Web watch: Wilson Flood looks at some websites that may be of interest to chemistry teachers
The ozone hole
Everything you ever wanted to know about ozone, the layer and its hole is to be found at this informative and easily navigable site. The information presented here can be trusted given that it is compiled by the British Antarctic Survey, NASA and other well-respected scientific bodies. There is information about ozone itself, both good and bad varieties, Dobson Units, CFCs, plus discussions on climate change. If you are teaching a topic that includes the ozone hole, look here first for background information.
Chemistryland
Chemistryland is a new site, still in the process of construction, that describes itself as a fun place to learn chemistry and certainly the layout of the home page does look rather interesting. You should enter the site via the Chemistryland nucleus which allows you to access the three chemistry courses that form the main content for the site at present: Chemistry and society; Fundamentals of chemistry; and General chemistry I.
Apart from the three courses, there are several other areas with intriguing titles that are planned for development, eg Consumer caverns, Vivodome and Nanoworld. A lot of work remains to be done on this site but it does look as if it could be a valuable resource.
Interactive chemistry tutorials
This web page will lead you to a set of 92 interactive tutorials aimed at helping students to develop a deeper knowledge of chemistry.
The tutorials generate an endless supply of unique problems and provide detailed solutions. The level of the tutorials is suitable for advanced school/introductory undergraduate level. They cover those aspects of chemistry which are more mathematical in nature and for that reason the site is doubly valuable since these are well-established areas of student weakness.
Created at California State University, Dominguez Hills, the material is the sole copyright of George Wiger. PSIgate has been granted permission to incorporate these exercises and tutorials into its website.
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