Computing in Stereochemistry - 2D or 3D Representations?, in: Research in Science Education - Past, Present, and Future
Slavica Pavlinic, Paul Buckley, Janet Davies, Tony Wright 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers p295-300
This paper reports part of a preliminary phase of a study examining students' responses to a computer-based stereochemistry task and to different representations of organic molecules. Six themes in the way students used the computer-based tutorial have been identified: manipulation of models, multiple representations, use of color, simplicity, familiarity and types of isomerism. It has been found that 3D animations and the colorful molecular images encouraged students to practice the use of different representations. The study has demonstrated that a suitably-designed computer based task encourages students to make use of the molecular representation that, for them, best suits the problem.
