Does anybody have (good) examples of students displaying "inorganic art," for lack of a better term? After teaching MO theory in my class, mysteriously, someone taped a molecular orbital energy level diagram for oxygen on the sidewalk outside the science center. Below the diagram was "Got O2?" The gerade and ungerade labels were switched on the pi set, but I'll forgive the mix up in light of the creativity. See the attched file.
Dear VIPEr Colleagues,
One of my colleagues found the following J.Chem. Educ. article, which is timely due to the upcoming holiday. I plan to mention this in my class.
Article:
Robert C. Plumb, "Thanksgiving Dinner and Transition Metal Complexes," J. Chem. Educ., 1971, 48(4), p 265.
Dear Colleagues,
I hope all is well. My students have prepared trans-Rh(PPh3)2Cl(CO) in the lab and I have found an overall reaction for this experiment. I am thinking about the actual mechanism for this neat reaction. The first step you add hydrated rhodium(III) chloride to DMF and heat it until it changes into a yellow color. At this point, [Rh(CO)2Cl2]- is being generated in solution? I know the CO is coming from DMF.
SNC
Hello everyone,
I am currently in the process of choosing a textbook and lab manual for the two-semester freshman general chemistry course we will be teaching next Fall. For textbooks, I have personally used Chang, McMurry and Silberberg during my student/teaching assistant days. I have my preferences, however, since I am a new professor, I was wondering if I could get feedback from others that have been teaching this course on what you might think is the best (does not have to be one of the three listed above).
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Has anyone tried using the inorganic Oxford Chemistry Primers for teaching a semester long, intermediate-level course? I've been using Glen Rogers' book, but there are a lot of things that needed updating and the latest version didn't address many of them. I really like his organization and depth of coverage and I haven't found anything else that is similar. I thought a combination of the Primers might do it. Any comments?
I've been teaching upper-level advanced inorganic and just wanted to alert the Shriver & Atkins users that the Tanabe-Sugano diagrams for the d2 and d8 electronic configurations are incorrect. It's subtle, but a nuisance nonetheless.
If anyone has developed a good learning object (LO) about quasicrystals and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, it would be a great resource to have on VIPEr. Of course, there is lots of good info on the Nobel site: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2011/.
This fall, I went to plot the radial probability function of the 4s orbital and realized that I couldn't find the radial function of the 4s orbital in any of my chemistry (or physics) books. I asked a p-chemist friend for help and we realized that every book that the two of us owns only plots the orbitals to a value of principle quantum number n=3. A google search actually wasn't a lot of help.
Colleagues,
I love crystal field theory, but I would like to try and extend this idea to the f-orbitals. We know how the d-orbitals split in an a variety of environments, but how do the f orbitals split? I want to develop an assignment for my students where they can use their knowledge from the d-orbitals to think about how the f-orbitals would split. Any ideas? I know CFT is not as important for the lanthanides, but I think it could be an interesting extension to what students typically learn about CFT.
My wife (a high school math teacher and huge graphing calculator supporter) was asked by one of her science colleagues (not a graphing calculator fan) what kind of policies there were in colleges about calculator use in chemistry classes in particular. I knew immediately where to go to get answers. As inorganic chemists there is a good chance we spend some time teaching gen. chem. (if your school has such a beast). I was just curious as to what kind of calculator policy (if any) other places had.