STANSW Science Education News Journal 2019 2019 SEN Vol 68 Issue 3 | Seite 13

ARTICLES
Incorporating Digital and Creative Technologies within Chemistry (continued)
ChemSketch offers students a virtual “hands-on” learning experience, allowing the opportunity to experiment
with nomenclature, Lewis diagrams, chemical structures, ball-and-stick models, and 3D models. Furthermore,
this program contains a comprehensive database of templates for chemical structures and formulae, and can
convert any work into Microsoft Word or pdf file formats. Accessibility is free for basic educational use, and
boasts compatibility with Mac or Windows users, perfect for including computers, Ipads or tablets into lessons.
The ChemSketch program represents a fantastic tool to support teachers in catering to the diverse learning
needs within their classroom, bringing the discipline of chemistry to life with an array of visual representations.
If teachers are willing to invest the time needed to become proficient users of this program, I have no doubt this
application can facilitate a move towards a more progressive delivery of chemistry lessons where the level of
student understanding, digital literacy, and overall engagement is enhanced. By doing so, the myth that only
some people “get” chemistry may be dispelled, allowing each student the opportunity to excel in this discipline
of science.
ChemSketch in Practice – Perspectives of an Experienced Teacher
The ChemSketch interface is a complex one when first encountered, see Figure 1. As with most digitally-based
resources, someone, somewhere, has already produced an instructional video, and even the one I found in
French was very informative and easy to follow.
What matters most is not the ability to draw a range of organic compounds, but the wonderful array of shortcuts
and add-ins, and its seamless export into Office products and the Google suite. It would require an instruction
book to explain all of the functions, so a few have been chosen that may be most useful for teachers wanting
to incorporate ChemSketch into their classroom practice.
Figure 1 Screenshot of the blank ChemSketch workspace
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 3