Recent Symposia

Contact Keith Anliker (anliker@chem.iupui.edu) for additional information

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Presentations at the 19th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE) July 30 - August 3, 2006, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

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Symposium Title: Best Practices in e-learning Design and Delivery.

Description: Faculty and students are realizing the benefits of technology in the learning experience and improvement of learning. What lessons have we learned relative to effective implementation of technology? This session will offer practical tips for teaching with technology to enhance student learning based on your experiences. Sources of high quality materials with documented learning outcomes will also be shared.

Title: Creating web-ready movies to model problem solving strategies

Presenter: Keith S. Anliker

Macromedia Captivate is a software package that allows relatively easy creation of short, web-ready movies. Using this package on a tablet PC allows me to create “chalk talks” with an audio track that students can access from my course web site. In addition to modeling problem solving approaches, movies have been used to discuss syllabus details and to deliver other technical and administrative information to the students outside of the normal class period.

Students with varied learning styles and backgrounds like this delivery method because they can pause, rewind and review the information being presented when they are struggling with a concept, or they can fast forward or skip ahead if they are already familiar with the content.

This session will describe features and use of the software, design and production considerations, student feedback and implementation of this technology in my elementary chemistry course.

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Symposium Title: Computation, Modeling and Molecular Visualization across the Chemistry Curriculum.

Description: This symposium will highlight the various ways faculty have used visualization, simulation, molecular modeling, mathematical software, and related computational methods to enhance and expand the learning experience in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum – in the classroom, in the laboratory, and in research. Papers describing specific activities for individual courses as well as department initiatives to integrate computation across the curriculum will be considered.

Title: Using Molecular Modeling Software in a Non-majors Chemistry Lab

Presenter: Keith S. Anliker

Co-Author: Kelsey M. Forsythe

A number of years ago we began using microcomputer versions of Spartan software in a large elementary chemistry lab course that is taken by non-majors, students completing coursework for allied health professions, and students who are preparing to enter our mainstream chemistry courses for science majors. Our initial use focused on helping students visualize molecular geometry and to understand the bond angles in simple molecules. We also mapped charge distributions to help students with the concepts of bond polarity, regions of high or low electron density and overall dipole moment.

We have recently expanded this lab experience to incorporate investigation of bond lengths, resonance and molecular vibrations. To do this, we have changed the focus of the lab exercises from using the software to visualize molecules that were pre-built, to having students build and create their own simple molecules—then having them investigate the molecules they have created.

Examples of the exercises, discussion questions from the lab manual, and the way that we introduce and implement this lab project will be described.