Quantum mechanics (QMs) is a foundational subject in many science and engineering fields. It is difficult to teach, however, as it requires a fundamental revision of the assumptions and laws of classical physics and probability. Furthermore, introductory QM courses and texts predominantly focus on the mathematical formulations of the subject and…

An applied computational chemistry laboratory exercise is described in which students use modern quantum chemical calculations of chemical shifts to assign the structure of a recently isolated natural product. A pre/post assessment was used to measure student learning gains and verify that students demonstrated proficiency of key learning…

The invention of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) 30 years ago opened up a visual window to the nano-world and sparked off a bunch of new methods for investigating and controlling matter and its transformations at the atomic and molecular level. However, an adequate theoretical understanding of the method is demanding; STM images can be…

In this paper, we describe animations and animated visualizations for introductory and intermediate-level quantum mechanics instruction developed at the University of St Andrews. The animations aim to help students build mental representations of quantum mechanics concepts. They focus on known areas of student difficulty and misconceptions by…

We introduce a computer exercise that bridges spectroscopy and thermodynamics using statistical mechanics and the experimental data taken from the commonly used laboratory exercise involving the rotational-vibrational spectrum of HCl. Based on the results from the analysis of their HCl spectrum, students calculate bulk thermodynamic properties…