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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2000  > February  >
In the Classroom
Computer Bulletin Board
Conformer Hunting: An Open-Ended Computational Chemistry Exercise That Expresses Real-World Complexity and Student Forethought
Kenny B. Lipkowitz and Daniel Robertson
Department of Chemistry, Indiana-Purdue University at Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN 46202
Cover
February 2000
Vol. 77 No. 2
p. 206
Abstract
A computational chemistry project suitable for both graduate and undergraduate classes has been developed, tested, and implemented successfully over the course of 10 years. In this project we ask students the following simple question: "Which conformer searching strategy in Spartan is the best?" To answer this question the students need to develop a working definition of what "best" means within the context of the project, design their own experiments that can address that question most suitably, carry out the calculations to derive a compelling answer, and then write their results in the form of a research paper. In addition to teaching students about potential energy surfaces, molecular modeling techniques, and stereochemistry, the pedagogical advantages of this computational chemistry exercise compared to others published in this Journal are that it (i) requires a significant amount of student forethought in addition to afterthought by forcing students to design their own experiments, (ii) demonstrates real-world levels of complexity by using molecules having multiple rotatable bonds, (iii) allows for student creativity that is missing in most other published exercises, (iv) focuses on writing in the curriculum.
More Information
*  Citation
 Lipkowitz, Kenny B.; Robertson, Daniel. J. Chem. Educ. 2000 77 206.
*  Keywords
 Computational Chemistry; Stereochemistry; Problem-Based Learning; Writing in Chemistry
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 January 5, 2000
April 15, 2005
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