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Inorganic Nomenclature is a drill-and-practice exercise in naming and writing formulas for ionic and covalent inorganic compounds. It is now available in HTML format for use by students with both Windows and Mac OS compatible computers. It consists of multiple-choice questions where a name or formula is given and the correct formula or name is chosen from a list of five possible answers. Students choose whether to start with a name and give a formula, start with a formula
and give a name, or receive a random selection of these two types of questions.
Students can, for example, select an exercise from a list of 60 names. Clicking on the first name on the list, iron(III) chlorate, generates a question that requests the formula. Five possible answers are provided labeled as choices A through E. An answer is selected by clicking. An
incorrect answer generates a message explaining a possible reason why the choice is incorrect. For iron(III) chlorate, choosing “FeCl3” as the answer generates the message, “This compound does not contain a monatomic anion.” The student can then use this information to make another choice. At any time students can access help that includes a periodic table, a list of polyatomic ions employed in the tutorial, and nomenclature rules. Once the correct answer has been chosen, a congratulatory message is given on the screen.
To choose subsequent examples, students may select another compound from the list of names, select a formula from a list and attempt to give the correct name, or randomly generate questions of either or both types from the list of 120 examples.
Inorganic Nomenclature was originally published as a HyperCard stack
for Mac OS computers. That version has been included on all previous
editions of General Chemistry Collection. It has now been revised in
HTML format and is compatible with both Mac OS and Windows operating
systems.
A screen from Inorganic Nomenclature.
Inorganic Nomenclature requires the following software, which
is available for free download from the Internet: Netscape Navigator,
version 6.2 or higher, or Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 5.0 or higher.
Acknowledgment
Laura Yindra assisted in final formatting of the new
HTML version of Inorganic Nomenclature.
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