The ACS has posted slides and audio for selected talks from recent national meetings. Students have the opportunity to listen to talks by research leaders whose work may relate to a topic discussed in class or to an undergraduate research project. This will also be a great resource for students who are gathering information about potential graduate research groups.
This project was initiated as a way to enhance the descriptive inorganic chemistry unit presented in our General Chemistry II curriculum. As the time available in the term prohibited the amount of lecture time needed to cover this vast array of material, the idea of a research project allowed for students to investigate an inorganic chemistry topic of keen interest to them over the course of the semester. A previous term's attempt using a research paper project was quite unpopular, so the idea of a multimedia presentation was devised as an alternative to achieve similar learning goals. S
Theo Gray has compiled some of his Popular Science columns into a beautiful book of sometimes dangerous experiments, many of them with particular relevance to inorganic chemistry! With chapter names like "Experimental Cuisine", "Doomsday DIY", and "Twisted Shop Class", you know you in for a wild ride. Some particularly intriguing experiments include electroplating a copper design on your iPod, making glass and elemental silicon out of sand, making a burning Mg/dry ice sculpture, anodizing Ti for cool color effects, and creating a "hill billy hot tub" using 600 lbs of quicklime.
This in-class exercise prepares students for the homework Literature Searching: Bibliography Assignment. It allows them to practice the skills needed for that assignment while in class.
To allow students to become familiar with the structure of chemical literature and provide them with an understanding of several types of basic handbooks.
House (Inorganic chemistry): The book is divided into 5 parts: first, an introductory section on atomic structure, symmetry, and bonding; second, ionic bonding and solids; third, acids, bases and nonaqueous solvents; fourth, descriptive chemistry; and fifth, coordination chemistry. The first three sections are short, 2-4 chapters each, while the descriptive section (five chapters) and coordination chemistry section (seven chapters covering ligand field theory, spectroscopy, synthesis and reaction chemistry, organometallics, and bioinorganic chemistry.) are longer. Each chapter includes