Chemical Education Today
Saunders Interactive General Chemistry CD-ROM John C. Kotz and William J. Vining, Saunders College Publ., Harcourt Brace: Ft. Worth, 1996. This package, consisting of a two-disk CD-ROM set and a student workbook, is designed to accompany the textbook Chemistry & Chemical Reactivity, 3rd ed., by John C. Kotz and Paul Treichel, Jr., also published by Saunders. The package is based on the first 21 chapters of the Kotz and Treichel textbook—material that forms the core of most general chemistry courses, so it could easily be used in conjunction with other books. The CD-ROM can be run on either a Macintosh® or Windows™ computer. The workbook–CD-ROM package is designed to lead the student through the major topics of a general chemistry course using the power of computer technology to enliven the presentation. At appropriate points the student can view narrated QuickTime™ videos of chemical processes—either demonstrations or animations of the molecular process, or brief lectures by notable scientists on an important point. Solutions of sample problems can be exposed step by step. A tools icon allows access to an interactive periodic table and calculational tools while a textbook icon allows access to an Adobe Acrobat™ version of the textbook Chemistry & Chemical Reactivity. A notebook utility allows the student to record, store, and print notes while using the interactive program. The interactive program is very nicely done, introducing the main ideas of the Kotz and Treichel textbook in an engaging way and making good use of the computer technology. For example, in chapter 1 the student can click on increasing magnifications of a sample of copper culminating in a scanning tunneling micrograph (STM) image, and, finally, an animation of a copper atom. The usual textbook pictures of the three states of matter are animated, rein-
forcing the kinetic theory of matter. QuickTime videos of scientists such as Linus Pauling, Roald Hoffmann, and Jacqueline Barton humanize the presentation. For an independent and younger view I asked my son Peter, who is currently taking Advanced Placement chemistry using a standard general chemistry textbook, to look at one chapter of the interactive presentation. He found the narrated videos to be the strongest feature, but did not think that the step-by-step problem solutions provided any advantage over a textbook. He thought that the presentation was a good introduction but needed a supplementary textbook to provide the details and a teacher to answer questions. His judgment was that he would not use the CD-ROM version of the textbook because it is difficult to read, but would prefer a print version. We initially ran the program on a 66 MHz 486DX Windows computer and found the loading time for the screens to be agonizingly slow. Once a screen was loaded, the videos ran well and the pop-up options appeared quickly, but the slow transition times were discouraging. On a faster Pentium system the loading times were less of a distraction. My overall judgment is that this package is a valuable supplement that will make general chemistry more interesting for many students but, for most, will not replace a textbook. Maybe it is just familiarity, but even my very computer-oriented son did not like reading the CD-ROM version of the text; he preferred the print version. I concur. The videos do help make chemistry come alive. The crucial pedagogical question is whether interactive computer presentations such as this one lead to better learning. Careful studies need to be done evaluating the effectiveness of interactive computer programs as learning tools. This attractive package is certainly one that deserves to be evaluated. Jeffrey Kovac Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996-1600
Vol. 74 No. 4 April 1997 • Journal of Chemical Education
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