1028 Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 74 No. 9 September 1997

Chemical Education Today

News from On-Lineby Carolyn Sweeney Judd

Hearing from readers is always a pleasure. Nicholas J.Turro emailed in reference to my June commentary (J.Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 621) to tell me about the history ofWEB-ster (http://ep.llnl.gov/msds/orgchem/Web-sters_Org_Chem.html). Andy Goshe, an undergraduate stu-dent from Ohio University who spent last summer at Co-lumbia University, produced the precursor of WEB-ster.Good job, Andy!

Speaking of history, in 1897, J. J. Thomson discoveredthe electron, which is being celebrated by the Science Mu-seum London with an on-line exhibition called “Life, theuniverse, and the electron” (http://www.nmsi. ac.uk/on-line/electron/). Prepare yourself for a 1934 audio record-ing of J. J. Thomson, video files that reenact the originalexperiment, great graphics, interactive animations, and asection called “What is an electron?” (http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/on-line/electron/section1/). This well-de-signed site is a fine resource for teachers and a friendlylearning environment for students. Unfortunately the on-lineexhibition will last only until April 5, 1998.

We also hear from England on the issue of bringing vi-sualizations to our students, with the goal of improvinglearning for all students. Look at the image: Simulation ofthe movement of gas phase argon atoms above a solid sur-face (http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Chemis-try/ChemConference/ChemConf97/Paper6mirror/fig5.gif).Read the paper by Hugh M. Cartwright of Oxford Univer-sity (http://www.inform. umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Chemis-try/ChemConference/ChemConf 97/Paper6mirror/Cartwright.html) titled “Nature Doesn't Solve Equations, So

Why Should We? Math-ematically-lean simula-tions in Chemistry”. Thisthought-provoking paperis part of the ChemConf’97 Summer On-Line Con-ference on ChemicalEducation (found at http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Chemistry/C h e m C o n f e r e n c e /ChemConf97/). This important international on-line con-ference is sponsored by the Division of Chemical Educationof ACS and organized by Donald Rosenthal, Clarkson Uni-versity, and Tom O’Haver, The University of Maryland atCollege Park.

Simulations are made possible by using computers,which leads to another issue covered in ChemConf ’97,“What Every Chemist Should Know About Computers, II”(http://www.niagara.edu/~tjz/conf97/draft.htm) by MaryL. Swift, College Of Medicine, Howard University, andTheresa Julia Zielinski, Niagara University. What computerskills do our students need for success? From this thoughtcomes the question of what creative teaching can we do ifour students possess better computer skills? Look at a greatHomePage by Theresa Julia Zielinski (http://www.niagara.edu/~tjz/) about using MathCad documentsfor teaching Physical Chemistry. If you have access toMathcad_6.0_Plus, go to this site for a repository of docu-ments written by several authors in the spirit of revitaliz-ing the chemistry curriculum.

Eleven excellent papers and references are part ofChemConf ’97. These are archived, along with the abstracts,discussion archives, and other information at the ChemConf’97 site.

ChemConf ’97 is also the site for information about1997–1998 School Year Online Sessions (http://www. in form.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Chemistry/ChemConference/ChemConf97). The fall semester sessionwill occur between September 5 and November 26, 1997.The spring semester session will occur between January 30and May 1, 1998. You and your students can attend a con-ference, without travel and registration expenses, and ex-change ideas with faculty and students from other loca-tions..

“Time + Creativity (with WWW asa Catalyst) yields Learning Opportuni-ties” is the motto for The Catalyst(http://home.fuse.net/thecatalyst/).Michael Geyer maintains The Catalystas a site for chemistry resources for the secondary educa-tion teacher on the WWW. The classy logo (http://home.fuse.net/thecatalyst/clogo2.gif) introduces this collec-tion of nicely-arranged sites, which includes a very usefulhistorical category. One of the links is to History of Chem-istry—1992 Woodrow Wilson Summer Institute in Chemis-

Reports from Other Journals

The Catalyst: http://home.fuse.net/thecatalyst/ChemConf ’97 Summer On-Line Conference on Chemi-cal Education: http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Chemistry/ChemConference/ChemConf97/

Paper #3: “What Every Chemist Should Know About Com-puters, II” by Mary L. Swift, College Of Medicine, HowardUniversity, and Theresa Julia Zielinski, Niagara Univer-sity: http://www.niagara.edu/~tjz/conf97/draft.htm

Paper #6: “Nature Doesn’t Solve Equations, So Why ShouldWe? Mathematically-lean simulations in Chemistry” byHugh M. Cartwright, Oxford University: http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Chemistry/C h e m C o n f e r e n c e / C h e m C o n f 9 7 / P a p e r 6 m i r r o r /Cartwright.html

History of Chemistry—1992 Woodrow Wilson SummerInstitute in Chemistry: http://www.woodrow.org/teach-ers/chemistry/modules/1992/Mars Pathfinder mission: http://www.nasa.gov/Information about 1997–1998 School Year Online Ses-sions: http://www. inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Chemistry/ChemConference/ChemConf97/Science Museum London: “Life, the universe, and theelectron”: http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/on-line/electron/WEB-ster: http://ep.llnl.gov/msds/orgchem/Web-sters_Org_ Chem.htmlW

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1030 Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 74 No. 9 September 1997

Chemical Education Today

try (http://www.woodrow. org/teachers/chemistry/mod-ules/1992/).

And speaking of historical events, I cannot leave thiscommentary without noting that over 100 million hits/daywere tallied on the collective mirror sites of the Mars Path-finder mission (http://www.nasa.gov/) in July, 1997. TheNASA image of Sojourner on Mars (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews/img/81008b.jpg) is familiar to all of usand reminds us that 100 million hits a day means that in-terest in science is alive and well.

Carolyn Sweeney Judd teaches at Houston CommunityCollege System, 1300 Holman, Houston, TX 77004; 713/718-6052; cjudd@tenet.edu.

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Sojourner on Mars with Barnacle Bill at:Sojourner on Mars with Barnacle Bill at:Sojourner on Mars with Barnacle Bill at:Sojourner on Mars with Barnacle Bill at:Sojourner on Mars with Barnacle Bill at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews/img/http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews/img/http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews/img/http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews/img/http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews/img/81008b.jpg81008b.jpg81008b.jpg81008b.jpg81008b.jpg

Reports, cont.