An exercise is described that has illustrated the effect of various factors on [pi] backbonding to carbonyl ligands, where the students can view the molecular orbitals corresponding to the M-CO [pi] interaction as well as the competing interaction between the metal and co-ligands. The visual and hands-on nature of the modeling exercise has helped students understand the d[pi]-p[pi]* backbonding and has further enforced the concepts of infrared (IR) spectroscopy.