For 16 organic students in a pilot program at Central College, HCCS, lecture has been replaced by a computer conference. Using these programs the students respond to questions posed by the instructor. Interaction takes place on-line between students, as well as between instructor and individual students. PacerForum, the conferencing software, allows graphics and sound transmission to augment the student essays. Student participation is critiqued by both the chemistry instructor and the English instructor, who is the director of the Computer Co-op.
Initial results indicate improved chemical comprehension and clarity in written expression.
Physical chemistry topics involving second order partial differential equations often receive only cursory treatment in undergraduate curricula because analytic solutions of these equations are readily obtainable only for the simplest of boundary conditions. This paper will describe the solution of the diffusion equation on a spreadsheet, using the method of finite differences. The solution will be illustrated for the diffusion of Ar at 25 C through a 0.100 mm thick polyvinyl acetate membrane. Graphical comparison of the spreadsheet and analytic solutions show them to be virtually identical. A plot of absorbance vs. time is then generated, which can be printed or exported to other applications for processing.