I will be teaching our one semester Inorganic course (with lab) in the Spring for the first time.  I am working on the lab syllabus and would love to know your must-do/favorite/fail proof (ha) experiments.  I've gotten a few good ideas from those posted to the forums, but am interested in hearing about some of the classics on your syllabus as well.  What experiment(s) do you do that students get the most out of?  What experiment(s) do they enjoy the most? Thanks. 

Hello all,

I am teaching a thrid year inorganic course and want to teach some IR basic using symmetry and character tables.

I would like to go over generating  Reducible representations and then use the reduction formula based on the character table to get to the irreducible representation.

I am using Housecroft and Sharpe's Inorganic Chemistry Text book, 3rd edition and they do cover this topic a little bit, biut I was wondering if anyone knows of other more comprehensive resources with further examples and explanations.

Thanks.

Some of our older polls on VIPEr are not listed under the Polls nav bar on the left (an artifact of a change in the poll feature).  In particular, a poll I started awhile back after getting into vehement arguments with fellow pit VIPErs on the correct pronunciation of the name of the Group 16 elements.  This poll has been featured on the front page of VIPEr for awhile and has gathered a fair number of votes (at least as far as our most successful polls go).  I thought it was time for a change, time for a new poll to be featured on the front page.  But, I did not want to lose

Hello Everyone,

How many of you use ACS exams as part of your inorganic course? How are they being used? (part of the exam, interspersed, as model for your own questions etc) I am new to teaching and is currently teaching Inorganic 1 at a small(er) state college. Any advice on this would be much appreciated!

Thanks.

Chinhin

Dear Colleagues,

Does anyone have any good strategies for teaching MO theory?  I am teaching an inorganic course with juniors and seniors. My approach has been to have them review basic MO theory from general chemistry, then go into the ligand group orbital approach for polyatomics. If you have ideas, please let me know.

Do any of your schools give faculty teaching credit for doing undergraduate research? It seems like some of you have a required senior thesis and you get some credit for supervising some number of those.

Are there any other ways you're "rewarded" for supervising undergraduate research?

Dear VIPEr Colleagues,

Has anyone prepared a powerpoint (5 slides about) focused on the basics of CV? I have never taught this topic, nor did I learn about itin graduate school. If I did, I don't remember. I am thinking about talking about this in my inorganic class. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sibrina

Our CIO just announced a request for proposals from faculty exploring the use of an iPad in teaching.  The carrot here is an iPad for the faculty member!  I love thinking about better ways to use technology in helping me improve my teaching and helping my students advance their learning.  And a "free" iPad wouldn't be too shabby either.  :-)