Jmol in the Classroom
The idea behind this page is that you enter "teachable moments" when you have used Jmol in an effective way during class.
Functional Groups: getting structures by name from the web
On day 5 of first-semester organic chemistry (Textbook Smith, 3rd Ed., Chapter 3, Topic "Functional Groups"). Bob Hanson.
I thought it would be fun to get students to suggest examples, so I fired up
http://chemapps.stolaf.edu/jmol/docs/examples-12/simple.htm
This page has a button on the right that uses the prompt command in Jmol 12 and taps into the NIH CACTVS service using load $chemicalName.
I just clicked on "Load MOL by NAME" and then asked the students to give me a name of something they knew, like a medication.Â
We ended up looking at diphenylhydramine, morphine, THC, heroin, hydrocodone, adderall, and tetracycline, writing out several of these structures on the board based on the 3D models. This lead to discussions of reactivity, hints about the connections between names (even these trade names) and functional groups, a little about the blood/brain barrier issue, hints about synthesis (it's amazing how simple many of these drugs are).Â
Great fun.
