Visualizing molecular conformations and complex compound structures and chemical transformations in 3D is one of the most difficult tasks for undergraduate chemistry students. Modern computational technologies have revolutionized every aspect of our lives, including education. As a result, many researchers and educators are working on enhancing…

The "Yet Another extended Hu¨ckel Molecular Orbital Package" (YAeHMOP) has been merged with the Avogadro open-source molecular editor and visualizer. It is now possible to perform YAeHMOP calculations directly from the Avogadro graphical user interface for materials that are periodic in one, two, or three dimensions, and to visualize…

Although the potent effects of cation-p interactions for stabilizing protein structure and binding ligands to proteins have been reported in the chemical literature for over two decades, there are no undergraduate biochemistry textbooks covering this important noncovalent attractive force. In an attempt to remedy this situation, this primer…

Given that students are constantly communicating and documenting special experiences in their social and private lives with digital devices, we suggest that this behavior could be used to record and deepen learning experiences-such as visualizing reactions at the molecular level-in a chemistry class. An example would be the creation of stop-motion…

Spatial reasoning is defined as the ability to generate, retain, and manipulate abstract visual images. In chemistry, spatial reasoning skills are typically taught using 2-D paper-based models, 3-D handheld models, and computerized models. These models are designed to aid student learning by integrating information from the macroscopic,…

Carrying out classroom experiments that demonstrate Boyle's law and Gay-Lussac's law can be challenging. Even if we are able to conduct classroom experiments using pressure gauges and syringes, the results of these experiments do little to illuminate the kinetic theory of gases. However, molecular dynamics simulations that run on computers allow…

The concept of specificity of enzyme action can potentially be abstract for some students as they fail to appreciate how the three-dimensional configuration of enzymes and the active sites confer perfect fit for specific substrates. In science text books, the specificity of enzyme-substrate binding is typically likened to the action of a lock and…

In our three-dimensional world, one can plot, see, and comprehend a function of two variables at most, V(x,y). One cannot plot a function of three or more variables. For this reason, visualization of the potential energy function in its full dimensionality is impossible even for the smallest polyatomic molecules, such as triatomics. This creates…

Molecular visualizations have been widely endorsed by many chemical educators as an efficient way to convey the dynamic and atomic-level details of chemistry events. Research indicates that students who use molecular visualizations are able to incorporate most of the intended features of the animations into their explanations. However, studies…

We studied the use of online molecular dynamics simulations (MD) to enhance student abilities to understand the atomic processes governing plastic deformation in materials. The target population included a second-year undergraduate engineering course in the School of Materials Engineering at Purdue University. The objectives of the study were to…

A hybrid course of Molecular Symmetry and Group Theory which combines traditional face-to-face instruction with an online web enhanced learning environment within a Course Management System was designed, developed, and implemented with a purpose to establish an active and student-centred educational setting. Multi-representational educational…

Classifying a particle requires an understanding of the type of bonding that exists within and among the particles, which requires an understanding of atomic structure and electron configurations, which requires an understanding of the elements of periodic properties, and so on. Rather than getting tangled up in all of these concepts at the start…

This study investigated how students develop their understanding of chemical representations with the aid of a visualizing tool, eChem, that allows them to build molecular models and simultaneously view multiple representations. Multiple sources of data were collected with the participation of high school students (n=71) over a six-week period.…

The effect of intervening use of molecular visualization software was tested on 73 first-year general chemistry students. Pretests and posttests included both traditional multiple-choice questions and model-building activities. Overall students improved after working with the software, although students performed less well on the model-building…