MolView - free 3D visualization of molecules and compounds

MolView is a free web based tool that allows you to visualize 3D models of molecules and compounds. It's easy to use and fun. It includes databases with compounds, proteins and spectral data, as well as change and manipulate the models. It's based on WebGL and HTML5 and works on pretty much all devices.

Acetaminophen molecular model:

There is a PDF of the manual available for download and it is well written.

This is a great tool for science students, especially in chemistry and biology, to help them visualize and understand molecules, compounds and even DNA components.




Related:

More Chemistry Resources

More Biology Resources





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Osy Osmosis - fun game that helps teach about osmosis

Osy Osmosis is a fun, educational game where you help Osy stay safe as she navigates through a very cool world collecting stars. The trick is to use osmosis to keep her in balance.

The game is not free ($1.99) but is very good, very fun, and educational. It was developed by researchers and educators and profits go towards creating other educational games.

It could be used as a great way to help teach osmosis in a fun way.

 

Viscosity Explorer - simple virtual lab on viscosity

Viscosity Explorer is a simple site that allows you to explore the concept of viscosity. It consists of two containers and two steel balls. You select the liquid you want in the container, then drop the ball and observe what happens. You can also change the temperature of the liquid. Students can easily compare the viscosity of two different substances side by side.

It's a great site for science classes, and much faster, cheaper, and less messy than doing this for real. I would, however, want to at least demo the real liquids and pour them from container to container to show how the flow of the fluids is different based on the viscosity.

Related:

PhET - excellent, free, virtual labs and simulations for science

Chemical Education Digital Library - great chemistry resource

The Chemical Education Digital Library is a great resource for chemistry.  The site has lesson resources, educational games, links, communities, tutorials, digital textbooks and more.

It's a great collection of resources that can be used by teachers and students in class as part of lessons, or as reinforcement or help.

The 3-D interactive models are very cool and let you really explore chemicals and compounds.

Chemical Elements - interactive periodic table

Chemical Elements is an interactive, online periodic table. Clicking on an element brings up a page with all the information on the element, including all the normal information along with the atomic structure and facts about the element.

There are also separate pages for each group of elements.

You can also display different versions of the periodic table displaying different information.

This is a great tool for teachers and students to use to better understand the periodic table and the elements.

Exploriments - interactive animations for science and math

Exploriments is a site that has interactive simulations that help students learn and understand math and science. Students are active and engaged, rather than passive. They get to explore different topics and ask, and answer, questions like "what-if" and find the cause and effect of things. There are learning objectives for each Exploriment and everything works together and builds on previous knowledge.

The Exploriments are organized by Physics, Chemistry and Math and then further organized by topic. The physics ones are well done and I've used a few with my students already.

The free access does not give you full access or function, but there are some great things to use. You can upgrade to the premium access if you want to.

The Periodic Table of Videos - great resource!

I've shared a couple of great periodic table resources in the past, including The Interactive Periodic Table of Elements (which is one of the most popular articles) and here's another great one: The Periodic Table of Videos.

The Periodic Table of Videos is a collection of videos on YouTube, created in a collaboration between the University of Nottingham's School of Chemistry and video journalist Brady Haran. The collection includes videos about all 118 elements and they are updating and improving the original videos while added more films about other aspects of chemistry, such as molecules. This is a great resource for any science teacher or student to use to help learn and understand more about chemistry.

Here is a link to their YouTube page. You can access the videos from the main page or from their YouTube page. The main site shows new videos and which videos have been updated.

101 Science - tons of science resources

101 Science is an incredible site with a huge amount of resources for science.

The site has more resources than I could count, organized by topics such as "electronics", "chemistry", "biology", "physics", "math" and "photography." There are also resources for earth science, astronomy, robotics, ethics, java applets, and much more. Each main category has sub categories also.

Each topic has scores of links and resources, including articles, web sites, and videos. Some videos are from MIT, TED and more.

If you teach science, are a student of science, or just like science, this is a must see site.

Here's a look at the main Physics page:

Each link on this page has more links. Here is the page on Gravity:

(Some sub categories have much more than this even!)


This site is just tremendous with over 20,000 links and resources.

