John S. Martin
A SIR is an interactive display, intended for classroom use. It runs on a computer, it is controlled by the lecturer via an intuitive interface, and it puts on the screen an illustration, animation or simulation of a chemical system which the class and the lecturer may use cooperatively to discover its underlying chemical principles.
To use a SIR, one must have a graphics projection device: ideally a projection monitor, or a high resolution colour palette on an overhead projector. It is a DOS application using vga (640 by 480) 16 colour graphics. SIRs run reliably as DOS applications in Windows, including Windows 98. They do not run on a Macintosh.
These SIRs are available in the General Chemistry Collection CD-ROM, Special Issue 16, Third Edition, of the Journal of Chemical Education: Software. Ordering information can be found at the JCES Web site, jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/JCESoft. Subscribers to the Journal of Chemical Education may download SIRs directly from the JCES Web site, jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/JCESoft.
A SIR is intended to provide quick on-screen access to simulated "experimental" data, so that the instructor and the class together can deduce the underlying chemical principles. One can ask "What do you think would happen if...?", and then get the computer to show the answer.
For example, one may run reactions to discover their equilibrium constants, and then explore the significance of Le Chatelier's principle by changing the appropriate conditions. One may vary the temperature, pressure and mass of a gas and discover how its volume responds. One may measure heat capacities and heats of neutralization. In some, such as the ideal gas SIR, a notebook is provided to record data, and a plotting facility so that one can visualize what is recorded in the notebook.
Unlike most classroom media, a SIR does not force the instructor to interrupt a lecture or adapt a lecture to its mode of instruction. Instead, the SIR is controlled by the instructor, and may be brought into the lecture whenever one chooses and used as much or as little as appropriate. SIRs have intuitive mouse-driven interfaces, so that the instructor may run them heads-up, while thinking of chemistry rather than how to run the computer.
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Updated June 18, 2002