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Limited resources available for education have always presented the challenge of how to do more with less. The widespread availability of the World Wide Web (WWW) and associated technologies provides the means to develop innovative supplemental materials for chemical education. A recent symposium during the 211th American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition featured 22 presentations in the area of "Teaching Chemistry on the Web" (1). The educators who gave these presentations have made syllabi, movies, interactive tutorials, exercises, links to other on-line information, and supplementary readings available on the WWW. Materials on the WWW can offer several
advantages over traditional textbooks. One is in the hypermedia implementation of the WWW, allowing links to supporting information, pictures, and QuickTime movies
(2, 3). Another is that chemistry-specific types of three-dimensional viewing possibilities are available through the use of hyperactive molecules (4, 5). Although multimedia has been used in select chemistry courses (6), the WWW is
accessible 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
The teaching of stereochemistry is an area in
which emerging technologies offer significant advantages.
The WWW offers the ability to develop interactive,
discovery-based tutorials for use as study tools, and multimedia
offers significant improvements in the display of
three-dimensional objects. As part of a chemical education research
program, three stereochemistry tutorials were developed
to capitalize on these advantages (7). The first tutorial
allows students to explore various types and numbers of
substituents attached to an sp3 carbon atom. Students can
manipulate computer models of the molecules they build, and
they are asked leading questions designed to steer them
toward discovering the concept of enantiomers. The second
tutorial allows students to explore molecules containing more
than one chiral center. Thorough exploration of the tutorial
allows students to discover diastereomers and meso
compounds. The third tutorial allows students to build
various alkenes with relatively little guidance. Students can
query with greater flexibility than in the first two
tutorials. Through exploration they are guided toward
discovering geometric isomers. These tutorials promote an active
learning environment for students who use them.
Each of these tutorials was evaluated by volunteer
students. Some of the volunteers used the tutorials in
conjunction with their introduction to stereochemistry in a
lecture course. Others who had previously completed organic
chemistry offered a different perspective. Each of the
tutorials was favorably received. Students indicated that the
movies and hyperactive molecules helped them see the
relationship between the two-dimensional representations of
stereochemistry and the three-dimensional molecules.
Another comment was that the availability of the tutorials on
the WWW was more welcome than study materials for
other classes available on CD-ROM , which had to be used
in specified computer labs at specified times. Most
students agreed that the tutorials were more enjoyable than
reading about stereochemistry in a textbook, although some
preferred learning the material from lectures.
These stereochemistry tutorials are available over
the WWW at
http://www.chem.arizona.edu/courses/chem242/tutorials.html
using a graphical browser such as Netscape Navigator version 2.0 or later
(8). Hyperactive molecules can be viewed most easily with MDL's Chime plug-in
for Netscape, which is available for Macintosh, Windows
3.1, and Windows 95 (9). Movies can be viewed most easily
with the Moviestar plug-in for Netscape, which is also
available for both Macintosh and PC operating systems
(10). These plug-ins are easy to install and are used automatically
by Netscape.
In summary, three multimedia discovery-based
stereochemistry tutorials have been developed and are
freely available over the World Wide Web. These materials
have received encouraging student support and may help
students learn stereochemical concepts.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the University of Arizona
faculty development program and NSF for financial
support of this work.
Literature Cited
1. Teaching Chemistry on the World Wide
Web (211th National American Chemical Society Meeting and Exposition, 1996, New
Orleans). In CHED Newsletter and Abstracts, Spring 1996, abstract
section; abstracts of papers 2128, 3744, 98105.
2. Tissue, B. M. Spectroscopy
1995, 10(4), 1921.
3. Tissue, B. M.; Yip, C.; Wong, Y.
J. Chem. Educ. 1995, 72, A116A117.
4. Rzepa, H. S.; Whitaker, B. J.; Winter, M. J.
J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun. 1994, 19071910.
5. Casher, O.; Chandramohan, G. D.; Hargreaves, M. J.; Leach,
C.; Murray-Rust, P.; Rzepa, H. S., Sayle, R.; Whitaker, B. J.
J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 2 1995, 711.
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C.; Dugan, B. M.; Sawrey, B. A.; Wilson, K. R. J. Chem.
Educ. 1994, 71, 721725.
7. Parrill, A. L. Supplementing Traditional Chemical Education
on the World Wide Web; M. S. Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1996.
8. Available at
http://home.netscape.com by selecting the
download link and following the instructions provided. Netscape is also
available by anonymous ftp at ftp.mcom.com using anonymous as
the login and your email address as the password.
9. Available from
http://www.mdli.com by clicking on the Chemscape Chime picture and following the instructions provided.
10. Available from http://www.beingthere.comby selecting "MovieStar Plug-ins", followed by selection of your operating system, and
then following the detailed instructions provided.
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