The Caltech Chemistry Animation Project combines the technical skills of faculty and students at Caltech with Emmy-award winning sound editors, Oscar-winning sound supervisors, Emmy-winning film editors, professional narrators, film score writers, computer graphics personnel from the Hollywood special effects industry, and advanced computer workstations to prepare instructional materials that are being used worldwide, at the high school and college levels, to allow students and teachers to understand better the fundamental concepts in their chemical world. The initial stages of this project have been highly successful, with distribution currently proceeding in five countries to audiences in excess of one-half million students. The continuation of NSF support allows the completion this project so that a series of approximately 10 video tapes, comprising a library of fundamental concepts in the chemical sciences, can be provided to teachers and students worldwide. Specific topics to be dealt with in upcoming video titles under the proposed project continuation include: Atoms, Molecules, and Moles; Lewis Dot Structures and Bonding; Binary Crystals; and Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution. These will complement the existing video titles covering the topics of atomic orbitals, VSEPR, crystals, stereochemistry, nucleophilic substitution, the Diels-Alder reaction, and will also complement the soon-to-be-released videotapes on periodic trends, hybridization and resonance, and molecular orbitals.
