is symmetric, it is beautiful and easy

Submitted by Joe Lomax / U.S. Naval Academy on Tue, 08/07/2018 - 08:43
Description

Rules for quantum numbers are confusing but not arbitrary.  They are based on wave mathmatics, and once laid out properly are symmetric and beautiful.  Within four animation-clicks of the first slide of this PowerPoint Presentation, this beauty will unfold.  I do not exaggerate to say, faculty members will be agape and students will say, "Why didn't you show us this before."  No other presentation shows in as elegant a way the relationship between 1)  n, l and ml, 2) the ordering of orbitals in hydrogen-like atoms, and 3) the ordering of orbitals in the periodic table (along with

General Chemistry Collection for New Faculty

Submitted by Kari Stone / Lewis University on Thu, 07/26/2018 - 14:42

VIPEr to the rescue!

The first year as a faculty member is extremely stressful and getting through each class day to day is a challenge. This collection was developed with new faculty teaching general chemistry in mind pulling together resources on the VIPEr site to refer back to as the semester drags along. There are some nice in-class activities, lab experiments, literature discussions, and problem sets for use in the general chemistry course. There are also some nice videos and graphics that could be used to spark interest in your students.

Teaching Forum Posts for New Faculty

Submitted by Shirley Lin / United States Naval Academy on Thu, 07/19/2018 - 11:32
Description

This web resource is a diverse list of VIPEr forum topics about teaching that may be of interest to new faculty assigned to teach general chemistry for the first time. It was created as part of a larger collection to help new faculty get started in the classroom.

Stoichiometric Calculations: A General Chemistry Flipped Classroom Module

Submitted by Jack Eichler / University of California, Riverside on Tue, 07/17/2018 - 12:00
Description

This is a flipped classroom activity intended for use in a first semester general chemistry course. Students are expected to have prior knowledge in determining the molar mass of compounds, how to carry out mole/gram conversions, and how to write balanced chemical reactions. The activity includes:

1) pre-lecture learning videos that guide students through carrying out basic stoichiometric calculations, determining the limiting reactant, and determining the percent yield of a reaction;

Orbital Overlap and Interactions

Submitted by Jocelyn Lanorio / Illinois College on Mon, 06/25/2018 - 16:28
Description

This is a simple in-class activity that asks students to utilize any of the given available online orbital viewers to help them identify atomic orbital overlap and interactions. 

Bonding and MO Theory in Flavodiiron Nitrosyl Model Complexes - Foundation Level

Submitted by James F. Dunne / Central College on Fri, 06/22/2018 - 22:31
Description

This acitivty is a foundation level discussion of the Nicolai Lehnert paper, "Mechanism of N-N Bond Formation by Transition Metal-Nitrosyl Complexes: Modeling Flavodiiron Nitric Oxide Reductases".  Its focus lies in discussing MO theory as it relates to Lewis structures, as well as an analysis of the strucutre of a literature paper.

The Preparation and Characterization of Nanoparticles

Submitted by Kyle Grice / DePaul University on Wed, 06/13/2018 - 23:23
Description

This is a nanochemistry lab I developed for my Junior and Senior level Inorganic Chemistry course. I am NOT a nano/matertials person, but I know how important nanochemistry is and I wanted to make something where students could get an interesting introduction to the area. The first time I ran this lab was also the first time I made gold nanoparticles ever! 

We do not have any surface/nano instrumentation here (AFM, SEM/TEM, DLS, etc... we can access them at other universities off-campus but that takes time and scheduling), so that was a key limitation in making this lab. 

Developing Effective Lab Report Abstracts based on Literature Examples

Submitted by Nicole Crowder / University of Mary Washington on Tue, 05/08/2018 - 11:38
Description

For inorganic lab, I have my students write their lab reports in the style of the journal Inorganic Chemistry. The first week of lab, we spend time in small groups looking at several examples of recent articles from Inorganic Chemistry, focusing mainly on the experimental section and the abstract (as these are included in every lab report). We then come back together as a class to have a discussion of each of the sections in the articles. We discuss what was included in each section, what wasn’t included, and the style, tone, tense, and voice of each section.

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