These tools are changing the way we teach organic chemistry. Modeling and visualization have been introduced and used in many ways. Many are available via WWW sites or by anonymous ftp. The basic tool of the organic chemistry classroom, however, is still the textbook and the most common way to represent molecules remains the line drawing on a board or an overhead. Most students spend their time working with and studying from these traditional representations of molecules.
Examinations contain, at best, line drawings and the occasional orbital picture.
Another roadblock to using these resources is the time involved in generating animations. Simple tools are needed that allow professors to bridge the gap between sophisticated molecular modeling representations of structure and the everyday line drawings that are so essential to practicing organic chemistry. This article presents a simple, low-cost way to animate line drawings. These animations can be done quickly by anyone who can use a structural drawing program such as ChemDraw. The programs needed to generate the animations, information on the software needed to make the animations, example animations, and a brief discussion of how they are used in the classroom are included.