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Editor
Brian
Pankuch
Contributing Editor
Donald Rosenthal
Managing Editor
Hank Derr
Online Editor
Scott
Van
Bramer
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A two course, teacher's e-meal
is presented. The entrée is a discussion of the use of course
management software as a means of just-in-time quizzing. Results
from a (initial) 58 students class in spring 2005 are presented.
The dessert is a description of how to create Flash animations with
required interactive elements that limit passive animation snoozing.
Keeping
Track of Media
Brian
Pankuch
Chemistry Department
Union County College
Cranford, NJ 07016
Dave describes a formidable
undertaking in the development of an extensive online learning
system, which attempts
to match a learning ‘scaffolding’ with the learners
ability.
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David Brooks
-
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Professor of Chemistry Education in the Center
for
Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "David
W. Brooks" <dbrooks@unlserve.unl.edu>
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In the 2003 issue of this Newsletter we described the development
of a HyperCard-based system for delivering Web courses that emphasized
automated practice and immediate feedback. The discussion held
following that paper stressed ways to migrate the software from
HyperCard (a Macintosh-only software that is now extinct) to more
modern software.
This paper, much more brief than the first, will describe both
a migration and subsequent evolution of the software.
Previously we described a HyperCard based system that
served as a back-end for Web-delivered chemistry pedagogy courses that
made extensive use of automated practice with immediate feedback. This
paper describes the migration from HyperCard, a Macintosh-only software
application, to Runtime Revolution, a software development application
that runs in Macintosh (Systems 9 & X), Windows, and Linux. Shortly
after this successful migration, enormous performance enhancements
were achieved by using just the scripting language of RunRev (called
Transcript) for cgi applications going directly to a Revolution engine.
While using databases such asMySQL under RunRev is an option, it was
decided to store data in xml-like text files instead. This pseudocourse
has ben developed using our materials and is available for your examination.
All files connected to this demonstration are copyrighted by David
W. Brooks.
Conrad has added greater interactivity with his animations
by giving students increased feedback by providing hints and questions
about the animations.
Two significant additions to our Contemporary Chemistry Project have
been: (1) the introduction of a series of essay and multiple choice
questions for each animation that allow in-depth testing of comprehension
of that animation; (2) a new custom tool for classroom and browser
presentation of animations that allows the instructor complete freedom
in choosing order of animations and questions from a searchable database
and that gives the instructor the option of modifying these questions
and creating new essay and multiple choice questions.
Harry tackles evaluating
search engines especially the slippery concept of relevance.
SUNY Oneonta, Oneonta, NY
pencehe@oneonta.edu
"... As noted in a previous article in this
series, there are at least three important criteria that should
be used to evaluate search engines: comprehensiveness, currency,
and relevance. Comprehensiveness, the measure of what fraction
of the total web the search engine index actually includes, is
particularly important for chemists, because they are often looking
for unusual information that may not be included in smaller search
engine indices. Currency measures how often the search engine revisits
sites to determine whether or not there have been any changes.
This is important to all web searches, since failure to revisit
sites allows dead links to be included in the index. The final
important criterion is relevancy. Are the most useful sites listed
early in the search results?
This article may take quite awhile to download
if you are using a modem, if so be patient it is worth it.
The realm of chemistry is so vast that most of it is either too
large to see, too small to see, too fast to see, or simply not
in the classroom to be seen. However, by using the often overlooked
capabilities of PowerPoint, these obstacles can be overcome.
The secret to getting the power out of PowerPoint is in the
way you
perceive PowerPoint. In this article I reveal how to perceive
PowerPoint as either medicine, a magician’s hat of tricks, or a picture
window. Also included are many tips and examples presented in a
visually rich manner.
Mark provides us with links to some
of his work, which is available to faculty and students. The amount
of material and the number of
links is amazing.
Meta-Synthesis
20 Saturn Grove
Salford M6 6HA
UK
http://www.meta-synthesis.com
+44 (0)161 736 6971 Manchester Office
The science of chemistry - chemistry, the whole thing
- is analyzed in terms of systems thinking. First, the idea of the
system is introduced, along with the concepts of complexity, fractal,
automata, emergence & chaos. After this, some familiar chemistry
topics with simple, linear behaviours are described, before moving
on to regions of chemistry space where things get more complicated.
Scott has built in a surprising amount of interactivity into an Excel spreadsheet.
An
Interactive Visual Thinking Tool
Scott
A. Sinex, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Physical Sciences and Engineering
Prince George's Community College
Largo, MD 20774-2199
301-341-3023
http://academic.pgcc.edu/~ssinex
e-mail: ssinex@pgcc.edu
Daniel discusses options using
limited equipment with many students.
Towards an automated introductory
chemistry open lab
Daniel.Tofan
Department of Chemistry daniel.tofan@eku.edu Webpage
Eastern Kentucky University www.chemistry.eku.edu/tofan/
Richmond KY 40475 www.chedml.org
Eastern Kentucky University uses an open lab format for the introductory chemistry
courses offered for non science and nursing majors to allow a large number
of students (450-500) to complete a two hour weekly lab in a room that has
only 22 workstations. We have a pre-lab testing system that gives students
short quizzes to test their preparedness for the experiments. Software is
used to check students in and out of the lab, recording the day and time,
events that took place in the lab, and other information. The computer automatically
assigns unknowns and a station number to each student, after checking their
prelab quiz score. Instructors are able to send an instant message to the
coordinator in case assistance is needed. The lab coordinator is able to
remotely connect to the database and at any moment see who is working in
the lab, where and since when. Upon check-out, students will enter their
data into the computer and will receive a grade instantly. This system will
allow the collection of a large amount of data and will free instructors
from managing the student traffic in and out of the laboratory and from grading
lab reports, leaving them with just the task of supervising lab activity.
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