The Chemland program set is designed to be used by chemists and chemistry students for the study of the principles of chemistry. The program set has been created with the philosophy that students should learn chemistry by exploring how chemical substances behave in nature. Clearly, the best way to do this is by laboratory-based experimentation; this is essential in the study of any science. Unfortunately, many of the experimental techniques for studying trends in the behavior of chemical substances are either too time consuming, hazardous, or expensive for introductory students to make a useful number of observations. These programs are to be used in modeling how related molecules act, allowing students to make discoveries about their properties. Instead of simply being told a trend and having it explained, the students can look at "data" and discover the concept for themselves. Lecture time can then be used to discuss current theories used to explain the observed trends.
Chemland was written by William J. Vining at Hartwick College and the University of Massachusetts. These modules are currently being converted to Shockwave for use in Web-based instructional systems such as OWL. A few sample simulations are included below. Each module requires the Shockwave plugin, which can be obtained at Macromedia.com.