laboratory for good cause provide difficult logistical problems for the instructor. Rather than trying to find a 2-3 hr period mutually agreeable to student &&instructor and getting chemicals and equipment to the rendezvous, the student can be assigned FORMULA to complete a t his convenience. A report would still be required which will be almost indistinguishable from the one submitted after a "normal" experiment. Another alternative is to assign this exercise immediatelv before a similar experiment is performed in the laboratori. The students will be better prepared for the actual exneriment and.. if a preliminary is required, for the cal. . report . culations to follow. For several years, in our department, the nonscience majors have heated potassium chlorate to determine its oxygen content. The chlorine content was then given and the empirical calculated. The students can now use a variant ~ - - formula -~ ~ of FORMULA to get the chlorine content while their sample of chlorate is being heated. This modified program, CHLORIDE, allows the students to input their own weight of potassium chlorate. lets them simulate the titration, and helps them with the cahlation. The complete experiment can still be done in less than 2 hr. FORMULA is written in Microsoft BASIC for the Apple I1 Plus Microcom~uterwith 48K RAM and a color monitor. A listing and documentation can be obtained free from Dr. V. I. Bendall, Chemistry Department, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY 40475. Alternatively, a 51/a-in.diskette with both FORMULA and CHLORIDE can be obtained from the same source by sending $5.W to cover the cost of materials and postage. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. SER-8013405. ~
~
~
types. These compounds have complex trimethylene amino groups on the side-chain a t position number 3. Similar compounds that have a permanently charged quaternary ammonium nitrogen on this side-chain will show substantial loss of activity, as actually observed. Compounds with only two methylene groups between the ring and the side-chain nitrogen at this position may show antihistamine properties, also as actually found. While the game was not designed for research purposes, the algorithms are based upon known chemical structure-medicinal activity relationships for the phenothiazines and their analogs. The available groups and parameters of the game do permit thousands of molecular possibilities. The sole objective at this stage is to stimulate interest in organic and medicinal chemistry. Student use of the program suggests that i t accomplishes this objective. The program is available to students from an easily accessed library of chemistry programs. The simplicity of the rules and the lack of any requirement for a knowledge of organic chemical reactions permits the game to be played by students a t every academic level. In addition to the entertainment aspect of the game and the stimulation of interest in medicinal chemistry, there are other educational benefits to be derived. Students new to organic chemistry receive a drill on correct valence bond considerations through repetitious observation and use. The structure of some common functionalities and groups also become familiar to the students. When the game is introduced to students in lecture class, it is emphasized that in the real world good medicinal chemists do not select molecular modifications solely by random chance. Likewise, for good performance in this game the student must be astute in observing the physical-chemical nature of the groups available for molecular
Design-a-Drug. A Medicinal Chemistry Computer Game John L. Melsenhelmer, Victor I. Bendall, a n d Gilbert T. R o o d
Eastern Kentucky University Richmond, KY 40475 In this computer game, the player is assigned the task of designing an active neuroleptic agent (major tranquilizer). The program is written for a PDP-11/70, BASIC-PLUS system, and uses a Tektronix 4006-1 terminal. The program provides graphic display of a parent molecular structure that is to be completed by selecting five atoms or groups from a large number of potential substituents. The completed molecule is then "tested" bv the computer for biological activity. The parent moiecular structure that must be completed is displayed below. The numbers refer to sets of potential substitkents and not, of course, to the systematic numbering of the ring system.
The student chooses an atom or group for each of the numbered positions in the structure from a computer-dislaved set of possibilities for each position number. After each poiition has'been modified, t h e student may request the computer to display the current molecular structure (Fig. 1). ~ f t e ;all five positions have been assigned a substituent, the student requests a display of the completed molecule and a "test" of its biological activity. A graphic display of the molecule is presented, along with avalue for its pharmacological "activity" (based upon an arbitrary zero to 50 scale) and an appropriate comment (Fig. 2). The program will show good activity for phenothiazine major tranquilizers of the chlorpromazine and trifluoperazine 600
Journal of Chemical Education
Figure 1. Computer display of pallially completed molecule. Two groups must be assigned before the molecule can be "tested" for "activity." (Design-a-
Figure 2. Display of complete molecule, along with results of computer "test" of its "activity." (Design-=-Drug)
modification and in observing how changes in electronegativity, charge, and size affect the "activity" of the synthesized molecule. The game can and does illustrate that by using these observations, and a systematic approach in group modification, an active molecule may be obtained with relatively few attemots. Converselv. random chance selection of erouDs . is norm& not fruitfui.' A free listing of this program. which reauires about 12K of computer memory, may be obtained from John L. Meisenheimer.
