Effective Application of Spectroscopy and Chemistry Software Tools within the Analytical Chemistry Curriculum to Facilitate Learning and Labwork

摘要

Increasingly, teachers are incorporating the use of chemistry software programs within their departments and curriculum. The benefits of doing so are enormous and can accelerate the learning process. Chemistry software can allow students to understand the concepts within the curriculum by visualization as well as by theory. These tools also allow students to present the results of their research in a clear and concise manner. Finally, real experience with informatics tools can aid in academic research as well as establish a pathway to industrial applications. The use of chemistry software in the classroom can specifically help teachers in the instruction of fundamentals of structure, bonding and spectroscopy, and can facilitate the development of skills from basic analytical skills to high-order critical thinking. It can also help teachers to motivate their students and allows them to work at their own pace, not unlike e-learning. Overall, the incorporation of such tools into the curriculum provides more possibilities and flexibility in both the teaching and learning process. There are a number of software programs available for academia and this chapter will highlight the most useful for chemistry teachers in the area of structure drawing, visualization, general chemistry, and spectroscopy. It will also give a classroom example of how the software can be incorporated into the curriculum.