Collaborative Computational Chemistry Projects in Physical Chemistry

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The goal of our project is to develop a set of collaborative laboratory projects involving students from the physical chemistry classes of three colleges (Wofford College, Converse College, and the University of South Carolina at Spartanburg). Most of the projects involve computational chemistry (molecular mechanics and semi-empirical or ab initio MO theory) giving the students valuable experience with the applications and limitations of modern com-putational investigations. The students are collaborating via an E-mail listserver and a set of World Wide Web pages, so they also are being introduced to important Internet tools. This project has a significant effect on our three colleges, because the collaboration converts our small classes, in which there are only a limited number of classmates with whom to interact, into a larger learning community. The computational chemistry experiments also are giving students experience with what are becoming important laboratory tools. The project will have an impact beyond our departments because it is an example of how small departments can become stronger by sharing resources. It is resulting in several WWW pages containing hypermedia-based information on computational chemistry aimed for undergraduates in a junior-level physical chemistry class. It also is resulting in a set of new computational experiments that can be used either as individual experiments or collaborative projects. *