The Medical Biochemistry QuestionBank Julian A. Peterson Department of Biochemistry Universiiv of Texas at Dallas ~ e i l t hScience Center 5323 Harrv Hines Blvd. During the past decade there has been an explosion in the number of students enrolled in medical education oroerams in North America. As the size of classes in ~undamenralsof Medical Biochemistrv in medical schools increased. the faculty became aware of the difficulty of preparing essay examinations to evaluate student performance. Because of this difficulty, there was a shift toward examinations composed of objective, multiple-choice questions. In the spring of 1977, the Association of Medical School Departments of Biochemistry (AMSDB) directed their Education Subcommittee to examine the testing practices in various medical schools and to report on the feasibility of the establishment of a computer-based question bank which could be used by the memben for the generation of high quality tests. The Medical Biochemistry Question Bank (MBQB) was formed in response to this perceived need. Subscriptions for $500 for the 1980 edition of the question bank were received from approximately 70% of the members of AMSDB. When the bank was being oreanized. the Editorial Board established the general policy t i a t questions must have been used in a medical biochemistrv course in a medical school before they could he considered for inclusion in the bank. T o ensure the continued viability of the bank, the subscribers are encouraged to submit quest& to the ~ d i t o r i aBoard, l and the 1981 edition will contain approximatelv 4,500 unique questions. Each subscriber must report the numbers of the questions that have been used on examinations so that unused auestions can be identified. The types of questions in the bank include all those that are Table 1. Medical Biochemistrv Question Bank Major Categories
Acids, Bases. Water. Electrolyte Balance, and Bonding Acids. Peptides, and Proteins Hemostasis (Blood and Hemaglobin) Enzymes Carbohydrates Intermediary Metabolism Energetics. Thermodynamics, and Biological Oxidations Photosynthesis Nitrogen Metabdism Amino
NLmition Purine. Pyrimidine, arm One-CarLmn Metabolism
N 0 P (1
R
S
Non-steroid Lipids Steroids and Sterols Memoranm and Membrane Systems Boochemlstry of hon-starolahormones NLCelc Ac d and Protem B . o ~ y m h e s s Systems,Processes, and Organs Biochemical Basis of Disease Miscellaneous
regularly used on obiective examinations: however.. aooroxi.. mately 60% of the q;estions are of the single-answer multiple-choice type. Some of the questions require fimres. maohs. or tables, and these are currktly provided inbrinte; form with the distributed bank. The questions in the bank have been sorted by subject matter into 19 major categories (Table 1) which compare to chapters in generally used texthooks. Each major category is further suhdivided for easy reference to a particular subject. In addition, each question can be assigned to more than one sub-cateeorv. the basis of cateeorizaiion being the topical thrust a l d &ect answer. we-discarded the option of grouping the questions by "difficulty" and left the decision regarding whether a question is appropriate for a particular course to the faculty concerned. The Editorial Board of MBQB has decided that the information about each question should be stored in as flexible a format as possible so that it can be used with only minor database modifications by the various item banking programs that are in use. We have written "industry standard" magnetic tape copies of the bank for a number of the subscribers, and the bank can be distributed on 8-in. diskettes written on a Digital Equipment Curporation PDPI I minicomputer as well as on a micn~comuuteruoeratinr under C1' M. The files can with some difficuity be written a number of other formats that might be useful in word Drocessors. Thus. a subscriber should be able to edit the question bank and td generate examinations using locally written software. T o increase the general usefulness of item banks, we are developing software in UCSD Pascal for an Aoole I1 microrvrnputer that will pernmit orher users who do n"; have access to mainframe computtw to edit the questions ns well as to construct and print examinations. Ultimately, we will extend this software to include student interaction programs for both studv and self-evaluation. ~nitiallythe Editorial Board decided to limit distribution of the bank to medical schools. As the bank has grown and developed, the members of the Editorial Board have been approached regarding the availability of the bank by several undergraduate departments that teach large biochemistry classes. Currently the contract that subscrihers sign has been interpreted to mean that those medical school departments that also teach undergraduates may use the bank for all of their students but that other undergraduate departments, which are not affiliated with a medical department of biochemistry, may not have access to the bank. Because of a perceived need on the part of some undergraduate departments for a laree no01 of excellent test auestions. the Editorial Board, in conj;netion with AMSDB, will reevaluate in early 1982 the distribution oolicv to determine whether all or a Dart of the bank could or shouid be made available for widerhistribution. The ~ o t e n t i aadvantage l to the new subscribers would he the arress to a large pwl ;if test items. In return, the wider distrihutim would enable the Editorial Board to undertake some additional rdurational and evaluative prnjwtr. A potential drawhark, which must he fully explored, is the nature of the impact on undergraduate biochemical training which this medirally oriented question hank might have. The editor-in-chief would like to receive in writine an indication of the interest of undergraduate departments in the use of this t w e of auestion bank. Based on the deaee of interest and the percept& of the advantages and disidvantages to the hiochemical communitv at large. the decision will be reached in the near future by the men;bership of AMSDB on the wider distribution of this question bank. The names and addresses of the members of the Editorial Board are as follows: Julian A. Peterson, Department of Biochemistry, The University of Texas Health Science Center a t Dallas, 5323 Hines Blvd., Dallas, T X 75235; C. Coe Agee, De~artmentof Biochemistrv. Universitv of Tennessee Center for'the Health Sciences, ~ e m ~ h T i sN, $3163; James Baggott, Department of Biochemistrv. Hahnemann Medical Colleee. 235 North 15th Street, ~hiladelphia,PA 19102; J. ~ e i e ; ~
~
X
~~~~
Volume 59 Number 7 July 1982
~
~
60 1
