The Introduction of Molecular Modeling into the Two-Year College Chemistry Curriculum

分子键、电子结构、分子轨道以及分子间和分子内相互作用的概念是所有化学领域的基础。虽然这些概念在不同程度的化学课程中都有涉及，但大多数学生并没有很好地理解它们。学生在理解这些概念时遇到的问题来自于在原子和分子的微观世界中可视化这些概念的困难任务。分子建模、计算化学和三维可视化软件的最新进展为以创新的方式更有效地教授这些关键概念提供了一个令人兴奋的机会。这些进步，加上相对强大和负担得起的计算机工作站，以及一流的图形软件和硬件，使这种方法可行。多年来，在工业和研究生水平的研究中，分子建模在化学和制药设计中发挥了重要作用。现在是时候将分子建模纳入本科课程，以帮助学生更好地理解关键的结构概念。为了实现这一目标，该部门正在购买14台计算机和一台SGI工作站，这些计算机可以互联，可以支持斯巴达软件。这一新设施使化学教师能够以有意义的方式向学生教授分子建模和计算化学，并使学生能够可视化一些对材料宏观性质重要的基本微观概念。

The concepts of molecular bonding, electronic structure, molecular orbitals, and intermolecular and intramolecular interactions are fundamental to all areas of chemistry. Although these concepts have been covered at several levels of sophistication in various chemistry courses, they have not been well understood by the majority of students. The problem that students have had with understanding these concepts arises from the difficult task of visualizing these concepts in the microscopic world of atoms and molecules. Recent advances in molecular modeling, computational chemistry, and 3-D visualization software provide an exciting opportunity to more effectively teach these critical concepts in an innovative way. These advances, coupled with relatively powerful and affordable computer workstations, and superb graphic software and hardware, make this approach viable. For years, molecular modeling has played a significant role in chemical and pharmaceutical designs in both industry and graduate-level researah. Now is the time to incorporate molecular modeling into the undergraduate curriculum to help students better comprehend critical structural concepts. To achieve this goal, the department is purchasing 14 computers and one SGI workstation, which can be interconnected and can support SPARTAN software. This new facility is enabling chemistry faculty to teach molecular modeling and computational chemistry to students in a meaningful way, and it is enabling students to visualize a number of fundamental microscopic concepts that are important to the macroscopic properties of materials.