Information • Textbooks • Media • Resources
Discovery-Based Stereochemistry Tutorials Available on the World Wide Web1
W
Abby L. Parrill and Jacquelyn Gervay* Department of Chemistry, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 Limited resources available for education have always presented the challenge of how to do more with less. The widespread availability of the World Wide Web (WWW) and associated technologies provides the means to develop innovative supplemental materials for chemical education. A recent symposium during the 211th American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition featured 22 presentations in the area of “Teaching Chemistry on the Web” (1). The educators who gave these presentations have made syllabi, movies, interactive tutorials, exercises, links to other on-line information, and supplementary readings available on the WWW. Materials on the WWW can offer several advantages over traditional textbooks. One is in the hypermedia implementation of the WWW, allowing links to supporting information, pictures, and QuickTime™ movies (2, 3). Another is that chemistry-specific types of three-dimensional viewing possibilities are available through the use of hyperactive molecules (4, 5). Although multimedia has been used in select chemistry courses (6), the WWW is accessible 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. The teaching of stereochemistry is an area in which emerging technologies offer significant advantages. The WWW offers the ability to develop interactive, discoverybased tutorials for use as study tools, and multimedia offers significant improvements in the display of three-dimensional objects. As part of a chemical education research program, three stereochemistry tutorials were developed to capitalize on these advantages (7). The first tutorial allows students to explore various types and numbers of substituents attached to an sp3 carbon atom. Students can manipulate computer models of the molecules they build, and they are asked leading questions designed to steer them toward discovering the concept of enantiomers. The second tutorial allows students to explore molecules containing more than one chiral center. Thorough exploration of the tutorial allows students to discover diastereomers and meso compounds. The third tutorial allows students to build various alkenes with relatively little guidance. Students can query with greater flexibility than in the first two tutorials. Through exploration they are guided toward discovering geometric isomers. These tutorials promote an active learning environment for students who use them. Each of these tutorials was evaluated by volunteer students. Some of the volunteers used the tutorials in conjunction with their introduction to stereochemistry in a lecture course. Others who had previously completed organic chemistry offered a different perspective. Each of the tutorials was favorably received. Students indicated that the movies and hyperactive molecules helped them see the relationship between the two-dimensional representations of stereochemistry and the three-dimensional molecules. Another comment was that the availability of the tutorials on the WWW was more welcome than study materials for other *Corresponding author.
classes available on CD-ROM , which had to be used in specified computer labs at specified times. Most students agreed that the tutorials were more enjoyable than reading about stereochemistry in a textbook, although some preferred learning the material from lectures. These stereochemistry tutorials are available over the WWW at http://www.chem.arizona.edu/courses/chem242/ tutorials.html using a graphical browser such as Netscape Navigator version 2.0 or later (8). Hyperactive molecules can be viewed most easily with MDL’s Chime plug-in for Netscape, which is available for Macintosh, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95 (9). Movies can be viewed most easily with the Moviestar plug-in for Netscape, which is also available for both Macintosh and PC operating systems (10). These plug-ins are easy to install and are used automatically by Netscape. In summary, three multimedia discovery-based stereochemistry tutorials have been developed and are freely available over the World Wide Web. These materials have received encouraging student support and may help students learn stereochemical concepts. Note 1. The complete text of this report may be found in JCE Online, http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/.
Acknowledgments We would like to thank the University of Arizona faculty development program and NSF for financial support of this work. Literature Cited 1. Teaching Chemistry on the World Wide Web (211th National American Chemical Society Meeting and Exposition, 1996, New Orleans). In CHED Newsletter and Abstracts, Spring 1996, abstract section; abstracts of papers 21–28, 37–44, 98–105. 2. Tissue, B. M. Spectroscopy 1995, 10(4), 19–21. 3. Tissue, B. M.; Yip, C.; Wong, Y. J. Chem. Educ. 1995, 72, A116– A117. 4. Rzepa, H. S.; Whitaker, B. J.; Winter, M. J. J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun. 1994, 1907–1910. 5. Casher, O.; Chandramohan, G. D.; Hargreaves, M. J.; Leach, C.; Murray-Rust, P.; Rzepa, H. S., Sayle, R.; Whitaker, B. J. J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 2 1995, 7–11. 6. Whitnell, R. M.; Fernandes, E. A.; Almassizadeh, F.; Love, J. J. C.; Dugan, B. M.; Sawrey, B. A.; Wilson, K. R. J. Chem. Educ. 1994, 71, 721–725. 7. Parrill, A. L. Supplementing Traditional Chemical Education on the World Wide Web; M. S. Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1996. 8. Available at http://home.netscape.com by selecting the download link and following the instructions provided. Netscape is also available by anonymous ftp at ftp.mcom.com using anonymous as the login and your email address as the password. 9. Available from http://www.mdli.com by clicking on the Chemscape Chime picture and following the instructions provided. 10. Available from http://www.beingthere.com by selecting “MovieStar Plug-ins”, followed by selection of your operating system, and then following the detailed instructions provided.
Vol. 74 No. 3 March 1997 • Journal of Chemical Education
329
