A group of us at Earlham College will be teaching a seminar (1 credit, both semesters) for an interdisciplinary group of first year science students involved in a science themed Living Learning Community.  Our general goal for the first semester is to help them develop the interpersonal, collaborative and technology skills necessary for success in science.  We've joked that the course should be titled "Playing Well in the Sandbox with New Toys."  For example, we might introduce them to googledocs, google+, and the infamous doodle poll.  We might encourage teamwork and teach GIS, GPS, and Go

Colleagues,

I hope all is well. I am thinking about bring some rhenium chemistry into the inorganic lab.  I could have the students prepare [ReO2(py)4]Cl and characterize it using IR,NMR, UV-vis. What are your thoughts on this idea? This complex is really easy to make starting with [ReOCl3(PPh3)2] and excess pyridine. You let it reflux in acetone/H2O for 90 minutes.  I thought about this because [ReO2(py)4]Cl is actually a starting material for my research efforts.

Sibrina

Dear Fellow Vipers,

As the semester is comming to an end, I am trying to make connections between various chapters in Inorganic Chemistry by Miessler and Tarr. I have arrived at the following concept map and would like your input for further refinement. 

Sincerely,

Cliff

Hi All-

This will certainly sound weird, but does anyone have any ideas for a visual demonstration of the Jahn-Teller Effect?  Full disclosure- there will be a film crew visiting us here at Geo Washington where they are doing a documentary on Teller.  Fun fact: Jahn-Teller effect got published while Teller was at GW!  I was thus hoping to be able to do a demo of sorts to highlight this.  If all else fails, I'll set up a Geiger counter and make the needle move....

Thanks

Chris

Dear Colleagues,

I will be teaching thermochemistry in my intro course later this week. I am interested in ideas you may have used when teaching this topic. I plan to fill a balloon with hydrogen and blow it up to get things going. Any other ideas are welcome! How do you make this topic relevant to your students?

Sibrina

Colleagues,

What is the best strategy for teaching first year students how to be able to predict the products for chemical reactions? Ideas?

Sibrina

Once again I am going to partially stereotype inorganic chemists as having some general chemistry teaching responsibilities. The reason for that is a question that came up at lunch today, "Is Lafayette unique in how we handle tutors?" For 'formal' tutoring, students go to an academic resource center and can get a tutor that is recomended by the faculty member. The resource center pays the tutor, so there is no charge to the student. However, the number of paid meetings per week is limited to one (unless there are special circumstances).

Colleagues,

What tools and tips do you provide to students when they are asked to critique a research article? What do you consider some good advice to help the students prepare a critique?

Thanks,

Sibrina

Happy New Year VIPEr colleauges,

I wanted to let you know that I published an article in the current issue of the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry (an ACS journal) entitled "Celebrating Our Diversity. The Education of Some Pioneering African American Chemists in Ohio." The citation is listed below if you are interested in reading the article. Basically, it focuses on three African Americans that have earned PhDs in the sciences from Ohio State.

Happy New Year VIPEr users!   I am teaching a 3 week full-time course that is an introduction to research during DePauw's January term.  In addition to the lab work, I'd like to give them some general readings that give a sense of the nature of scientific research.   Does anyone have any particularly good readings to suggest that give a good sense of what research is all about?  These will be mostly first year students, so the more accessible, the better!       --Hilary