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William F. Coleman
A Gel Permeation Chromatography Simulator from JCE WebWare
Principles of Gel Permeation Chromatography: Interactive Software by Guilherme Andrade Marson* and Bayardo Baptista Torres, Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo, Caixa Postal 26077, CEP 05508-900, São Paulo-SP, Brazil Keywords: Second-Year Undergraduate / General, SecondYear Undergraduate; Biochemistry; Chromatography; Computer-Based Learning, Multimedia-Based Learning Requires: Web browser with Macromedia Flash player plugin installed
Principles of Gel Permeation Chromatography presents the principles of gel permeation chromatography (GPC) for students in introductory undergraduate courses of chemistry and biochemistry. These principles are presented in four sections: Introduction, Real Lab, Virtual Lab, and Microscopic Model (Figure 1). The Introduction and Real Lab sections present a brief view of the basic experimental apparatus typically used in laboratory GPC in order to provide a concrete connection of the real process of separation (1). The basic elements of
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JCE WebWare: Web-Based Learning Aids
Separation methods are crucial to chemistry and to the cognate fields that rely on chemistry to introduce their students to a range of analytical methods. Increasingly, separations are being taught in introductory chemistry courses, and a combination of hands-on and virtual approaches to the topic are a useful way to introduce both the general principles that are behind most separations methods and the specifics of particular techniques. Principles of Gel Permeation Chromatography is an interactive Flash animation designed to help your students learn the basic principles of gel permeation chromatography from the convenience of any computer with an Internet connection. The animation makes use of a mixture of the actual setup for a gel permeation separation and simulations of the physico-chemical processes that result in separation. Students can explore the software individually or in small groups, either in free exploration or as part of an assigned exercise. The software can also be used effectively as a visual aid for large group lectures and would also make a useful prelaboratory exercise. View this and other Web-based instructional tools in the peer-reviewed and open-review collections of JCE WebWare at http://www.JCE.DivCHED.org/JCEDLib/WebWare/.
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Wellesley College Wellesley, MA 02481
Edward W. Fedosky University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI 53715
Figure 1. The three elements of the Virtual Lab section of Principles of Gel Permeation Chromatography: Interactive Software.
column chromatography, emphasizing the stationary and mobile phases, are presented in the Introduction, followed by a sequence of pictures and texts describing major steps in GPC analysis in the Real Lab section. The Virtual Lab section is a simulator (2, 3). Three samples are available for a virtual GPC experiment: sample 1, containing hemoglobin; sample 2, containing methylene blue; and sample 3, containing both methylene blue and hemoglobin. Each sample undergoes a virtual separation run, which is dynamically represented in three ways in the software: a virtual column, the collected fractions, and a virtual chromatogram. This threefold representation allows the simultaneous view of key aspects of the process to demonstrate the correlation between the experimental procedure and the resulting chromatogram (4, 5). The Microscopic Model section is an animation representing the microscopic separation phenomenon in GPC. The animation can be paused and resumed anytime, allowing the examination of the molecular motions within the gel matrix. For pedagogical reasons, all the processes represented in the software have been simplified in order to facilitate students’ comprehension of the key elements of the separation phenomenon (6, 7). The software is designed so that students move logically from the Introduction through to the Microscopic Model in a way that parallels macroscopic to microscopic, experimental to model, and concrete to abstract pedagogical approaches.
JCE WebWare—a dynamic feature column http://www.jce.divched.org/JCEDLib/WebWare/
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Vol. 83 No. 10 October 2006
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Journal of Chemical Education
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However, students are still free to move about within the sections of the software in any order so that different educational strategies can be addressed, and so that exploration is encouraged. The class activity included on the Web site has been used in conjunction with the software: Students are arranged in groups of 2–3 people, one computer per group, with the assignment to explore the software using a questionnaire as their guide. The activity is allotted one hour of time, with most of the groups finishing the exercise in about 45 minutes. The software has also been successfully used as a teaching aid in lectures. Acknowledgments We are thankful to Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) for supporting the project
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Journal of Chemical Education
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“Experimental Methods in Biochemistry: Interactive Software”, and to the Department of Biochemistry, University of São Paulo, for its academic support. Literature Cited 1. Couture, B. M. J. Comp. Ass. Learn. 2004, 20, 40. 2. Hofstein, A.; Lunetta, V. N.; Sci. Ed. 2004, 88, 28. 3. Woodfield, B. F.; Catlin, H. R.; Waddoups, G. L.; Moore, M. S.; Swan, R.; Allen, R.; Bodily, G. J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 1672. 4. Haddad, P. R.; Shaw, M. J.; Madden, J. E.; Dicinoski, G. W. J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 1293. 5. Russell, J. W.; Kozma, R. B.; Jones, T.; Wykoff, J.; Marx, N.; Davis, J. J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 330. 6. Haigh, J.; Lord, J. R. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 1528. 7. Molnar, I. J. Chrom. A, 2002, 965, 175.
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