Oral presentations in Inorganic chemistry- Ligand of the week

I have had students in the past give short oral Element reports.  They are given the following guidelines:
1.  Where is the element found in nature (biology or geology)?
    2.  How is the element used in society? As an element or in a Compound, etc.
    3.  Show some balanced equations involving the element making or breaking bonds.
    4.  Show structures of  compounds including the element.
    5.  Show chemistry you think is particularly interesting.

Thanks to some guidance and support IONiC colleagues, I sat down to critically think about what I want students to learn from my inorganic courses before I wrote my syllabi this spring.  For the first time in 16 years of teaching (shamelessly admitted), I included course learning goals on my syllabi.  I thought it would be interesting to share these and compare to what other folks are doing.

I braved my son's 3rd grade classroom this week and brought in some dry ice and liquid N₂ demos to couple with their science unit on solids, liquids, and gases.  The kids LOVED it!  And 3rd graders are such a cheap thrill after cynical college students. 

Me:  So what do you think is going to happen when I put this balloon in the liquid N₂?

Kids:  IT'S GONNA EXXXXPLOOOOOOOOOOOOODE!!!!!!! (all of them covering their ears)

So, I am thinking of video-recording at least one of my lectures this term. I am teaching Organic II this spring (and possibly an Inorganic...). In my Organic class I have 1 student who needs both my class and another for her degree (2nd semester senior) at the same time, not enough students to have two sections in either course and I know mine probably couldn't have a time change nor would the senior faculty teaching the other course change his time...thus, I am looking to possibly record the lectures and share with all the students enrolled.

As some of us are frantically "dusting off" and "polishing up" our syllabi for courses this spring, I thought it might be interesting/useful to share lists of experiments that you do in your inorganic laboratory course (if you have one).  So, tell us a little bit about your course (level, lab pre-requisites, concurrent or separate with lecture) along with your list of experiment titles.  It might also be helpful to indicate if any specialized equipment is needed for an experiment other than standard glassware, IR, NMR, UV/Vis. 

I have begun to use Moodle in my courses both as a content delivery tool and to foster more interaction amongst students and between faculty and students.  I notice that I use different features depending on if I am teaching our large intro course or my smaller inorganic courses.  I would love to hear how different folks are using tools like Moodle in interesting ways in their courses.  Last spring, I tried a few assignments where I had students create a wiki.  And this fall, in our large intro course, we set up a Database to collect lab results from all the different lab sections.  I'

Hi all,