Whenever the college service commission (CSC) or public service commission (PSC) or any university or even coaching centre organizes interviews for the selection of Assistant Professors or Lecturers or even Subject Matter Expert in Chemistry for teaching university or govt-aided degree colleges or polytechnic colleges, the candidate is mandatorily asked to give a short teaching demo on a board. Students often become confused about which topics to choose from in the vast syllabus of Chemistry.
The next doubt comes whether I should prepare a topic from Organic, Inorganic or Physical Chemistry. The answer is it does not matter; you can choose any domain in which you are more confident, ultimately your demo teaching should not only be excellent, but also you should be able to answer any questions coming out of your demo teaching.
The next doubt comes in how much time I would be getting to give my demo. Actually, it depends based on the situation. In most cases, you would be coming to know from your friends or from google/youtube, regarding the allotted time. In general, 5 minutes is given in most of the state's PSC or CSC interviews. Coaching centres mostly allow 15 minutes for a demo interview.
The next and most important doubt comes which topic I should be selected from the vast syllabus of Chemistry for the demo interview. First of all, you should remember that you are allotted a very limited time to impress the vastly experienced panel of professors from various universities. And before you enter the interview hall, they have seen hundreds of candidates like you and after you leave also they will take an interview with more than a thousand candidates. And the vacancy is very very limited, so you have to impress the panel within this short time. Hence, if you choose a very general topic which the majority of people are presenting, as they are quite easy, (e.g. Chemical Kinetics, SN1, SN2 reactions, Solid State Chemistry etc.) you can find it very difficult to pass through. On the other hand, if you take very deep conceptual topics like Quantum Chemistry, Statistical Mechanics etc., then it may be possible that your limited knowledge and expertise could hinder your chances. So for your best chances, choose a niche sub-topic which you can explain not only within 5 minutes, but also you can create a unique impression on the interview panel among thousands of other candidates.
Below are the unique topics for demo teaching for Assistant Professor/ Lecturer Interview in Chemistry -
1. Atomic and Molecular Term Symbols and their Applications with some examples
2. Diastereoselectivity of Aldol
3. Berry's Pseudo-rotation
4. Electrochemistry CRR Rule with some examples
5. Walden's Inversion
6. Syn Elimination and its examples like, Sulphoxide Elimination, Chugev Reaction
7. Anharmonic Oscillator and its effects on Isotopic Substitution (B and B' concepts)
8. Nomenclature of Re, Si and nucleophilic attacks with selectivity, Sharpless Epoxidation
9. Deriving Quantum Numbers from H-atom solutions, Rigid-rotator
10. Carnot Cycle
11. Joule-Thompon Effect
12. Reason for H2 and He to go above Ideal gas curve, explain on the basis of a and b factors in van der Waals' equation
13. KCP/TCP concept based on Wittig Reaction, Diels-Alder Reaction, Sulpher- Ylide Reaction. Why 1,2 or 1,4 attacks on alpha, beta-unsaturated carbonyl favoured one over another?
14. Einstein's Heat Capacity Equation - Cp, Cv. Derivation to Dulong-Petit's Law and how 3R comes
15. Finding out Point Group of Simple and Complex Molecules. For E.g. what will be the point group of a round-edged but one side sharpened pencil and unused chalk?
16. Conventional and Non-conventional pi-bonding in sp block.
17. Mossbauer Spectroscopy of CX4 complexes in the group of C, Si, Ge, Sn, Pb. For e.g. one peak for CF4 whereas, multiple peaks for SnF4.
18. Delta bonding e.g. in Re2Cl8(2-) and its intense colour
I will add more in future if it comes to my mind. You can also comment here and let me know your favourites. I did not include a famous topic like, Miller Indices because in that case, one may ask you to draw a Tetrahedral void which is very difficult to draw on a board or a topic like Dropping Mercury Electrode, which is a good topic but less exciting. A topic like Raman Scattering (Elastic and non-elastic, polarizability concept) can be a good one, but very difficult to explain within a short time. A topic like Group Theory is too conceptual; if anyone is confident, that would be a great addition too.
Don't just simply prepare one demo topic and go there, because it can be a possibility that the panel may ask you to give a demonstration on another topic also. So always prepare a minimum of 2 demo teaching topics and practice. You should prepare these two topics from all the possible sources so that you don't miss any questions asked of you based on those topics. If you don't like any of the other topics also, go ahead with a topic in which you feel highly confident. Just make sure that that topic is there in your state's bachelor's and master's syllabi. An ideal topic should be in the level of BSc Graduation 3rd year and MSc Masters 1st year. It should not be too basic which is even taught at the Class 12 NCERT level and should not be a too advanced topic in PhD level.
However, after your demo teaching is over, the panel may also ask you random questions about various Chemistry topics. That part of the interview would be the toughest one, although you are not expected to answer everything and panellists also know. By this time based on your demo presentation and answers based on that, they have decided whether to take you or not. Always keep a smiling face, because it is very difficult to become rude with a smiling face, isn't it? Remember this is not the last interview of your life!
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