Medicinal Applications of Organometallic Compounds

Submitted by Sibrina Collins / College of Arts and Sciences at Lawrence Technological University on Sat, 07/17/2010 - 14:51
Description
This learning object focuses on concepts of bioorganmetallic chemistry. I use an article published in Chemical and Engineering News (Dagani, R. “The Bio Side of Organometallics,”Chem. Eng. News, 2002, 80(37), pp 23-29) to introduce students to this field. This activity consists of two components, namely writing a two-page summary of the article and using an in-class activity focused on the concepts of geometry, Crystal Field Theory (CFT) and proposing a mechanism for an overall chemical reaction.

Electron Counting

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Thu, 07/15/2010 - 14:05
Description

I use these two handouts early in my inorganic course to outline how to count electrons and assign ligand types in a metal complex.  I introduce it early so that I can use the terms "X" and "L" in class.  I come back to it and hit it again when I do my unit on organometallics. The "ligands" handout is my interpretation of the MLH Green paper from 1995 (Green, M. L. H., J. Organometal.

Molecular Origami: Precision Scale Models from Paper, by Robert M. Hanson

Submitted by Randall Hicks / Wheaton College on Tue, 06/29/2010 - 11:54
Description

This book called to me given my fascination with both origami and molecular model kits. While not a textbook in the true sense, the content of the book is pertinent to topics of molecular structure and symmetry and is therefore potentially valuable in both general and inorganic chemistry courses. In addition to the plans for constructing all the models (~125), there is a small amount of background information. Granted, many of these models could more easily be made using traditional model kits, but I had fun building them from paper.

Video explanations and practice problems of basic chemistry and math topics

Submitted by Lori Watson / Earlham College on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 15:34
Description

This is a website which links to a wide variety of good quality YouTube mini-lectures on basic topics in chemistry, mathematics, physics and a variety of other sciences.  Each video is about 10 minutes long and many go through example problems slowly and completely.  

Exploring Molecular Orbitals With Spartan

Submitted by Maggie Geselbracht / Reed College on Thu, 01/21/2010 - 21:24
Description

Molecular models and selected molecular orbital surfaces and slices were calculated with Spartan for HF, LiH, CO2, XeF2, and BF3, and the results were used by students in an in-class activity (covering several class sessions) to answer a series of questions.

Interactive Lewis Structures

Submitted by Adam Bridgeman / The University of Sydney on Wed, 01/20/2010 - 21:51
Description

http://firstyear.chem.usyd.edu.au/iChem/lewis.shtml

A set of Flash-based, interactive tools for students to construct Lewis structures for electron deficient, octet rule obeying and hypervalent MLx molecules and ions (x = 2 - 6).

The user chooses the number of electrons and bond type (single, double or triple) and is steered towards the correct stucture.

For cases where resonance structures are possible, the user must construct each form to complete the puzzle.

Student-Led Organometallics

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Mon, 01/11/2010 - 19:42
Description

I teach my organometallics course, a junior/senior level half-course, entirely as student-led presentations of the primary literature.  In the past, the course was populated almost entirely with seniors who had already taken a one-semester advanced inorganic course.  This past year, I taught it to juniors and seniors, and the juniors had not taken inorganic yet.  A description of the course first appeared in J. Chem. Educ. in 2007 (link below).  This VIPEr learning object is an update of the original paper based on my experience over the past two years.

Dinitrogen activation with "Side-on" N2 complexes

Submitted by Tarun Narayan / Harvey Mudd College on Wed, 12/16/2009 - 16:49
Description
This powerpoint presentation was created as part of the requirements for Chemistry 165 "Organometallics" at Harvey Mudd College during the fall semester 2009.  The authors of this presentation are Kristine Fong, Eric Nacsa and Tarun Narayan, all from Harvey Mudd College.  The activity consists of three items:  a powerpoint presentation, a script that goes along with the presentation, and a literature review (annotated bibliography) for further reading. 

Coordination chemistry via Inorganic Chemistry ASAP

Submitted by Hilary Eppley / DePauw University on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 11:23
Description
This in-class activity is a fun way to show students how to apply basic concepts of coordination chemistry to complicated systems that appear in a recent issue of Inorganic Chemistry. After quickly reviewing types of ligands (monodentate, chelating, bridging), how we assign charge to ligands and metals in complexes, and the idea of coordination number, I took my class through a number of "real world" examples from the latest ASAP edition of Inorganic Chemistry.
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