Colored Note Cards as a Quick and Cheap Substitute for Clickers

Submitted by Chris Bradley / Mount St. Mary's University on Tue, 07/17/2012 - 10:23
Description

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.

Polypropylene Stereochemistry and Identification by 13C NMR Spectroscopy

Submitted by Shirley Lin / United States Naval Academy on Mon, 07/16/2012 - 11:55
Description

These 6 slides introduce the nomenclature used to describe the stereochemistry of various polypropylenes (PPs) that can be synthesized by metallocene-catalyzed polymerizations. Although PP is the specific polymer discussed, the nomenclature applies to other alpha-olefin polymerizations.

Application of Organometallic Chemistry – Breaking the Inert C-H Bond

Submitted by John Lee / University of Tennessee Chattanooga on Mon, 07/16/2012 - 11:39
Description

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.

Metal MACiE Database

Submitted by Anthony L. Fernandez / Merrimack College on Mon, 07/16/2012 - 11:21
Description

As a non-bioinorganic chemist, I am always looking for resources to help me teach bioinorganic chemistry in both my sophomore-level and advanced inorganic chemistry courses.  The "metalloproteome" was the subject of an article in the December 12, 2011 issue of C&E News ("Merging Metals into Proteomics: Tackling the Systematic Study of Metalloproteins").  In this article, the author mentions a new database, called Metal MACiE, of metals in metalloenzymes.

Five Slides About Percent Buried Volume (%Vbur)

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Mon, 04/23/2012 - 09:29
Description

These slides present a walkthough of performing a Percent Buried Volume (%Vbur) calculation. The %Vbur is a measurement of the bulk of a ligand coordinated to a transiton metal. The calculation uses the crystal structure of a compound to determine how much space a ligand occupies. It does this by placing the metal at the center of a sphere and then calculates the volume of that sphere occupied by the ligand. Originally developed for N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands, it has also been applied to mono- and bidentate phosphines.

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

Manganese carbonyl calculation addition

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Mon, 10/03/2011 - 01:00
Description

This is an addendum to the Manganese Carbonyl experiment (linked below).  In this part of the experiment, students carry out high level quantum mechanical calculations of reactants, intermediates, and products in order to determine which of two possible structures is correct.

Student-Directed Explorations to teach about ligands

Submitted by Marion Cass / Carleton College on Sat, 06/25/2011 - 14:43
Description

Several years ago I began using a set of Ligand-of-the-Week exercises in my Inorganic course to encourage (force) students to go outside of our textbook and into the chemical reference materials and chemical literature to find examples of ligands that bind to metal ions. My motivation was to get my students to see the wonderful breadth of known metal-ligand complexes and to develop skills associated with analyzing and classifying ligands. My original paper is fairly complete and can be accessed via J. Chem. Educ. which is now available through the ACS website.

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