We have developed a teaching tool that includes molecular animations. These 3D animations provide a mental image that textbooks and chalkboards are unable to produce. Students benefit from the enriched view that is provided by accurate molecular animations. Their perception of three-dimensional issues improves. They can move beyond understanding what happens and grasp how it happens, and perhaps even why it happens. We will discuss the application this visualization tool, Bio-Organic Reaction Animations (BioORA), in and out of the classroom. Use of this program has been successful in large (250) and small (10) classrooms. Several schools have participated in the assessment of the software. Success has been determined by comparison to control groups that have not used the software. How students represent the images for three-dimensional events is impacted by the use of these tools. For example, students who use BioORA to visualize enzymes are more likely to understand locations of binding sites. There are several common student misconceptions (e.g. hydrogen-bonding, size of enzyme compared to substrate, nature and location of co-enzymes) that we believe BioORA clarifies. We will discuss the source of the misconceptions and address the improved image that is gained by using programs such as BioORA.

Use of Bio-organic Reaction Animations for understanding 3D images

247th National Meeting (2014)

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