ERIC Number: EJ1028500
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Nov
Pages: 6
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Six Impossible Mechanisms before Breakfast: Arrow Pushing as an Instructional Device in Inorganic Chemistry
Berg, Steffen; Ghosh, Abhik
Journal of Chemical Education, v90 n11 p1446-1451 Nov 2013
In a recent article by the authors, the suggestion was made that arrow pushing, a widely used tool in organic chemistry, could also be profitably employed in the teaching of introductory inorganic chemistry. A number of relatively simple reactions were used to illustrate this thesis, raising the question whether the same approach might rationalize a broader range of main-group element reactions that are commonly included in descriptive inorganic texts. This question is answered here in the affirmative, based on analyses of six reactions (in a nod to "Alice in Wonderland") that to the uninitiated would appear puzzling to near-impenetrable as exercises in arrow pushing. The examples chosen strongly suggest that the arrow-pushing approach is applicable to the great majority of reactions involving molecular p-block compounds.
Descriptors: Science Instruction, College Science, Inorganic Chemistry, Teaching Methods, Undergraduate Study, Graduate Study, Scientific Concepts, Inquiry
Division of Chemical Education, Inc and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A