Every time I teach inorganic, I always ask myself the question: “What’s the best way to motivate the course and get the students excited?” A long time ago, I decided it’s important to start with some music. (Until last year, Tom Lehrer’s The Elements was my favorite. As a TMBG fan, I’ve swiched to Meet the Elements.)
In the two years since this article was published, it has jump-started a large amount of research in the area of cobalt-based catalysts for solar water splitting. The paper describes the electrochemical synthesis and oxygen-evolution capabilities of a Co-phosphate catalyst under very mild conditions. The paper can stimulate discussion of many topics found in the inorganic curriculum, including electrochemistry, semiconductor chemistry, transition metal ion complex kinetic trends, and solid state and electrochemical characterization techniques.
This communication from the Journal of the American Chemical Society (J. Am. Chem. Soc.
This presentation provides a brief overview of the contributions of five AfricanAmerican chemists, including two inorganic chemists. George Washington Carver is quite often themost celebrated African American chemist (soil chemist), but he is only one individual! There are many other African Americans that have made important and significant contributions to the chemical sciences. The profiles include inorganic chemists, namely, Professor Gregory H. Robinson, University of Georgia and Dr. Novella Bridges, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
The advanced inorganic chemistry course is completed by all chemistry majors at Wabash College during the fall of their senior year. The capstone character of the course provides an excellent opportunity for utilizing an investigator model of laboratory learning. Student teams are responsible for the preparation of a formal, National Science Foundation (NSF) styled proposal stating the goals, context, experimental timetable, safety considerations, and budget for the execution of an original laboratory project.
Students select, research, and then post an article on an inorganic compound to Wikipedia. The compounds are chosen from a list of “stubs” (short articles that need to be expanded) found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Inorganic_compound_stubs and might include such items as the synthesis, processes of isolation, structure, interesting facts about the compound in history, and/or an application of the compound.
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