An Interactive World Wide Web Course in Biological Chemistry

Charles Grisham, Chemistry

1996 TTI Fellow

Project website: http://cti.itc.Virginia.EDU/~cmg/

Every college student knows that biological and organic chemistry are among the most challenging of undergraduate courses. Aside from the quantity of information that students must absorb, the sheer geometric complexity of proteins and nucleic acids makes it difficult to envision how they are built, interact and combine to form new molecules. Traditionally, professors have resorted to drawings and ball-and-stick models to represent these complex structures. But while drawings are limited to two-dimensions, three-dimensional models are difficult to construct and, once built, cannot be altered easily to show the processes of molecular interaction. Professor Charles Grisham wants to change all this with the use of the new multimedia technologies that have revolutionized the desktop computer. With the powerful media capabilities of Java and Netscape, Grisham has begun to create a comprehensive library of three-dimensional models of the numerous molecules with whose characteristics students must familiarize themselves. Like plastic ball-and-stick models, these virtual molecules can be rotated and examined in a variety of ways. But they also offer the advantages of being ready-made and accessible from any computer connected to the World Wide Web. With these models, Grisham is creating an electronic textbook which contains pointers to not just a few examples, but to as many as the student may need in order to grasp a given concept.In addition to a library of virtual molecules, Grisham is creating a collection of animations and interactive simulations that are designed to represent the process of chemical interaction, something that could not be achieved with traditional classroom media. One set of "applets"--the name for a small computer program that is delivered over the Web--behave like games: students are presented with images of molecules, and must drag one molecule to attach to the appropriate site on another. A correct move generates an animated sequence of the reaction that would ensue in a real example. Such tools are examples demonstrate how the much hyped concept of interactivity can be applied to genuine pedagogic ends.