One of the requirements for developing a Mathcad document for publication in this Journal is that the document contain clear goals and objectives. The design of goals and objectives, however, is not something with which most teaching chemists are facile. One reason is that dictionaries indicate that these terms are interchangeable by using each term in the definition of the other. Pedagogically, goals and objectives are different.

A goal is the reason we write teaching materials; it is what we want to do for the students through a particular activity or lesson. An objective, on the other hand, states clearly what we want the students to do after they complete a particular activity and is driven by the goal we set for that activity. In this brief essay I will give examples of goals and objectives from the Mathcad documents presented in this issue of the Mathcad in the Chemistry Curriculum column.

Hal Harris in his “Carnot Cycle” document writes his objectives with the expectation that students, after completion of the document, will be able to identify the variables that affect the efficiency of the Carnot cycle and complete an analysis of a real gas as the operating gas of a Carnot engine. This pair of objectives contrasts with the six goals he sets for the activity. In the goals, Harris includes things like gaining an understanding of the steps in the cycle, investigating the efficiency of the process, observing what happens when a real gas is used as the working fluid with an equation of state other than the ideal gas law, and investigating the effect of non-ideal gas parameters on the behavior of a real gas equation. Although Harris has written several goals and only two objectives, the distinction is clear between the two terms. The objectives are clearly what students are supposed to do or complete while engaged in a process of learning through a Mathcad document. The important difference between a goal and objective is the action word in the sentence stating the objective.

The Mathcad document created by W. Tandy Grubbs, “Variational Methods Applied to the Particle in a Box”, further illustrates the use of action words in objectives and the teacher’s purpose in writing the document. Grubbs's goal is that the user will gain a familiarity with the variational method. His objectives are what he expects students to do. He asks them to be able to explain the principles, select appropriate functions and boundary conditions, use appropriate trial functions, estimate the accuracy of a trial function, and improve the accuracy of a trial function by using a linear combination of trial functions.

“Relating Qualitative Analysis to Equilibrium Principles” by Glenn V. Lo is the first Mathcad document intended for the general chemistry laboratory course that has been published in this column. Lo has one goal: to relate students' laboratory experience to the theory for ion separation taught in the lecture course. He does this by providing students with a template that they use to complete assignments. The objectives for the students are to estimate the amount of ion that is removed from solution and to explain the significance of pH for the precipitation of ions. Notice the action words, estimate and explain, in the objectives. The student document is incomplete and the structure of this incomplete document supports the beginning student in completing the goal of the instructor and developing the skills to achieve the objectives. Lo also states that his objectives are performance objectives. Performance is the key to a good objective. An objective should state how we expect the students to perform after they complete an activity we design.

The three Mathcad documents presented in this column have a mix of traditional directed instruction and interactive components for students to use to hone their skills. The emphasis on active learning is an important aspect of any Mathcad document. The Mathcad documents included in this column are written for Mathcad 2000, Mathcad 8, or Mathcad 6. Users should check their manuals for detailed instructions regarding some Mathcad operations. Only for the Carnot document is there a significant difference between version 6 and higher versions in the graphics display.