This fall, I had great fun teaching a graduate lecture at the Colorado School of Mines on the topic of Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy (UPS).  The first question I asked the students was “How many of you have taken some form of solid-state?”  About half the hands went up.  But for the lecture, we needed a bit more background. Very quickly we covered the band structure of metals and semiconductors, the Fermi energy and why these are so important for technology.  What impromptu fun that was!  At this point, we were able to really dive into UPS with diagrams and the key properties observable with UPS. I handed out data I had taken on gold and fullerene thin films. After explaining how to analyze the gold spectrum, students worked in groups of two and three.  I attempted to view their learning experiences with fresh eyes and to encourage curiosity on the spectral details. After calculating the the work function and ionization energy of the separate materials, we constructed a band diagram for this hybrid heterostructure and enjoyed a brief discussion on the molecular structure of C60. The lesson outline and sample data are available here: UPS lesson (PPT).