Chemical Education Today
Reports from Other Journals
News from Online: Learning Communities by Carolyn Sweeney Judd
The Internet is one big Learning Community. You have made it so, by creating sites to add to the richness of the chemical experience for your students—and then you included other students in your classroom via the Internet. On behalf of all of our students—thank you!
Figure 1. Physical Chemistry On-Line (PCOL), a virtual learning community.
Let’s look at a special project that connects students from different universities, maximizing not only the resources of the Web but also the real-time resources of faculty and students from other campuses. I applaud Physical Chemistry On-Line (PCOL at http:// pcol.ch.iup.edu/), a virtual Learning Community dedicated to the study of physical chemistry. Moving beyond the linear model of instruction is one of the ambitious goals of PCOL. Go to PCOL: Projects (http://pcol.ch.iup.edu/ project.htm) to see the NSF-funded projects that are created by the Devel-
opers for the Learning Community: Erica L. Harvey, Lisa Smith Lever, George R. Long, Melissa S. Reeves, Deborah Gibbs Sauder, George M. Shalhoub, Roland P. Stout, Marcy Hamby Towns, Gabriella Cornejo Weaver, David M. Whisnant, and Theresa Julia Zielinski. The Participants, the second PCOL group, take part by implementing the online events and evaluating the projects. General Members, the third PCOL group, are interested in the projects and provide feedback to the developers, but do not participate directly in any of the online events. See the PCOL Home Page to become part of this wonderful Learning Community. Appropriately, the icon for this site includes the world (http://pcol.ch.iup.edu/ pcl.gif ). Next, go to another NSF-supported project, Theoretical Chemistry: a SelfGuided Introduction for College Students (http://www.hec.utah.edu/ TheoryPage), by Jack Simons of the University of Utah. This site is designed to provide college science majors with a brief introduction to the field of theoretical chemistry, both in a historical context and as it is practiced today. From the Table of Contents, go to Woodward–Hoffmann rules to get an idea of the extent of the theoretical coverage.
Figure 2. Acetic acid from Gwen Shusterman’s Electron Density Models Interpretation Tutorial.
Historical information about the scientists is included also. Here, your students will get a good introduction to the modeling methods used by chemists. To help your students with understanding isodensity surfaces of the models, go to Gwen Shusterman’s Electron Density Models Interpretation Tutorial (http://www.irn.pdx.edu/~shusteg/ NewTut/Tutfr2.html). At this site from Portland State University, your students are gently guided into a deeper comprehension of electron-density models, starting with the magnesium atom and progressing through acetic acid. In one section of the Tutorial, http:// www.irn.pdx.edu/~shusteg/NewTut/ Prob7frame.html, the student is asked to click on the most positive region of the acetic acid molecule. Now that is exactly
World Wide Web Addresses Physical Chemistry On-Line (PCOL) http://pcol.ch.iup.edu/
Internet Scout Project http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/index.html
PCOL: Projects http://pcol.ch.iup.edu/project.htm
General Chemistry Online: Just Ask Antoine http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/just-askantoine.shtml
Theoretical Chemistry: A Self-Guided Introduction for College Students http://www.hec.utah.edu/TheoryPage
Polyatomic Ionic Compounds http://www.quia.com/custom/4187main.html
Electron Density Models Interpretation Tutorial http://www.irn.pdx.edu/~shusteg/NewTut/Tutfr2.html
Quia Corporation Site http://www.quia.com access date for all sites: May 2000
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Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 77 No. 7 July 2000 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
Chemical Education Today
what I want my students to learn—and to be confident with their knowledge. This tutorial is just the ticket. In the past, I have noted that favorite sources of good URLs are the personal Web pages of our chemistry colleagues. Another one of my favorite sources is from the Internet Scout Project (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/index.html), sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Computer Systems Lab of the University of Wisconsin– Madison. Here you can follow several avenues to subscribe to any one of several Scout Reports; I recommend two: the Scout Report and the Scout Report for Science and Engineering. As educators, we know that student appreciation of a Web site places it high on the approval rating. This year my students are bringing me URLs of some of their personal favorites. They are very enthusiastic about General Chemistry Online: Just Ask Antoine (http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/ senese/101/just-ask-antoine.shtml). This site is from Fred Senese
of the Frostburg State University. Another student-recommended site is Polyatomic Ionic Compounds, a Java game. According to one of my students, it “is more fun than staring at a chart in the book.” Go to http://www.quia.com/custom/4187main.html to get in on the fun. Melissa L. Shirley, author of this Java game, as well as lots of other instructors have contributed to the large collection of instructional activities found at the Quia Corporation Site (http://www.quia.com). “Quia” stands for Quintessential Instructional Archive. Quia is a wealth of opportunity not only for students, but for instructors also. Do you have favorite sites you would like to see in News from Online? Drop me an email with the URL; I would love to hear from you. Carolyn Sweeney Judd teaches at Houston Community College, 1300 Holman, Houston, TX 77004; email:
[email protected].
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