JCE Online Journal of Chemical Education
 | Subscriptions  | Software Orders  | Support  | Contributors  | Advertisers  | 

JCE Print
   Current Issue
 Previous Issues
 Supplements
 Search JCE Index

JCE Digital Library
   DigiDemos
 QBank
 SymMath
 WebWare

JCE Software
   Latest Releases
 Software & Video
 Downloads
 Support

Only@JCE Online
   JCE Online Store
 JCE HS CLIC
 JCE Discussion Forums
   Biographical Snapshots
 ChemEd Resource Shelf
 Featured Molecules
 Hal's Picks
 Project Chemlab
 Reviewed WWW Sites
 "Web-Ed" Articles

About JCE
   Features
 Publications
 Operations
 Outreach
 Contact Us


  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2005  > June  >
Chemistry for Everyone
Weekly Molecules: A Cure for the 8:30 a.m. Blues
William F. Coleman
Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA 02481
Cover
June 2005
Vol. 82 No. 6
p. 850
Abstract
The concept of an online molecule of the time period—day, week, or month, as in the case of this column—has increased in popularity since the initial Web sites created at a number of British universities in the mid-1990s. The paper by Sonya Franklin, Norbert Pienta, and Melissa Fry describes a study of student responses to a molecule of the week program. Some of the results from their surveys of students indicate that the program indeed helps students place the chemistry that they are learning into a broader societal context. Visualizing these molecules in three dimensions helps students who have difficulty going from the two-dimensional drawing to the details of structure and stereo-chemistry. Some of the recent controversy that followed the now infamous comments by Harvard President Lawrence Summers, brought up, once again, the debate over whether men and women have different abilities to visualize in three dimensions. Many of us have seen a lot of evidence that such a difference is not necessarily gender based, but we should be focusing attention on ensuring that such differences are not determining factors for students’ success in science. At one time students who could not titrate well were discouraged from becoming chemists. We should make certain that we are not discouraging students for equally unimportant reasons.

Fully manipulable (Chime) versions of this molecule appears below. These and other molecules are avialable Only@JCE Online.

Image of molecule.

Figure 1. ciprofloxacin (antibiotic)

Image of molecule.

Figure 2. glyphosate (herbicide)

Image of molecule.

Figure 3. humulone (beef flavor from hops)

Image of molecule.

Figure 4. Viagra (pharmacuetical)

Image of molecule.

Figure 5. Prozac (antidepressant)
More Information
*  Citation
 Coleman, William F. J. Chem. Educ. 2005 82 850.
*  Keywords
 Computer-Based Learning; Internet / Web-Based Learning; Molecular Modeling; Molecular Properties / Structure
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 April 27, 2005
May 6, 2005
<< Previous Article Table of Contents Next Article >>
  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2005 > June > Page 850


Subscriptions
 Subscription Info
 Order Forms

JCE HS CLIC

Our Secondary School editors work hard to distill all the JCE materials to produce a fraction of particular interest to high school teachers. We call it CLIC.
 JCE HS CLIC

Contributions Welcome
JCE welcomes your submission
 Contributors' Corner

Advertisers
In recent years we have worked hard to better match our advertisers with our readers. When shopping for chemistry education materials, visit our advertisers' WWW sites first.
 Recent Advertisers

Be An Ambassador
Take JCE along on your outreach missions. Copies of the Journal, guest access to JCE Online, our publications catalog, and more are available for your participants.
 Outreach with JCE

Comments to
jceonline@chem.wisc.edu		 Copyright © Division of Chemical Education, Inc., American Chemical Society.
All rights reserved.