Chemical Education Today
Report
JCE Digital Library Grand Opening by JCE Editorial Staff
About the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) The National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Digital Library (NSDL), funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is a digital library organized to support science education at all levels. Its exemplary resource collections and services have established NSDL as a center for innovation in digital libraries as applied to education and a community center for those focused on digital-library-enabled science education. Conceived in late 1995, established in 2000, and officially launched in December 2002, NSDL is an infant, but with continued support aspires to become a national treasure for science education. In the words of NSDL Program Officer Lee Zia “NSDL will encourage and sustain continual improvements in the quality of STEM education for all students, and serve as a resource for lifelong learning.” (D-Lib Magazine, 7, 11, http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november01/zia/ 11zia.html [accessed Nov 2003].) Visit the library and watch its construction by pointing your Internet browser to http://nsdl.org To learn more about digital libraries as well as view the NSDL Progress Report, go to the URL above and click the About tab near the top. Links to the three parts of the Progress Report are found under Learn more about NSDL on the right.
JCE Collections in NSDL As a part of the NSDL, JCE Digital Library (JCE DLib) is collecting digital resources and making them available on the WWW in support of chemistry education. With funding from the NSF, JCE is making major new collections that augment the considerable digital material already available at JCE Online. JCE DLib currently consists of JCE SymMath, JCE WebWare, JCE QBank, and JCE DigiDemos. Each collection is being carefully reviewed to ensure scientific accuracy and good pedagogy. Each collection is being categorized using keywords, organized by curricular level, and correlated with textbook topics, which will allow quick and easy access to teachers from high school chemistry through graduate-level courses. We plan to include additional types of materials in the next few years. JCE SymMath: Symbolic Mathematics in Chemistry JCE SymMath is a collection of Mathcad, Mathematica, Maple, or MATLAB documents designed to help students
www.JCE.DivCHED.org
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learn mathematically intensive aspects of chemistry. The collection now numbers 30 Mathcad documents and five Mathematica notebooks. JCE SymMath promotes the creation, dissemination, and utilization of symbolic mathematics documents that span the chemistry curriculum. More information and the latest additions to this collection may be found on pp 155–158. JCE WebWare: Web-Based Learning Aids JCE WebWare is a collection of Web-deliverable animations, simulations, calculations, and other pedagogically useful items that can be incorporated into classroom presentations, can promote discussion and interaction among students, and can provide new insights through graphic and other non-traditional means. There are now 20 peer-reviewed WebWare programs as well as 22 in open review (not peer-reviewed, but available for use). For more information, including the latest addition to the collection, “Kinetica: An Excel Program To Simulate or Analyze Kinetic Data”, see p 159. JCE QBank: Resources for Student Assessment JCE QBank consists of Web-deliverable homework, quiz, and examination questions that can provide anytime, anywhere access, feedback and tutoring based on student responses, and a variety of new approaches to student assessment. At present it is divided into four categories: ConcepTests; Conceptual Questions and Challenge Problems; General Chemistry Questions; and Organic Chemistry Questions. See p 158 for more information. JCE DigiDemos: Tested Demonstrations JCE DigiDemos are chemical demonstrations done digitally using video, sound, graphics, and hypertext. This collection, an outgrowth of the Tested Demonstrations feature column begun in 1955, will enable teachers to learn and to share what they have learned about the most effective demonstration techniques, the latest important safety and waste disposal information, and exemplary pedagogy involving demonstrations. See p 160 for more information. Principal investigators on the JCE DLib grant are John W. Moore, UW–Madison; William F. (Flick) Coleman, Wellesley College; Ed Vitz, Kutztown University; and Theresa Julia Zielinski, Monmouth University. Jon L. Holmes, editor of JCE Online, oversees information technology aspects of the project.
Vol. 81 No. 1 January 2004
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Journal of Chemical Education
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