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These twelve lessons, and an introductory lesson,
are tutorials in basic topics of introductory chemistry.
They are suitable for school use, individual study, or
distance learning. They are particularly valuable as review
material for students in more advanced courses who may have
been away from the subject for some time. They contain a
great variety of problems and exercises driven by
random-number generators, so that the same problem never
repeats exactly.
The lessons are, for the most part, Socratic dialogues
in which the student is required to answer questions and
perform simulated experiments in order to discover
chemical principles. They are organized in an intuitive chapter and
page structure. One may move readily around each lesson.
There are many on-screen facilities such as help, data tables, and
a calculator.
"Chemical Calculations: Combustion Analysis" is one of the
12 modules in Introductory Chemistry Lessons. This screen shows
an animation of the combustion of a hydrocarbon. Note the
on-screen data table displayed at the bottom of the screen and the
on-screen calculator in the lower right corner.
Many lessons contain simulations and animations
corresponding to those in the previously published
Simulations and Interactive Resources (1). The lessons on the
periodic table, oxidation numbers, nomenclature, and reactions
will be reinforced by playing the Periodic Table Games
(2). These latter two programs are meant to be coordinated with
the lessons. They are now available for free download by
Journal subscribers.
All of the lessons end with comprehensive review
quizzes. It is good strategy for a student to look first at the
quiz, to ascertain whether the material of the lesson will be of
value, or whether only certain topics are needed.
Ten of the quizzes produce scores out of 100. Scores
may be recorded in a dataset, and presented in histogram
form. There is a "hall of fame" display, which shows the top
fifteen scores. The instructor may view the lesson scores or reset
the scoreboards. Scores are kept starting on the date of resetting.
Literature Cited
- Martin, J. S. SIRs: Simulations and Interactive Resources.
J. Chem. Educ. Software, 1996,
9B, No. 2.
- Martin, J. S. Periodic Table Games.
J. Chem. Educ. Software, 1997,
10B, No. 1.
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