The Chemistry Collective began with the IrYdium Project's Virtual Lab in 2000, which provides a flexible simulation so that instructors may use it for a great variety of student activities. The project evolved to create scenario-based learning activities designed to provide interactive, engaging materials that link chemistry concepts to the real world. The project leader is Dr. David Yaron, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon. Many of the original activities on this site were developed by a group at Carnegie Mellon, including Yaron, experienced software engineers, undergraduate programmers, educational consultants, and technical writers. Many Virtual Lab activities were also designed by contributors from other universities, including a number from Robert Belford. The Virtual Lab was recognized in 2003 with MERLOT's Classic Award in chemistry and Editor's Choice for exemplary software across all disciplines.

Project Goals

As a project in the National Science Digital Library (NSDL), the ChemCollective's goals are to support a community of instructors interested in improving chemistry education through interactive and engaging online activities. We invite Instructors to use the materials and to contribute by providing comments and feedback on the activities, sharing classroom experiences, and participating in discussions. Instructors are especially encouraged to modify or create activities with the authoring tools for Virtual Labs and scenarios that this site provides.. The contributors page lists instructors who have authored activities in our current collection.

Please watch this site for announcements of new learning activities, discussions of teaching and learning chemistry, and workshops for users and authors.