Shape & Polarity Review with Clickers
A set of questions to be used in General or Introductory Inorganic Chemistry as a review or “quiz” of shapes and polarities.
A set of questions to be used in General or Introductory Inorganic Chemistry as a review or “quiz” of shapes and polarities.
This activity was created as part of a primer on cyclic voltammetry for the 2015 TUES workshop. The activity is designed to have one person represent the potential and several other people represent the molecules in solution. By simply scanning (walking through the line of people) and shaking hands, several simple mechanisms can be illustrated. The use of a joy buzzer with the first hand shake is highly encouraged, but not at all necessary.
Orbital Viewer (http://www.orbitals.com/orb/ov.htm) is a PC-based program that shows electron density calculated from the Schrodinger equation for atoms and molecules. Results can be shown as probability densities or probability surfaces.
Orbital Viewer Program copyright 1986-2004 by David Manthey
This learning object is based on discussion of the literature, but it follows a paper through the peer review process. Students first read the original submitted draft of a paper to ChemComm that looks at photochemical reduction of methyl viologen using CdSe quantum dots. There are several important themes relating to solar energy storage and the techniques discussed, UV/vis, SEM, TEM, electrochemistry, and catalysis, can be used for students in inorganic chemistry.
This question set has students examine the kinetics of the electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CO described in Sampson, D.L.; Nguygen, D., Grice, K.A.; Moore, C.E.; Rheingold, A.L.; Kubiak, C.P. Manganese Catalysts with Bulky Bipyridine Ligands for the Electrocatalytic Reduction of Carbon Dioxide: Eliminating Dimerization and Altering Catalysis. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 5460-5471.
This literature discussion is meant to give students an understanding of both the key concept-driven and more “meta” information of a literature paper. Students will use Jillian Dempsey’s paper, “Electrochemical hydrogenation of a homogeneous nickel complex to form a surface-adsorbed hydrogen-evolving species,” to investigate paper authorship, how the scientific method is used in research, and how to understand the important findings of a research article.
Reference: Chem. Commun., 2015, 51, 5290-5293
DOI:10.1039/C4CC08662G
I do this activity as an introduction to the nature of science. An object (not easily guessable) is put into a paper bag. The job of the class is to figure out what is in the bag. At first, the students are simply shown the bag (sense of sight). Discussion (hypotheses) ensues on what could be in the bag. I then walk around and shake the bag so students can hear what's in it (hearing). This results in more discussion, with some previous ideas being discarded. The bag is then passed around and students can feel (but not open!) the bag and also try to smell it.
At this website, you will find a link to the syllabus and all lecture videos for a "flipped" version of an Advanced Inorganic Chemistry Course taught at Saint Mary's College (Notre Dame, IN). I used Shiver & Atkins for this course, and the format is based off of Dr. Franz's course at Duke. If anyone is interested in the problem sets, I will be happy to share, although much of the material I used is from VIPEr.
Compound Interest is a website that creates infographics for chemistry related events and items. Specific examples of inorganic chemistry infographics include showing how the metal content in colored glass gives the glass its characteristic color, how the lighting of a match works with the conversion of red phosphorus to white phosphorus, and the various colors that transition metals can have in different oxidation states in water, among many other examples.