Interactive Software Across the Science Curriculum with Java and XML

University Of Virginia Main Campus, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Abstract

Chemistry (12) Using Java/XML software, suites of design tool/player pairs of programs and educational materials for the chemistry and biochemistry curriculum are being developed. The design tool software permit instructors to build their own intellectual and instructional content into highly interactive electronic exercises for students. The design tool/player pairs provide total independence both to instructors, for selection of content, and to the students, for self-paced instruction. The design tool/player pair concept is sufficiently general that it is adaptable to most areas of undergraduate chemistry. This generality and flexibility permit students, with guidance from the instructor and via collaboration with peers, to problem-solve, not only via the application of the scientific method, but also via processes of self-reflection, trial and error, and the construction of a body of knowledge that emerges as students link practice and theory. The design tool program is menu-driven and requires no programming knowledge. It converts the logic and content of an instructor's interactive design into XML-tagged text. The XML file that results can be "played" by a Java player program, which presents the interactive exercise to the student and keeps track of the students responses (mouse clicks or keyboard input). We have demonstrated the efficacy of this approach by designing a tool/player pair for enzyme mechanism tutorial exercises in a biochemistry course. The mechanism tool/player pair can be used to create mechanism exercises for virtually any enzyme mechanism (or any chemical reaction mechanism, for that matter). This proof of Concept project is intended to show 1) the broad usefulness of this approach to software creation ; 2) the creation of tool/player pairs for a variety of interactive exercises covering many aspects of an undergraduate education in chemistry; and 3) the potential to expand our development efforts to an entire science curriculum.