late 2009

SourceBook was a project aimed at bringing a wide variety of chemistry teacher resources together for the teacher's desktop. The materials were published in print form (four volumes) and on the ChemSource CD ROM that was first released in 1994. The collection is most notable for the large number of laboratory and other activities in a variety of topics. Among the most interesting of these is Food and Chemistry SourceBook Module - a 1993 collection of laboratory activities relating to food science.

Experimania ("from molecules to materials") is a European consortium dedicated to revitalize the teaching of science.

Molecular Movies - "A portal for cell and molecular animation" - these excellent videos include organic reaction mechanisms, solids and polymerizations.

In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History (NY Times - August 8, 2009) This article describes how a combination of evolving student expectations and the limitations and costs of conventional textbooks are encouraging the use of digital materials in the classroom.

Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource (VIPEr) "A Cyber-Enabled Community of Practice for Improving Inorganic Chemical Education that facilitates collaborative development of learning materials and their dissemination to the wider inorganic community. ." Collections include web resources, text materials, and in-class activities on topics such as main group chemistry, f-block chemistry, coordination chemistry, organometallic chemistry, solid state and materials chemistry. One topics group of special note is the > Glassware and Apparatus Videos which show students the best way to assemble glass jointware. A variety of different examples are provided, with variations that demonstrate some of the more complicated assemblies that are often used in inorganic synthesis. Includes reflux, vacuum distillation, various three-necked flasks setups.

Early 2009

Pearson Foundation Science and Math Education - Report and Recommendations - This 2008 report focusses on the outstanding success of Singapore's educational system in facilitating student achievement in science and mathematics.

DNA Structure - An Interactive Animated Nonlinear Tutorial by Eric Martz, adapted for JMol. This tutorial is designed to complement an introduction to DNA, by providing tools for a self-directed exploration. The site includes a lesson plan for teachers.

Biochemistry of metabolism: Instructional materials for a studio-format course. This Rensselaer Polytechnic site provides an extensive set of tutorials on molecular and cellular biochemistry.

The WikiPremed Project is a comprehensive review of science indended specifically to prepare students for the MCAT exams. The collection is extensive and well-organized. It covers basic physics and chemistry, including organic chemistry.

The Periodic Table of Videos - click on an element, and watch a two-minute video from the U. of Nottingham that describes the element and its uses.

Food Science Videos - Kirsten Sanford uses food-related topics to illustrate some important chemistry concepts. iTunes subscriptions available.

Polymer Chemistry Hypertext - this somewhat advanced material ( for a second-semester polymer course) is organized by concept.

2008

Concept Development Studies in Chemistry is an on-line textbook for an Introductory General Chemistry course by John S. Hutchinson of Rice U. Each module develops a central concept in Chemistry from experimental observations and inductive reasoning. This is part of the Connexions collection which is licensed under Creative Commons. Unfortunately, authors are constrained to a format that lacks almost all qualities of good visual design.

Structures of Simple Inorganic Solids - This site by S.J. Heyes of Oxford offers an exceptionally complete coverage of elementary crystallography and the representation of crystal structures. Lots of good illustrations.

Starting points for teaching - This Carleton U (Ontario) site is oriented toward teaching geoscience, but it provides a wealth of well-organized suggestions that should be of interest to anyone setting out to teach an entry-level course in the natural sciences.

Chemistry Times - a compilation of recent news items relating to discoveries in Chemistry.

Linus Pauling Lectures - This Oregon State U. site has videos of several NSF-sponsored lectures by Pauling.

Human Thermodynamics Wiki - Yes, this sounds a little fringey, but there is much interesting stuff here, such as a history of the concept of the "human molecule".

This Bad Chemistry page by Kevin Lehmann of U. Virginia takes a poke at the hydrophobic effect, the common explanation for how ice skating works, and the nature of ionic solutions.

Quantum Tutor Chemistry Tutorials is a set of tutorials covering different aspects of beginning chemistry. It offers a variety of problem quizzes organized in a framework that allows students to explore and ask questions about specific compounds or topics. Students can retain records of their interactions with the program, and additional problems relevant to a specific curriculum can be added. The materials can be accessed on-line by annual subscription. An impressive on-line demo is available at this site.

Virtual ChemLab is a set of sophisticated and realistic simulations for high school, freshman, and sophomore level chemistry classes. It is being developed at Brigham Young University.

Art, Artifacts, Archives & Photos - This Chemical Heritage Foundation site offers a searchable database of items in CHF’s collections. It contains sections on Fine Art (ranging from alchemy through the 19th century), Instruments and Artifacts, Photographs.

MIT Kitchen Chemistry course - This course, given in 2006 by Patricia Christie, was designed to be an experimental and hands-on approach to applied chemistry (as seen in cooking). The materials are available by download.

(a new addition to the flim-flam file:) Institute of Human Thermodynamics - stuff such as: "Human chemistry is the study of reactions between individuals who are viewed as chemical species and with the energy, entropy, and work that quantify these processes. In modern human chemistry, people are viewed as chemical species, or specifically “human molecules” (a term coined by Charles Galton Darwin), A or B, and processes such as marriage or divorce are viewed as chemical reactions between individuals..."

Science songs - this Haverford College Physics site has links to a large number of online recordings.

