CHEMPAD: VISUALIZING MOLECULES IN THREE DIMENSIONS

Dana Tenneson, Brown University, dkt@cs.brown.edu

Molecules are inherently three-dimensional structures that are represented on paper and in books as two-dimensional figures of lines, letters and symbols. To succeed at organic chemistry in college or high school courses, students must develop the ability to visualize two-dimensional drawings as dynamic, three-dimensional structures. ChemPad, a novel Tablet PC application, helps student chemists develop their intuitions of molecule shape by generating interactive molecule models directly from sketched figures. Details of the current features of ChemPad along with its deployment in an organic chemistry course at Brown University are presented here.