Abstract:

The article brings the authors' experience from the use of a simulation environment for the implementation of virtual chemical experiments in school teaching.
At the time of the pandemic, primary school teaching also took place in a distance form. Time allowances for some subjects were adjusted according to the importance of the subject by reducing the weekly number of hours or even by omitting from the schedule. For the subject of chemistry in Slovakia, the time allowance was maintained according to the valid school educational program. The curriculum prescribes that pupils should be actively involved in the teaching process through the implementation of chemical experiments. At the time of the pandemic, when the teaching of chemistry also was carried out in a distance form, it was not possible to realistically experiment in a chemical laboratory. Many teachers were looking for solutions to replace real experiments. This situation created space for the use of programs for visualization and simulation of chemical phenomena and events.

When taking over the curriculum of organic chemistry about hydrocarbons and their derivatives from organic chemistry, students could not work with physical 3D models at the time of distance learning. However, this activity could be replaced using the ACD/CHemSketch program, which makes it possible to visualize models of atoms and molecules. The program is freely available, so all pupils had it installed on their computers. Such visualized models are more attractive for pupils and connects the subject of chemistry with informatics and ICT as well as.

Teaching took place online through the MS Teams program. Each pupil was given the task of creating for the next lesson 3D visualizations of various organic compounds with a description of the individual atoms and chemical bonds that make up the compound. The students prepared their solutions independently at home and in the next lesson they gradually presented them to the teacher and classmates by sharing their screens.

Keywords:

Distance education, virtual laboratory, modelling, simulation, visualization, chemical experiment.