Dr. Mencer's Interactive Chemistry Activities

This site provides chemistry students, and any other interested users, a chance to be more actively engaged in learning about some important chemical concepts.  The pages within this site are designed to simulate experiments, allow the collection of data, and provide some guiding questions to help the user develop an insight to the phenomenon being studied.

Through the use of these pages, the user will employ the scientific method.  They will make observations about individual experiments.  By analyzing the results and reasoning about the patterns observed, they will reach some conclusions or draw some generalizations. While carrying out these "experiments" the users will also acquire a familiarity with many of the calculations used in first year college chemistry.

These pages are not designed to be used in the isolation of other learning materials. At a minimum, users may find a need for a periodic table, a calculator, and perhaps an introductory college chemistry text.

Have fun with the simulations!

Credits

• Allan Gyorke wrote the HTML and CGI programming for the following activities, Summer 1997 ("Density", "Mass Laws", "Ideal Gases", and "Heat and Work"). Modifications to the HTML on these pages (and all the other pages) are done by Don Mencer (ongoing).
• Jackie Ritzko revised the "Density" experiments, especially the graphics, during Fall 1998.
• Spring of 1999 through Fall of 1999, Jackie Ritzko has done the CGI and JavaScript for the newer activities ("Combustion Analysis", "Bonding", and "Calorimetry"), while Don Mencer has done most of the html work.
• The "Stoichiometry" pages rely on the same CGI as the "Mass Laws" pages; Don Mencer did the HTML.
• Comments or questions can be sent to new email (old email address: dxm53@psu.edu)