Clarisse L. Habraken

Perceptions of Chemistry: Why is the Common Perception of Chemistry, the Most Visual of Sciences, So Distorted?

Chemistry has evolved from a science dominated by mathematics into a science highly dependent on spatial-visual intelligence. Yet the chemical content of introductory courses remains taught essentially the same as 40–50 years ago. Chemistry, today, is recognized by chemists as the molecular science. Yet, school chemistry is alienated from that perception. Thanks to the computer, young people are more comfortable with visual imaging than their instructors were at the same age. Thus the time is rife to reinvigorate chemistry education by means of the visual-spatial approach, an approach wholly in conformance with the way modern chemistry is thought about and practiced.

Nucleophilic behaviour of DBU and DBN in reactions with 4-halo-3,5-dimethyl-1-nitro-1H-pyrazoles

Abstract Addition of 3 equivalents of DBU or DBN to a solution of 4-halo-3,5-dimethyl-1-nitro-1H-pyrazole ( 5a-c ) in acetonitrile affords the unexpected products 6a-c and 7a-c in fair to good yields. A reaction mechanism is proposed involving an elimination of HNO 2 giving a diazafulvene intermediate 8 followed by the addition of a second molecule of DBU or DBN to 8 .

School Chemistry vs. Chemistry in Research: An Exploratory Experiment.

This report describes a study which explores, from the out-of-school student viewpoint, why students are not studying chemistry anymore. In a 2-day stay at a research institution three groups of graduating high school students from different schools, together with their chemistry teacher, were confronted hands-on with molecular modeling in industry and in university. Each of these volunteer students had agreed to write an essay on “School Chemistry Vs. Chemistry in Research.” These essays were evaluated together by the students, the teacher, and the researcher in a meeting at their school. The opinion of the students show that school chemistry does not convey todays chemistry in research and in industry. At the computer screen the students demonstrated their skill in performing molecular modeling experiments. Moreover, at the computer screen, chemistry was fun and easier to understand. Now we begin to see the solution: our students are also our teachers.

Rearrangement of N-nitro-1,2,4-triazoles into 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazoles

Syntheses of the N-nitro-1,2,4-triazoles (1) and (2) and their thermal isomerization into the 3-nitroderivatives (3) and (4) is described; this thermal rearrangement of N-nitro-azoles to their corresponding C-nitro-compounds is suggested to be an example of a [1,5] sigmatropic shift of the NO2 group.