Free Resources from McDougal Littell - lots of great stuff for all teachers

McDougal Littell, a school textbook publisher, has some great resources available for teachers and students in many different areas. I'm going to focus on the science resources, but you can check out other subjects from this site too.

The starting site, is Class Zone. From here, you select the subject (Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, World Languages), grade level (middle vs. high school) and your state. You can pick any state and you will get some different sites based on what state you pick. These resources are free. There are some resources, like a teacher center and online textbook, that are password protected.

From there, you are brought to a list of textbooks. Click on the one that has your topic, and you will be brought to a site with a huge number of resources.

For example, selecting "science" and "high school" and "CT" gets you a selection for Biology, Chemistry, and Earth Science.

Under Biology, there are a huge variety of resources. Animations that explain difficult concepts, virtual labs, virtual dissections, Interactive review with a variety of activities, quizzes, webquests, and links to other resources.

Each subject area has different resources, but all of them are excellent. Check it out for your subject.


(PS - this blog post was completely created, including links and screen grabs, on my Google CR-48, proving that Chrome OS (and other OS's like HP webOS) are very useful and powerful.)

International Year of Chemistry - great resources for Chemistry

2011 is the International Year of Chemistry and the official site, Chemistry2011, has some great resources for chemistry teachers.

The site has information, resources, and links about chemistry, achievements and research in chemistry, and other great resources for educators to use.

This is a great resource for teachers to find news articles and other resources to get students excited about chemistry and show how important it is to the world.

PhET - free online science and math simulations

PhET is an awesome resource from the University of Colorado at Boulder. The site has interactive simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and math that teachers and students can use.

The simulations can be run on the site or downloaded. The simulations are accurate and real and can help students learn concepts in more depth. They are easy and fun to use, and really do demonstrate the concepts well. In the physics ones I use, a big benefit is that students can quickly and easily change variables and conditions and then see what happens. This is very hard and time consuming in many hands on labs.

The simulations are also a great alternative to live labs if you don't have the resources available. Some of the simulations are better than any hands on lab because the students can truly see and understand what is happening.

You can search by topic, grade level, or just see the newest ones added. There are teacher resources for many of the simulations. Teachers who use the simulations post lesson plans and resources to the site for others to use also.

I use the Physics simulations in my classroom and they work great. This is one of those sites that every science and math teacher needs to check out.

Here's a list of some of the new simulations they have:

Chemistry Resource - Build an Atom

Build an Atom is a simple, straightforward site that shows a visual representation of an atom. You select the element you want and the site shows you the protons, neutrons, electron orbitals, electrons (and their direction of spin) and the orbital listing.

It's a great resource to help students visualize an atom and the electron orbitals.

Interactive Periodic Table of Elements

I just learned about a great interactive Periodic Table of the Elements from my PLN (personal learning network) on Twitter.

This interactive Periodic Table of the Elements is great and loaded with features. As you move your cursor over an element, the information for that element is shown larger above the table. If you click on an element, a pop-up window launches with more detailed information about the element (courtesy of Wikipedia). When you move your cursor over a category of elements (halogens, alkali metals, etc.), those elements highlight, and the rest fade to grey.

It will also show the properties, electron orbitals, and isotopes for each element. And, you can adjust a temperature slider and it will color code the elements based on their phase at that temperature (solid, liquid, gas, or unknown).

This is a really useful, informative, and fun periodic table to use with your classes.

Free Chemistry Resources

(picture from www.mnstate.edu)

I found some great Chemistry resources over at Free Technology for Teachers.

The first one is a page with a ton of stuff, including free curriculum and lessons plans and ebooks from high school chemistry teacher. This site has some great resources to help teachers and students.

The Chemistry Never Sleeps blog is another great resource. Tips, tricks, lesson ideas, resources and more can all be found here.

I was looking through both of these today and wish I'd had access to this stuff when I took chemistry - not my strongest subject to say the least.

Chemistry Resource - The Element Song

Free Technology For Teachers has posted a link to a YouTube video of the famous Element Song. This song has been used by millions of students to learn the elements and their symbols. The video adds images to the song, helping students remember and learn better with the visuals. Share this with all the chemistry teachers you know.

If you can't access YouTube at school, HERE are instructions on how to download the video at home and then bring it to school.