This in-class activity and the related problem set allows students to discover the linear and bent bonding modes of NO to metals based on VSEPR theory through guided inquiry.  Two examples follow which illustrate how the electrons are counted in NO complexes depending on the coordination mode/formal charge of NO. Students must have had prior practice in counting electrons of complexes to complete the problems.   

For many years I have resisted using clickers, mainly because at our university there is no standard universal clicker. I wanted to keep student costs as low as possible but also desired the type of live feedback during a lecture that clicker questions can provide. In both my general chem. (200-300 students) and upper division courses (50-75 students), I now pass out 4 or 5 colored notecards on the first day of class and make sure everyone has one of each color.

This is a powerpoint quiz show review that can be used to help students assess themselves on their level of understanding of simple bonding theory and some simple molecular orbital theory. It is appropriate for use in a general chemistry course or at the beginning of an advanced inorganic chemistry course to review simple bonding theory.  It was developed as an alternative to using clickers for those departments that do not have clickers or would prefer not to set up clicker questions.  Correct answers are shown at the end of each slide. 

This learning object is a literature discussion based on a paper published in Nature (Labinger, J. A.; Bercaw, J. E. Nature 2002, 417, 507-514; doi:10.1038/446391a) discussing the mechanisms of C-H activation by transition metal complexes. This is a topic that could be covered at the end of a section on organometallic chemistry that shows a “newer” application.

I use this exercise in my 400-level Inorganic (Transition Metals) course.  Students have been introduced to assigning point groups in a 300- level Inorganic course on bonding theories.  Therefore, I combine a review of assigning point groups with the introduction to inorganic nomenclature in my advanced course.  This seems to break up the tedium of the rules for nomenclature while stressing that the need for such elaborate names comes from the need to correctly identify one structure among may isomeric possibilities.