Novice chemists often struggle with the highly visual nature of chemistry.  To make visually demanding concepts more accessible to students, instructors have long recommended the use of molecular model kits as visual aids, particularly in organic chemistry courses.  Despite calls for increased molecular model use during content introduction to remedy visualization difficulties, the number of published activities that have students actively manipulate molecular models has not increased.  Here we report a new activity that engages students in molecular model usage while the students explore structural isomerism.  The activity is broken into three sections; the first and second sections guide students through using a molecular modeling tool and comparing the structures of alkanes.  Structural isomers are compounds with the same chemical formulas but with a different bonding structure.  This activity requires students to not only determine if the chemical formulas of alkanes are identical, but they must also determine if the bonding pattern is the same between different alkanes.  The third and final section is a short assessment.  The molecular modeling tool employed in our study is a free commercially available mobile device app called ModelAR.  This program is a mobile molecular model kit and is accessible to any student with a smartphone.  The activity is designed to be completed after a lecture discussion of structural isomerism in either a laboratory session or small-group problem-solving session.  In a post-activity survey 85% of students indicated that the modelling tool employed improved their 3D perception of molecules.  Additionally, approximately 60% of students indicated that they would use the modelling tool as a supplement to their normal study habits.

Introduction to molecular modelling kits through structural isomerism

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.