One way of triggering students' interest in chemistry is making chemistry education more meaningful. Four characteristics of meaningful chemistry education (MCE) were identified in projects that involved a redesign of curriculum materials: daily life context, the need-to-know principle, students' input, and the macro--micro connection. Chemistry…

Through the implementation of the free website/smartphone application Sketchfab, we have found a simple means to introduce 3D visual tools into the chemistry classroom. Sketchfab stores 3D models and animations with free cross-platform accessibility. Blender is a free 3D modeling tool that has been used to prepare models and animations for…

An application for visualizing the aggregation of structureless atoms is presented. The application allows us to demonstrate on a qualitative basis, as well as by quantitatively monitoring the aggregate surface/volume ratio, that the enhanced reactivity of nanoparticles can be connected with their large specific surface. It is suggested that,…

Instructional videos have been prepared using Adobe Captivate software to create animated tutorials to capture instrument and molecular modeling software simulations and to allow for increased independent hands-on instrument use by students and faster training for instructors and teaching assistants. The videos are available on YouTube and can be…

Thermodynamic processes are complex phenomena that can be understood as a set of successive stages. When treating processes, classical thermodynamics (and most particularly, the Gibbsian formulation, predominantly used in chemistry) only pays attention to initial and final states. However, reintroducing the notion of process is absolutely…

This paper presents a piece of educational software covering a comprehensive number of topics of chemical kinetics, which is available free of charge in Portuguese and English. The software was developed to support chemistry educators and students in the teaching-learning process of chemical kinetics by using animations, calculations, and…

Developing fluency across symbolic-, macroscopic-, and particulate-level representations is central to learning chemistry. Within the chemistry education community, animations and simulations that support multi-representational fluency are considered critical. With advances in the accessibility and sophistication of technology,…

Research shows that computer-based simulations and animations are especially helpful in fields such as chemistry where concepts are abstract and cannot be directly observed. Bio-Organic Reaction Animations (BioORA) is a freely available 3D visualization software program developed to help students understand the chemistry of biomolecular events.…

The College Board's recently revised curriculum for advanced placement (AP) chemistry places a strong emphasis on conceptual understanding, including representations of particle phenomena. This change in emphasis is informed by years of research showing that students could perform algorithmic calculations but not explain those calculations…

"Computer Simulations of Salt Solubility" by Victor M. S. Gil provides an animated, visual interpretation of the different solubilities of related salts based on simple entropy changes associated with dissolution such as configurational disorder and thermal disorder. This animation can help improve students' conceptual understanding of…

The ability to design and to aspire of the future design of three-dimensional molecular animations to teach molecular symmetry is an exciting outcome of computer-driven technologies. Some of the details and vital issues addressed in developing a set of Web pages to teach molecular symmetry at Imperial College London using crafted animations are…