Computer station

From Powers Wiki

At the computer station, students will graph the data points they collected from the Spec20 station and draw three molecular structures. The handout to be given to students is available here: File:Maxey - Computer Station Handout.docx.

Preparation

This should be ready the day before)

  • Six to eight laptops should be provided and they are all set in a classroom in the Maxey elementary school.
  • Laptops can be checked out from the 501 building; they are general use student laptops. E-mail Wade Felker (Collaboration Technologies Associate with ITS; wfelker2@unl.edu), a week in advance to reserve as many laptops as you need.
  • If the laptops don't give you admin access to install software: (Set up an account for Maxey demo for each laptop.)
  • Install ChemBioDraw and KaleidaGraph software on each laptop. (We have licenses for both pieces of software; ask Eli.)
  • Set up wireless printer/router for each laptop. (You can also set them up as a wired system if all else fails)

Experiment A - KaleidaGraph

KaleidaGraph is used for processing the Spec20 Data. (Make sure the students finish the Spec20 experiment before they come to this station.)

  1. Click the first white box in the toolbar and you can open an empty spreadsheet with three columns.
  2. Input the data of concentration and absorbance in column A and B. (Do not input the percentage symbol or the unknown sample absorbance.)
  3. Go to “Gallery" from the menu, click “linear” then “scattering”, then there is a window popping up. Choose the A column to be the X-axis, B column to be the y-axis and click “new plot” icon down below.
  4. After you have the plot, change the title to be "Absorbance vs. concentration"
  5. Go to “file” and click “print graphics”.
  6. After the students print out their graph, you may want to help them draw a trendline manually using a ruler. Then you can demonstrate determining the concentration of their unknown using this trendline.

Experiment B - ChemDraw

  • NOTE: You usually don't have time to get to this station. Use your best judgement, and go on if the students have extra time.

Three molecules will be drawn by using ChemBioDraw: Acetic acid is the main component of vinegar. Acetylsalicylic acid is the active reagent of aspirin. Glucose is the major energy source in our body.

On the left side of the working window, a toolbar contains all the tools that are handy for drawing those molecules, such as single bonds, double bonds, benzene, texting and eraser.

  1. Find an empty place and draw the first bond by dragging the icon of a bond from the toolbar to that place and loose your mouse.
  2. Move the mouse to the end of that bond where you want to start another bond or a word (for example, "H" is for proton or hydrogen. "C" is for carbon and "O" is for oxygen).
  3. After drawing the molecule, use the “lasso” from the toolbar to select the whole molecule, and then go to the menu and select “convert structure to name”. Find out if you do the right thing by comparing the name that the computer tells you with the name you are supposed to draw.