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Unit 2.1
Mini Doc - Predicting Structures
This segment deals with the importance of predicting
structures before performing experiments. It presents computer
animations of reactions and imaging techniques. Computer
models of water molecules in liquid phase are shown.
Video program cues: 00:30 — 3:45
Discovery
of C60 inside nanotubes
“I can remember the day
when I got the first image. I almost fell in my chair. It
was very exciting…we initially saw in cross-section,
concentric circles. The larger circle corresponding to the
nanotube itself, and the smaller circle, to we did not know
what. So we fantasized, and we said that it may be C60
inside, and we actually had a few laughs about it. Two or
three weeks later, we had a session on the microscope, and
sure enough, we saw: circle, circle, circle.”
Brian Smith
Ph.D. candidate, University of Pennsylvania
“The image is a projection
of a three-dimensional object onto a single plane so the
depth of field is zero, if you can get it to be zero, and
it’s kind of tough to make a mental image of what you
are looking at, because you are projecting an image onto
a single plane.”
Jack Fischer
Professor of Materials Science, Univ. of Pennsylvania
Link
Readings
Freemantle, M. (2001) 3-D Images Of Nanoparticles, Chemical
& Engineering News, Vol. 79, No. 22, p:9
Robinson, W.R., (2000) A View of the Science Education Research
Literature: Scientific Discovery Learning with Computer Simulations
Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 77, No.1, pp:17-18
Modeling structures
“What computer modeling
can do, is certainly save us a lot of time and trouble and
expense in the laboratory by showing us which structures
are theoretically impossible and, more important, which
are possible. If we can show that a structure should exist,
then we can go to the laboratory and make it.”
Dr. Roy Tasker
Associate Professor, Univ. of Western Sydney
Links
- An April 24, 2000, article from ACS
on computer modeling in chemistry.
- From ACS,
links to readings and resources about modeling and computational
chemistry.
Animating reaction dynamics
“The most powerful thing
you can do when you’re learning chemistry is to zoom
down, in your mind’s eye, to the molecular level and
try to imagine what is going on and in a sense, try to understand
the personalities of the reactants and products. If you
can use more than one model to illustrate something, having
each model showing a different aspect of the information
conveyed, that’s ideal. Because then students don’t
look at a particular model and say: that’s reality.”
Dr. Roy Tasker
Associate Professor, Univ. of Western Sydney
Readings
Milne, R.W., (1999) Animating Reactions - A Low-Cost Activity
for Particle Conceptualization at the Secondary Level, Journal
of Chemical Education, Vol. 76, No.1, pp:50-51
Donovan, W.J and Nakhleh, M.B. (2001) Students' Use of Web-Based
Tutorial Materials and Their Understanding of Chemistry
Concepts Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 78,
No. 1, pp: 975 - 981.
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