THE USE OF SCIFINDER AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOOL TO INCENTIVE STUDENTS MOTIVATION IN THE MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY 1 SUBJECT

Motivation is an important aspect for the student’s output that is usually correlated with a high rate of success. The complexity of the Medicinal Chemistry 1 teaching and the difficulty to understand their contents makes that the students do not find the necessary motivation to address the subject with success.

The search of new drugs to treat diseases is one of the aims of the researchers all over the word. Medicinal chemists are in charge of the beginning of this investigation by means of the design and synthesis of molecules with biological activity. Transmit this information to the students is very important in order to motivate their learning. Another way of incentive is to set the scientific research reality closer. The University of Granada provides a subscription to SciFinder on web being only necessary the registration of the students as users. This computer application is essential for the research of any organic chemistry laboratory to accomplish compounds and reactions searches in scientific journals and patents. Its use allows the students to be transported to a virtual laboratory making easier the scientific knowledge understanding that have been explained in the teaching lessons.

The students should carry out a series of works related to the topics that have been explained in the teaching classes that are based in the different ways of search that allows this web application:
- Search for the different names for the drug – by substances.
- Search for the synthesis of a drug – by reactions.
- Search of scientific articles related to the topic – by references.

The development of these work activities is optional although it would be compensate in the final marks.

By means of students opinion inquiries we evaluated the use of this educational resource. The main conclusions were as follows:
- 94% of these students quite agree that the use of this web application increases their motivation for the subject.
- 89% of the non-participants opine that the involvement in the activity would provide useful knowledge for the subject.

These results indicates the increase of the motivation and interest of the students for the Medicinal Chemistry 1 subject of the Degree in Pharmacy with the use of this web application.