Movie Mechanisms for Chemists

Curly Arrows Made Easier

23 March 2011

Jason Eames

Department of Chemistry

Contents

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Introduction

Background: Problems with Reaction Mechanisms

Aims

Construction of Movie Mechanisms

Outcome

Trials and Tribulations

Introduction

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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”

Introduction

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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”

Introduction

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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”

Reaction Mechanisms - Ability to Navigate

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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

Background: problems with reaction mechanisms

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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)

Aims

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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)

Construction of Movie Mechanisms

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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)

Construction of Movie Mechanisms

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Construction of Movie Mechanisms

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Mechanisms

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Focussed on 12 core reaction mechanisms

Narrative focussed on programming/training them to recognise the signals/keywords

Example: reduction of a ketone

Outcomes

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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

Trials and tribulations

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Firstly create the silent movie

Images

Write down the narrative

Speak slow enough to give students time to think ahead

Record each paragraph separately