Learning to Search the Chemical Literature

Submitted by Nicole Crowder / University of Mary Washington on Mon, 07/16/2012 - 11:27
Description

This assignment is intended as an introduction to searching the chemical literature to identify an article on specific topic (in this case a specific metal within a specified time range). Once they have located their articles, they are expected to name a metal complex and give the oxidation state, d electron count, and geometry.

NMR Coin-Flip Game

Submitted by azmanam / Butler University on Fri, 06/15/2012 - 09:19
Description

A simple coin-flipping game to help students understand the origin of spin/spin splitting in 1H NMR.

VIPEr Screencast

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Wed, 05/09/2012 - 10:27
Description

This screencast is a brief introduction to some of the features of VIPEr.

The Periodic Table of Life

Submitted by Katherine Franz / Duke University, Department of Chemistry on Fri, 04/20/2012 - 08:50
Description

A little more than 5 slides, this is a video I made for a colleague to use in General Chemistry as an intro, or hook, into exciting topics in chemistry (in this case, bioinorganic).  I use these slides as an intro to my junior/senior Inorganic course on the first day of class, to ask the question "What is Inorganic Chemistry?" and get them to think about the "living" parts of "inorganic".  Topics include an overview of essential, toxic, and medicinally active elements of the periodic table, key examples of metalloprotein active sites, and an overview of the functional roles of biological in

Comprehensive Character Tables and Reducible Representation Tool

Submitted by Austin Scharf / Oxford College of Emory University on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 11:05
Description

This site is an excellent, well-organized collection of the chemically relevant character tables.  I find it particularly helpful because it includes the cubic functions, allowing you to determine the symmetry labels of the f orbitals in a given point group; these are not included in most of the collections of character tables in general inorganic chemistry textbooks.  Additionally, it has a tool that automatically reduces (correctly derived) reducible representations into their component irreducible representations.

How does changing solvent affect redox potential?

Submitted by Sheila Smith / University of Michigan- Dearborn on Wed, 09/21/2011 - 11:32
Description

There are three ways to modulate the redox potential of a metalloenzyme:  Changing ligands, changing geometry, and changing solvent. When I introduce this topic in Bioinorganic, I try to give my students concrete examples of each.  I love this one because it applies what they learned in Gen Chem about the Nernst Equation to a biological problem.  Granted, I don't use a metalloenzyme as my example, but I do pull the biological chemistry into it at the end, by referrring to the cytochrome oxidase/O2 couple.  

Chemistry Ethics Discussion: Professor Americium and the Case of the Dreaded Kink

Submitted by Hilary Eppley / DePauw University on Fri, 07/08/2011 - 16:25
Description

This collaboratively developed inorganic chemistry-based ethics case study has been designed for use with general science students (not necessarily chemistry or inorganic chemistry students).  It could be used as part of a research ethics training program for undergraduates or as a stand-alone research group meeting on ethics or class assignment on data integrity. In this particular case study two data points are suspected of being in error because of a student mistake in labeling samples.

Marie Curie

Submitted by mike knapp / UMASS on Sun, 06/26/2011 - 10:10
Description

This is written for a freshman seminar course, "Nuclear Chemistry and Medicine," open to all majors.  It meets once per week for one hour, and is meant to facilitate the transition into college for first-year students by providing an informal educational experience.