Laboratory Software for Teaching Chemical Principles

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): MolySym proposes an intuitive molecular modeling tool for use as a laboratory exercise in high school chemistry education. Our Phase I work leverages an existing device developed by MolySym that is being used for high school instruction by teachers, but does not have a laboratory application or support direct student use. Our educational tool will be a testing platform to design new laboratory exercises for the existing curriculum. The physical/virtual model resembles a traditional molecular model composed of modular atoms and bonds, yet has embedded within it electronic components that allow for complete detection of the state of the system, including topological information, internal geometry, and global rotation. Connected to the physical system is a virtual world of laboratory instruction and real-time molecular simulation, and personalized feedback to the student as he or she proceeds across the laboratory exercise. The Phase I project will develop three laboratory exercises focused on certain abstract chemical principles that an initial survey of instructors will identify as challenging for current high school students. This will seamlessly bring the instructor and students through a preparatory lesson and then present a laboratory exercise for an individual student or laboratory team. The discovery-orientated tool enables molecular mechanics calculations, rendering of atomic orbitals, and a wide array of visualization options to make learning easy and intuitive. Future work will allow for instructor evaluation/testing and homework add-ons. This work will result in an efficient and user-friendly laboratory educational module for high school and undergraduate chemistry laboratory exercises. Other applications of this molecular modeling laboratory software module include to organic chemistry, molecular biology, materials science and physics. In a Phase II project our efforts will extend to advanced research in university laboratories and industrial settings. MolySym's commercialization interest is to bring a robust educational tool-kit to the market, and then leverage this academic footprint to offer a high-end product to molecular researchers in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.