260 Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 74 No. 3 March 1997

Chemical Education Today

News from On-Lineby Carolyn Sweeney Judd

With apologies, I must correct one of the URLs listedin my last commentary (J. Chem. Educ. 1996, 73, A304). Thecorrect URL for the Drug Information Center NCI databaseof 127,000 Structures is http://www.chem.com/127,000_3D_structures. Underlining the URL caused theproblem. To help highlight URLs, I will include a list at theend.

There are lots of reasons to read a journal, and surelyenjoyment should be one of the prime reasons. The Internetcan make you smile. Ever think of a fine instrument like amass spectrometer as a pinball machine in an arcade? Youwill if you go to the Colby College OChem Visual Demos“Learning by Visualization” site: http://www.colby.edu/chemistry/OChem/demoindex. html#table and then selectMass Spectroscopy. A real treat is in store for you. Sound,action, and entertainment add up to a great teaching tool.Oh, did I mention that first you must download Shockwavefrom the Colby site or directly from Macromedia http://www. macromedia.com/shockwave/download/plugin.cgi. Itis really worth the extra trouble—and it's free.

Let's move on to other laboratory experiments on theInternet. Several sites cover the same content, but with dif-ferent approaches. Let's concentrate on Extractions. Awealth of information can be found at The ScienceHypermedia site http://www.scimedia.com/index.htm. Goto “Index of Educational Documents on this Server”, andthen go to “E” and then to “Extraction”. Look at thehyperlinked text and the fine graphic of an extraction byBrian Tissue http://www.scimedia.com/chem-ed/sep/ex-tract/graphics/extractn.gif (see figure below, used with per-mission). Link to another presentation—a movie of the safeuse of a separatory funnel (created by Yue-Ling Wong forThe Learning Matters of Chemistry): http://yip5.chem.wfu.edu/yip/Video/sep-funnel.MOV.

Yet a third approach to Extractions comes from theUniversity of Akron’s Organic Laboratory by J. Kofron andJ. K. Hardy. A series of excellent, clear, large photographs

are used for this step-by-step extraction of caffeine from acola beverage http://odin.chemistry. uakron.edu/organic_lab/cola/. Good teaching is done in all these ap-proaches to extractions. You can choose one that matchesyour needs—or get inspired and create your own site.

Surely your students will think of coffee when they ex-tract caffeine. Let's send them to one of the sources of agreat cup of coffee (and also lots of information on moleculesand spectra): The University of the West Indies in Jamaicahttp://wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm:1104/. Go to “JamaicanThemes for Lecture Materials” and choose “Jamaican Cof-

fee” http://wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm:1104/lectures/coffee.html.

You can also get a great .gif ofcaffeine from this site: http://wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm:1104/avi_files/caff1.gif (figure used withpermission).

When visiting all these, be sureto look around at everything at thatsite. All contain other outstandingchemistry nuggets. Where did I be-

gin my search for this commentary? From a greathomepage, of course: Liz Dorland’s Chemistry Tutorial andResource Page http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/academic/phy_sci/Chemistry/faculty/dorland/chime.html.

World Wide Web Addresses

Colby College OChem Visual Demos: http://www.colby. edu/chemistry/OChem/demoindex.html#table

Liz Dorland’s Chemistry Tutorial and Resource Page: http: //www.mc.maricopa.edu/academic/phy_sci/Chemistry/faculty/dorland/chime.html

Drug Information Center NCI database of 127,000 Structures:http://www.chem.com/127,000_3D_ structures

Science Hypermedia: http://www.scimedia.com/index. htmShockwave from Macromedia: http://www.macromedia. com/

shockwave/download/plugin.cgiThe University of Akron's Organic Laboratory: http://

odin.chemistry.uakron.edu/organic_lab/cola/The University of the West Indies: http://www.chem.

uwimona.edu.jm:1104/Yue-Ling Wong for The Learning Matters of Chemistry:

http://yip5.chem.wfu.edu/yip/Video/sep-funnel. MOV

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

Reports from Other Journals