Download Movie Mechanisms for Chemists Curly Arrows Made Easier

Movie Mechanisms for
Chemists
Curly Arrows Made Easier
23 March 2011
Jason Eames
Department of Chemistry
Contents
 Introduction
 Background: Problems with Reaction Mechanisms
 Aims
 Construction of Movie Mechanisms
 Outcome
 Trials and Tribulations
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 2
Introduction
 What is a reaction mechanism?
Ability to either navigate or construct a “chemical pathway” from a
starting point, such as starting material A, to an end point
(product B) using curly arrow notation and chemical symbols
A
B
Analogy – “a £2 coin on a piece of string”
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 3
Introduction
 What is a reaction mechanism?
Ability to either navigate or construct a “chemical pathway” from a
starting point, such as starting material A, to an end point
(product B) using curly arrow notation and chemical symbols
A
B
Analogy – “a £2 coin on a piece of string”
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 4
Introduction
 What is a reaction mechanism?
Ability to either navigate or construct a “chemical pathway” from a
starting point, such as starting material A, to an end point
(product B) using curly arrow notation and chemical symbols
A
B
Analogy – “a £2 coin on a piece of string”
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 5
Reaction Mechanisms - Ability to Navigate
 Why bother making movie mechanisms?
Mechanisms contain a great deal of (multiple layered) information
Information needs to be deconstructed then reconstructed to
aid understanding
Need to practise about 40 hours to get to grips with it
Primarily involves learning a set of simple rules which then can
be used sequentially
Similar to the subconscious skills used in “learning to drive” a car
and navigate from point A to point B
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 6
Background: problems with reaction
mechanisms
 Subconscious skill: can be difficult to explain to students
Not formally taught: expectation is that students pick up the skills
throughout their studies
 Student feedback and student experience
Course evaluation: some students found curly arrows the most
enjoyable and others found them the least enjoyable
Reality: most students struggled drawing them on their own
 On-campus & off-campus students
 Traditional method not suitable for online distant learning (FdSc)
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 7
Aims
 To create a set of short animated reaction mechanisms with
narrative (1-2 mins; <3 MB)
 Must be simple, suitable for small screens and clear
 Must be quick, easy and cheap to make
 Multi-formats (for computers & smart phones)
 Easy to download or view (e-bridge or YouTube)
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 8
Construction of Movie Mechanisms
 Microsoft Movie Maker (competent in <3 h)
 “Stop-motion” Pictures created using ChemDraw
 Text-to-speech versus Me, Myself and I
 Easy to use and wrap up files into a movie (*.wmv)
 Freeware to convert to other formats (*.mpeg, *.avi etc)
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 9
Construction of Movie Mechanisms
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 10
Construction of Movie Mechanisms
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 11
Mechanisms
 Focussed on 12 core reaction mechanisms
 Narrative focussed on programming/training them to
recognise the signals/keywords
Example: reduction of a ketone
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 12
Outcomes
 Student evaluation: requested more movie mechanisms
Extend concept to other topics:
How to work through a particular problem/calculation
ODL students – found it “impossible to learn (them) without
watching the movie mechanisms”
 Reality: students are more competent at drawing reaction
mechanisms in workshops
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 13
Trials and tribulations
 Firstly create the silent movie
 Images
 Write down the narrative
 Speak slow enough to give students time to think ahead
 Record each paragraph separately
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 14