edited bv
JAMES P. BIRK
computer series, 168
Arizona State University Tempe. AZ 85287-1604
Teaching Practical Computer Skills to Chemistry Majors Boyd L. Earl, David W. ~ m e r s o n , 'Brian J. Johnson, and Richard L. Titus The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Box 454003,4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4003 In a plenary lecture a t the 1988biennial Chemical Education Conference, Crosby ( 1 )suggested that chemistry departments should consider reducing requirements in computer programming for majors and emphasize instead the use of commercially available, user-friendly software packages. The justification is that, unlike the situation a decade ago, there is now a much wider availability of good software and ever more powerful, reasonably priced desktop computers. Taking this advice, we instituted a one-semester, one-credit course that introduces students to a variety of software useful to chemists. Objectives Our goals are to: 1. acquaint students with various types of software useful tc
chemists, 2. insure that they get some rudimentary, hands-on experi-
ence with this software using subject material drawn from their maior: " . 3. increase the quality of the written submissions, ealeulations, graphs, ete., that the students turnin after completing the course; 4. give students the benefit of some labor-savingtools so that they can do more and better work in a given length of time:
uet oTtjle ex&ience of taking a programming co&& One of our best graduates of recent years, now a doctoral student a t a leading research university, reported that after his required programming course, he dreaded using a computer and that this course removed his fear. The course is rewired of all nnderaaduate chemistrv majors, and completion of organic chemistry is a prerequisite. The majors used to have to take two computer programming courses. Now they must take one programming course and the course described here, but neither the programming course nor this course is a prerequisite for'the other. For budgetary reasons we spread the teaching load for this course over a number of volunteer faculty each of whom is responsible for teaching the fundamentals of one or two d l w a r c packages and one ol'whom is rt!sponiihl(! for preparing the syilnhu~find coordineting t h course. Few cumnuters ;Ire awil;ihli~so rhc course ISorered everv semester. The team-teaching approach is advantageous because several neonle have innut into the content. several of the subdisci$inks of che&istry are represented, and participating faculty members enjoy the advantage of becoming more proficient themselves in the use of certain software packages that are useful in their teaching and research. The library also is involved in the course by having a staff member assist students in conductiup database searches thereby polishing their own skills a s well a s those
of the students. In retrospect, being a member of the team teaching this course has heen more of a boon than a bnrden. The various parts of the course are described in more detail below. Discussion The overall topical outline is as follows. Week
Tonic
1 2&3 4-5
~Gdwareand MS-DOS Basics Word Processing Drawing Chemical Structures and Molecular Modelling Spreadsheet and Statistics Graphing Initiation of Literature Search Computations
6-8 9&10 11 12-1 5
Hardware We have two 386 machines in a separate room available for student use, which includes this course, assignments for other courses, and other work that students mav wish to do. Demand as yet has been insufficient to requ$e formal allocation of time. Initially, in the .. students gathered computer room for instructional demonstrations. Lately a n LCD panel with a n overhead projector (supplied by our campus audiovisual department) has become available in a lecture room. The library has one terminal in a librarian's office dedicated to CAS searches. Software The software used in this course (identified specifically below) was chosen because i t is commonly used, reasonably inexpensive, and the suppliers are willing to license its use on several different machines. We are not wedded to the specific software mentioned, and we frequently upgrade and evaluate new software packages. We make no claim of having the state of the art, absolute best software available anywhere; but what we use works. Other Class time is devoted to a discussion-demonstration of the software to be used with special emphasis on the details of getting the program started followed by one or more examoles of the avolication of the software to some .. specific task. The students are expected to do their assignments outside of class time. There is wide variation in the time students need for completion of assignments. Those with some comvnter exnerience and t v ~ i n eskills are usually quicker than those naive in both caieg&ies. Part of the class time is used a t the two computers the students use: a student a t the keyboard, othershbserving how i t is done. Each student is provided with a disk on which to store work. Students are encouraged not to store their work on Volume 71
Number 12 December 1994
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t h e h a r d disks, because t h i s increases t h e opportunities for cheating, unless t h e files a r e protected.
e r a t e chemical structures a n d equations in a graphics form a t t h a t can be incorporated easily into documents genera t e d by word processor programs; t h e second is t o be able t o construct dimensionally accurate chemical structures using a molecular modeling program. T h e two software packages currently used a r e ChemDraft I1 for t h e graphics portion,3 a n d Alchemy 114 for t h e molecular modeling portion.
The Operating System and Word Processing (Weeks 1-3) T h e first s e m e n t of t h e course deals with t h e MS-DOS' operating system a n d word processing (WordPerfect 5.1L2 T h e objectives a r e t o enable t h e students to: 1. start the computer, run a program, and do basic file man-
Week One
agement, 2. create and run a simple hatch file, and 3. enter a document with several complicated mathematical expressions in Wordperfect, using the equation editor. Three handouts a r e provided, one dealing with t h e operating system, one with t h e m a i n WordPerfect program, a n d one with t h e WordPerfect equation editor. As with all segments of t h e course, careful choices m u s t be m a d e a s t o w h a t i s to be covered, because t h e operating system itself could occupy a n entire semester, if covered thoroughly.
Week One I . Com~onentsof a desk to^ cornouter svstem 11. The DOSoprmtmg sysfmm \ Filcs and filcrunws B. ('