Digital Chem1a Study: Costs, Culture, and Complexity: An Analysis of Technology Enhancements in a Large Lecture Course at UC Berkeley. As is usually the case with even the richest institutions, this project seemed to be dependent on external support from NSF and other sources.

 

Late 2007

The Concord Consortium is a nonprofit educational R&D organization that produces high-quality educational software that is offered free of charge. Most of it is open-sourced so you can adapt it to your own needs or use it as the basis for your own software development efforts. Of special interest to Chemistry are their Molecular Literacy Project, Molecular Rover Project, and Science of Atoms and Molecules Project— all of which are described elsewhere on the Development Projects page.

Organic Chemistry WikiBook - "This free online text is intended to become a complete replacement for your printed book."

Some unusually good animated visualizations of atomic and molecular orbitals can be found at this site by Stefan Immel of the Technical University of Darmstadt.

The ChemCollective "is a collection of virtual labs, scenario-based learning activities, and concepts tests which can be incorporated into a variety of teaching approaches as pre-labs, alternatives to textbook homework, and in-class activities for individuals or teams. It is organized by a group of faculty and staff at Carnegie Mellon University for college and high school teachers who are interested in using, assessing, and/or creating engaging online activities for chemistry education."

Chemistry Visualization Resources for Teachers - an extensive annotated list by Rosa Hemphill.

This BlackLight Power site offers some unusually vivid animations of lattice structures, atoms and molecules, and quantum mechanics.

MIT Open CourseWare Chemistry site contains lecture notes and in some cases video lectures for a large number of undergraduate and graduate courses.

Virtlab is a "virtual laboratory where students deduce scientific principles by performing laboratory experiments." It employs Flash- and JavaScript-enhanced Web technologies, as well as spreadsheet files. In addition to various simulatins, they claim to offer considerable flexibility in model-building for more curious students to explore.

Musical "visualizations" of protein and DNA sequences - This site by M.A. Clark of Texas Wesleyan University is something "completely different"!

 

Early 2007

Michelle Francl of Bryn Mawr College has prepared an extensive set of blogs, webcasts and podcasts. Some of these support first- and second year courses, others are for a wider, non-technical audience. All are thoughtful and engaging examples of ways to make Chemistry more interesting, and of how non-traditional media can be incorporated into a course. Some of the more interesting collections include Culture of Chemistry: The Who, What, When, Where and Why of Chemistry, and Chemistry 104 Lecture summaries

Library of inorganic structures - over 1600 structures of inorganic molecules, polyhedra and bioinorganic compounds, accessed through an interactive periodic table. Also at this site, a gallery of visually interesting molecules.

Physical Chemistry OnLine (PCOL) is a consortium dedicated to improving and enriching the learning experience for students of physical chemistry.

UC Berkeley offers webcast/podcast archives of lectures in certain courses, including the first-semester course Chem 1a. Do any other places do this? Please let me know!

late 2006

"Don't try this at home" - a 2006 article from Wired Magazine that shows how suppliers of chemicals to scientific amateurs are being hounded out of business by U.S. terrorist-paranoia. See also this page from one of the afflicted companies.

CMU on-line Chemistry course - as part of an "Open Learning Initiative", Carnegie Mellon University offers what appears to be a demonstration course on chemical stoichiometry that illustrates several innovative approaches, including a simulation-based Virtual Laboratory. The "open and free" version is available to anyone; an Academic Version is also available that can be used in connection with existing courses.

"Never mix alkali metals with water" - "not your usual boring science video" from Braniac Science Abuse (Movie; 3 min 16 sec)

Quantum States of Atoms and Molecules is the first of a series of digital "Living Textbooks" published by the Journal of Chemical Education.

BestChoice, a Model for Interactive Web-Based Teaching - an article by Sheila Woodgate and David Titheridge of the University of Aukland describing an open-access interactive site that was developed initially to support learning in large first year Chemistry classes. More recently BestChoice has been expanded to provide learning opportunities for a wider ranger of users. The model underpinning BestChoice learning activities is simulation of the interchange of a student with an experienced teacher. Thus student responses on BestChoice question pages generate instant assessment and feedback. BestChoice is innovative in its emphasis on teaching both concepts and problem-solving strategies by guiding students in ways that promote their understanding.

Molecular Logic Project - The goal of this project is to improve the ability of all students to understand fundamental biological phenomena in terms of the interactions of atoms and molecules. The Molecular Logic project aims to do this by enhancing biology courses with guided explorations of powerful atomic and molecular computational models. These models are embedded in an easily implemented database linked to both typical textbooks and standards. Over one hundred models of chemical and biological phenomena are available.

What is Chemistry all about? An introduction to chemical science. This tutorial attempts to present the major concepts that define modern chemistry, without, of course, getting into the gory details! As far as possible, macroscopic and microscopic views are presented in parallel; thus the concept of composition is divided into formula and structure. Energetics, dynamics, and synthesis are the other principle concepts. The unit concludes with an illustrated summary of the main currents of modern chemistry. (S. Lower, Chem1 Virtual Textbook)

Preliminaries: stuff you should know before delving too far into Chemistry - a set of five elementary "pre-Chemistry" tutorials covering the following topics: classification and properties of matter, density and buoyancy, energy, heat and temperature, units and dimensions, measurement error, significant figures and rounding off (these last three topics are identical with the first three in the lesson described immediately below.) (S. Lower, Chem1 Virtual Textbook)