CHM 101 - General Chemistry I

Charles R. Ward
Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

In 2005, a group of UNCW researchers received funding from the National Science Foundation to create a Virtual Learning Community (VLC) in chemistry and mathematics. The technological cornerstone of this work was the tablet PC. From 2005 to 2006, the researchers assembled a suite of software and hardware tools to exploit the capabilities of tablet PCs for teaching chemistry and calculus. In the spring of 2006, a group of students was equipped with tablet PCs and enrolled in special sections of CHM-102 and MAT-161. The students used their tablet PCs for taking class notes, acquiring laboratory data, analyzing data, doing homework, communicating with other students in the VLC, and many other computer-related tasks. The response from the students to this work was overwhelmingly positive and indicated that the project should be expanded to a larger group.

The project proposed for fall 2008 will involve a group of approximately 70 students, all of whom will have their own tablet PCs, enrolled in a special section of CHM-101. The students will use their tablet PCs to, among other things: a) take class notes (specially prepared for tablet PC use), b) acquire, analyze, and report data from the laboratory, c) act as input devices for a Student Response System, and d) remotely communicate with the instructor and other students using audio, video, and whiteboard technology. The project’s design will allow us to compare the performance of students in the special section of CHM-101 with students in a traditionally taught section of the same course.