ERIC Number: EJ1224922
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Aug
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Implementing New Educational Platforms in the Classroom: An Interactive Approach to the Particle in a Box Problem
Cruzeiro, VinÃcius Wilian D.; Gao, Xiang; Kleiman, Valeria D.
Journal of Chemical Education, v96 n8 p1663-1670 Aug 2019
The ready availability of interactive platforms has produced a new generation of students able to utilize computer-based learning tools with ease and comfort. The potential to better "explore by yourself" the lecture material permits students to have an enhanced learning experience and stimulates them to tinker with equation parameters generating insightful figures or animations. Used in the classroom, it emboldens students to have a deeper comprehension of complex derivations or mathematical expressions. We illustrate the power of interactive learning platforms by presenting educational "Jupyter notebooks" for the study of a fundamental problem in quantum chemistry: the motion of a particle in 1D and 2D space. Although simple, this model offers the possibility to explore several important quantum chemistry concepts such as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, confinement leading to quantization, tunneling effect, and even bonding and antibonding properties. We present four "Jupyter notebooks" that gradually walk the student from the properties of a free particle to the properties of a particle in a double potential well. Our experience gained from the implementation of the material in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum is discussed, including student feedback and examples of complementary homework to be used in the classroom.
Descriptors: Science Instruction, Quantum Mechanics, Chemistry, College Science, Educational Technology, Technology Uses in Education, Scientific Concepts, Concept Formation, Motion, Teaching Methods
Division of Chemical Education, Inc. and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A