CHEM T.V. - A Professor's view Chem TV is a visualization aid for sophomore Organic Chemistry developed by Dr. Betty Luceigh of UCLA. It is marketed in the US by Exeter Multimedia Publishing, phone 800-832-0034. Chem TV exists at present in two volumes. Part I mainly covers the elementary material taught in first semester, whereas Part II contains more special topics and biochemical material. Each volume is divided into sections on Structure, Reactions, and Special Topics. Within each section there are a number of movies that run for a few minutes. The movies are manipulated like a typical video player. There are controls for play, fast forward, and reverse, as well as volume control. The material within each movie is arranged in a way that the user can jump from topic to topic in any order. Overall the movies have a nice flexible structure, and as such represent a quantum improvement over older presentation modes that lock the viewer in from the beginning. The overall presentation quality of ChemTV is generally satisfactory, although there is variation from movie to movie. This reviewer uses ChemTV regularly in class with the aid of high quality projection equipment. Students have given approach this high praise. They have been less enthusiastic about ChemTV as an individual learning aid that is used out of class. The scientific accuracy of the movies is a point that can be debated. Like much of sophomore chemistry, a lot of material is presented as a necessary oversimplification. A couple of the movies, however, contain comments and sections of information that are incorrect, e.g. SN1 reaction. Thus, purists may be quickly dissuaded from using this product. A number of the movies on biochemical structures are quite crowded and thus hard to view. As a guess, the average teacher will find about a quarter of the 54 movies to be worth showing to the class. A second edition with improved graphics would be useful. Professor Brad Smith, University of Notre Dame, April 1997.

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