Computational chemistry teachers

Computational chemistry offers many advantages to teachers of physical chemistry. It can help students learn the material and develop critical thinking skills. As noted before, most students will probably use some sort of computational method in their chemistry careers, so it provides students with important experience. Furthermore, computational chemistry is much more accessible to undergraduate students than it was a decade ago. Desktop computers now have sufficient resources to calculate the properties of illustrative and interesting chemical systems. Computational software is also becoming more affordable. Students can now use computers to help them visualize and understand many aspects of physical chemistry. However, physical chemistry is also an experimental science, and computational models are still judged against experimental results. 

Accessible through Organic ChemistryNow, vMentor lets students interact with experienced chemistry teachers—right from their own computers. For proprietary, college, and university adopters only. For additional information, please consult your local Thomson representative. 

Though micro-computers are quite expensive yet their education potential is considerable and they offer chemistry teachers an opportunity to experiment with imaginative and innovative ways of teaching chemistry. 

With the advent of the electronic computers in the early 1950s it was finally possible to reexamine the two main approaches, and to take a closer look at the error implicit in these formulations. Thus we witness a three-way effort first, to establish a solid theoretical method, second, to develop all the needed mathematical algorithms for its implementation and third to be able to effectively use the new tool, the electronic computer, to obtain routinely numerical solutions. Incidentally, at the time there were relatively few quantum chemical textbooks computationally relevant , computers were still extremely expensive and rare in short computational chemistry hardly existed for lack of teachers, students, hardware and software. 

Alice B.Sc. in Chemistry and Computer Science 17 years Principal s assistent Advanced study programs for chemistry teachers... 

Dori, Y. J., Bamea, N. (1997). In-service chemistry teachers trmning the impact of introducing computer technology on teachers attitudes and classroom implementation. International Journal of Science Education, 19, 577-592. 

The terms laboratory work and practical work are used in the literatrrre without precise defirrition to embrace mtmerous activities in science irrstructioa According to Hodson (1990), the term practical work means tasks in which students observe or manipirlate real objects or materials for themselves (individually or in small groups) or by witnessing teacher demonstratiorrs. In an extended sense, practical work involves not orrly work in the formal chemistry laboratory or demonstratiorrs, but also ar r type of activity that involves tangible objects, and provides students the opportrrrrity to manipirlate and interact with chemicals and observe chemistry in action corrsequently, home laboratory kits and computer simulations of experiments are also included. 

An interesting kind of animations accompany films which illustrate the course of chemical experiments (Fig. 6). These experiments were recorded in close-up, thus allowing students to take a good look at respective elements of laboratory apparatus, and to follow subsequent experiment steps. It is experiments that require substances unattainable at schools, i.e., those which are expensive, toxic, or hard-to-recycle, that are presented most frequently. Computer animations account on a microscale for the phenomena nonnally obseived on a macroscale, such as dissociation or electrolysis. The teacher s book designed alone The Interesting Chemistry handbook contains descriptions of exemplary utilization of respective simulations in class, individually, or in small groups. 

Fred Leavitt, Executive Director of CCR, and I were witness to the Operation Progress workshop s success. The workshop included experience with computers, lectures on teaching chemistry by Professor Crosby, and extensive hands on chemistry focusing on micro laboratory instruction and a fascinating laboratory built completely around materials that can be purchased in local grocery and hardware stores. This creative laboratory when used by students and teachers should not only promote an interest in chemistry but underline the pervasiveness of chemistry by connecting the laboratory directly to the real world. 

This research was sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. NSG-2198, and supported in part by the National Resource for Computation in Chemistry under a grant from the National Science Foundation and the Basic Energy Sciences Division of the United States Department of Energy under Contract No. W-7405-ENG-48. One of us (T.F.G.) would like to acknowledge the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation for a Teacher-Scholar Award. 

---