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The Internet is one big Learning Community. You have made it so,
by creating sites to add to the richness of the chemical experience for your
students--and then you included other students in your classroom via the
Internet. On behalf of all of our students--thank you!
Figure 1. Physical Chemistry On-Line (PCOL), a virtual learning community.
Let's look at a special project
that connects students from different universities, maximizing not only the
resources of the Web but also the real-time resources of faculty and students
from other campuses. I applaud Physical Chemistry On-Line,
a virtual Learning Community dedicated to the study
of physical chemistry. Moving beyond the linear model of instruction is one of
the ambitious goals of PCOL. Go to PCOL: Projects
to see the NSF-funded projects that are created by the Developers for the Learning Community:
Erica L. Harvey, Lisa Smith
Lever, George R. Long, Melissa S. Reeves, Deborah Gibbs Sauder, George
M. Shalhoub, Roland P. Stout, Marcy Hamby Towns, Gabriella
Cornejo Weaver, David M. Whisnant, and Theresa Julia Zielinski.
The Participants, the second
PCOL group, take part by implementing the online events and evaluating
the projects. General Members, the third PCOL group, are interested in
the projects and provide feedback to the developers, but do not participate
directly in any of the online events. See the PCOL Home Page to become part
of this wonderful Learning Community. Appropriately, the icon for this site includes the world.
Next, go to another
NSF-supported project,
Theoretical Chemistry: a Self-Guided Introduction for College Students,
by Jack Simons of the University of Utah. This site is designed
to provide college science majors with a brief introduction to the field of
theoretical chemistry, both in a historical context and as it is practiced today.
From the Table of Contents, go to Woodward-Hoffmann rules to get an idea
of the extent of the theoretical coverage.
Figure 2. Acetic acid from Gwen Shusterman's Electron Density Models Interpretation Tutorial.
Historical information about the
scientists is included also. Here, your students will get a good introduction to the
modeling methods used by chemists.
To help your students with
understanding isodensity surfaces of the models, go to
Gwen Shusterman's Electron Density Models Interpretation Tutorial.
At this site from Portland State University, your
students are gently guided into a deeper comprehension of electron-density
models, starting with the magnesium atom and progressing through acetic acid. In
one section of the
Tutorial, the student is asked to click on the most positive region of
the acetic acid molecule. Now that is exactly what I want my students to learn--and to be confident
with their knowledge. This tutorial is just the ticket.
In the past, I have noted that favorite sources of
good URLs are the personal Web pages of our chemistry
colleagues. Another one of my favorite sources is from
the Internet Scout Project,
sponsored by the National Science Foundation and
the Computer Systems Lab of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. Here you can follow several avenues to
subscribe to any one of several Scout Reports; I recommend
two: the Scout Report and the Scout Report for Science
and Engineering.
As educators, we know that student appreciation of
a Web site places it high on the approval rating. This year
my students are bringing me URLs of some of their personal
favorites. They are very enthusiastic about
General Chemistry Online: Just Ask Antoine. This site is from Fred Senese of the Frostburg
State University.
Another student-recommended site is
Polyatomic Ionic Compounds, a Java game. According to one of my
students, it "is more fun than staring at a chart in the book."
Melissa L. Shirley, author of this Java game, as well
as lots of other instructors have contributed to the large
collection of instructional activities found at the
Quia Corporation Site "Quia" stands for Quintessential Instructional Archive. Quia is a wealth
of opportunity not only for students, but for instructors also.
Do you have favorite sites you would like to see in
News from Online? Drop me an email with the URL; I would
love to hear from you.
World Wide Web Addresses
Physical Chemistry On-Line (PCOL)
PCOL: Projects
Theoretical Chemistry: A Self-Guided Introduction
for College Students
Electron Density Models Interpretation
Tutorial
Internet Scout Project
General Chemistry Online: Just Ask Antoine
Polyatomic Ionic Compounds
Quia Corporation Site
access date for all sites: May 2000
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