Submitted by Caroline Saouma / Virginia Tech on Thu, 05/10/2018 - 20:31
My Notes
Categories
Prerequisites
Corequisites
Topics Covered
Description

This is a great app that helps students see the symmetry in molecules. It allows you to choose a molecule (by name, structure, or point group) and display a 3D rendition of it. You can then have it display the symmetry elements, and/or apply all the symmetry operations. 

It is available for both android and apple phones: (probably easier to just search for it)

apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/3d-sym-op/id1067556681?mt=8

android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nus.symmo&hl=en_US

Learning Goals

A student should be able to find symmetry elements in molecules. 

Implementation Notes

In class I project my phone screen so they can see it, and I encourage the students to work along with their phones. I prefer this to models, as it is hard to remember what things looked like before you did the transformation, and moreover, my students have a hard time finding the symmetry elements. 

 

I encourage the students to play with it anytime they have a few spare moments- waiting for the bus, in line for food, etc. 

Evaluation
Evaluation Methods

None

Creative Commons License
Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike CC BY-NC-SA