How to Use Delicious Bookmarking on the Web

Submitted by Jezmynne / Claremont University Consortium on Tue, 02/24/2009 - 18:39
Description

Delicious is a social bookmarking tool that retains bookmarks on the web.  Users can access their bookmarks from any computer, and Delicious allows for the tagging of bookmarks with relevant descriptors for follow up, searching, and collaborative work.  

Inorganic Chemistry Just Makes You Want to Sing!

Submitted by Maggie Geselbracht / Reed College on Sat, 12/27/2008 - 19:35
Description

Here is a fun way to learn about inorganic chemistry!  These songs were composed and passed along to me by Tom Mallouk at Penn State with his permission to post here on VIPEr.  I Can't Get No Bragg Diffraction was a joint effort put together one year at a Gordon Research Conference on Solid State Chemistry.  Sorry, no recording!  The tune n-doped, recorded by the Band Edges, covers the electronic structure behind semiconductor devices.  Download the lyrics for both and the mp3 file for n-doped!  There is a

Assessing Chemical Hazards

Submitted by Anne Bentley / Lewis & Clark College on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 20:17
Description

This is a short activity I developed to help my students interpret Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS). Students rank unknown compounds from least safe to most safe, and the compounds' identities are revealed. The class discusses other factors to consider in evaluating the safety of an experiment. The "MSDS activity" word document contains a more full description.

Werner's Nobel Prize Address

Submitted by Maggie Geselbracht / Reed College on Wed, 04/02/2008 - 02:54
Description
Alfred Werner's Nobel prize address in 1913 offers a unique historical view on the development of coordination chemistry from the expert. With a bit of "translation" to modern terminology, this paper is very accessible to most students. Discussion of the address provides a useful introduction to coordination complexes including structure, isomers, and ligand substitution reactions.

Smelting with Thag and Friends

Submitted by Nancy Williams / Scripps College, Pitzer College, Claremont McKenna College on Thu, 03/06/2008 - 12:31
Description

This is just a little worksheet that I use in a General Chemistry course to teach Gibbs Free Energy calculations and the idea of a coupled reaction, while foreshadowing ideas from metallurgy and electrochemistry (sacrificial reductants, entropy-driven smelting, fuels as reductants) for the end of the course when I generally address these.

Nobel Prizes

Submitted by Maggie Geselbracht / Reed College on Sun, 01/27/2008 - 18:08
Description

This is a list of Nobel Prizes that in my opinion were either in Inorganic Chemistry or in an area that has impacted Inorganic Chemistry.  I pass this out to students on the first day of class when we are talking very generally about what inorganic chemistry is all about.  This could be extended into a longer discussion at this point or at a later point on one or more of the prizes.  For example, later in the semester I have them read the Nobel Prize address of Alfred Werner.  This helps to inform their lab work and introduces coordination chemistry, which we have not yet discussed in lectu

copper ammonia complexes

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Fri, 01/04/2008 - 20:11
Description

The reaction chemistry of aqueous copper(II) ions with ammonia is commonly used in both general chemistry and inorganic chemistry texts to illustrate the equilibria of complex ions in solution.  Although the system initially seems simple, further analysis of the chemical species involved shows that it is in fact quite complicated.  First of all, ammonia is a weak base and its basic equilibrium reaction must be taken into account.  Second, although the aquated copper(II) ion is the most prevalent ion in solution before ammonia is added, this species is itself a weak acid.  Third, a series of

Professional Ethics

Submitted by Lori Watson / Earlham College on Fri, 01/04/2008 - 19:08
Description

This is an assignment designed to help students begin to reflect on professional ethics of scientific practice.  I have used this in a freshman and a senior seminar after 2-3 days of discussion of what professional ethics is and how one goes about choosing a course of action in an ethical dilemma.  I use: