Help for contributors
From ChemPRIME
For a general explanation of the ChemPRIME approach, see Strategy, or click on "Introduction: The Ambit of Chemistry" at right to reveal a drop down menu of subtopics, then on "Conversion Factors and Functions" to reveal a list of Tracks, and finally click on any Track to see Exemplars.
Editors must register in order to make contributions. If you like, you may sign your contributions with the standard wiki tag ~~~~.
Contents
|
Using ChemPRIME in a General Chemistry Course
The ChemPRIME wiki can be adopted for a course text. ChemPRIME can be used in many ways:
- As a conventional text
- It is easy to create a course schedule with links to ChemPRIME, online Quizzes, or other course resources, as shown in this example course schedule.
- Some instructors may want to create links to unalterable pages so that course materials cannot be changed while a course is in progress.
- As a repository where students can write wiki Exemplars on topics that interest them.
- Students can create regular Exemplars as explained below. R. Belford has created a simplified [Help page] for students.
- Students should be warned against plagiarism, and possibly required to study the Indiana University page on plagairism and take the test on recognizing plagiarism.
- If that's too intimidating, it's easy to add special pages where students can experiment, by following the Student Assignments link on the home page. Edit a page by adding a link to the new page like this: [[New Page]], open the linked page, then add text to the new page.
- Another way of working on pages while temporarily shielding them from general use (and searches) is to create them as "user subpages". As usual, add a link like [[User:Name/NewPage]] to your user page, then open the linked page and enter your text.
- As a vehicle for Peer Led Team Learning (PLTL) exercises where teams of students create wiki subchapters or Exemplars
- As an ancillary to another text, ChemPRIME may present additional Exemplars are found, or provide an outlet for you to publish your own Exemplars.
- etc.
General Policies
The policies of ChemPRIME parallel Wikipedia, so the Help:Contents or WikiMedia User's Guidewill be useful. Particular screens may be accessed by typing shortcuts like wp:foot (for footnotes) into the search box in Wikipedia; a generally useful page is theWP:mos Manual of Style.
For contributors who prefer written texts, Wikipedia: The Missing Manual [1] is useful. Much of this text is reproduced in Wikipedia help pages.
In terms of general policies regarding the language used within this wiki, we are developing an open discussion and document of points to consider when writing. Think of it as a manual of pedagogical style. This listing of resources can be found at Guidelines for Precise Language.
Good Exemplars...
1. Ideally should have the same prerequisite concept knowledge and concept learning outcomes as CoreChem, so that users learn the same concepts regardless of the Track chosen. A good way to guarantee this is to
- a. Create a new page (usually by entering a link with a tag like [["new page name"]] on an Exemplars Page, saving the page, and clicking on the link you created.
- b. Edit/Copy the CoreChem text into the new page, and replace the CoreChem text with new text appropriate to the exemplar being created.
2. Exemplify "top down" presentations, starting with higher level, motivating examples, then providing chemical explanations. This approach is championed, for example, by E. O. Wilson in The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, [2]
3. Take advantage of the exciting graphics, videos, hotlinks, and almost endless resources available on the web, including ChemEd DL resources (see below).
Creating Exemplars Step by Step
See Help:Exemplars for details on creating your first exemplar.
Exemplars are arranged in Tracks pages that are created by a standard Template.
Hints on formatting equations & chemical entities
It's hard to build math equations on the web. Chemical Equations can sometimes be even worse. Some good references are included below along with some other special pages. When you have discovered a way to typeset a nice trick or frequently used equation, please feel free to add it to our Help:Equations Tips and Tricks page!
Quick Examples
- Special characters like α are embedded using the decimal representation, or the name, for the special character, like
α α.
These character representations can be found by searching for "special characters" in Google, for example here or here.
LaTeX
Examples of LaTeX codes for writing mathematical equations can be found by searching for "latex math symbols" in Google, for example here or here.
In LaTeX math expressions, special characters are embedded with latex code, so 
and α are
<math>\rarr</math> <math>\alpha</math>.
Strikethrough in Latex requires backspacing then strikethrough (strikethrough in normal wikicode is <s>text</s> for text):
- Type the text
- Count the number of characters in the text, call it N.
- Preceed the text with ~2.5 x N "\!" (backspace) characters
- Preceed those characters with "^{underline{M}}" where M = ~1.5 x N "\ " characters.
<math>^{\underline{\ \ \ \ \ \ \ }} \!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!12345</math>
gives 
Useful Sites
- Another aid to creating formulas is found at Xavier's Equation Editor Page.
- On each Page Edit page, the
button brings up some rudimentary LaTeX examples, and a link ("TEX Favorites: more") to the Help:Equations Tips and Tricks page.
- On each Page Edit page, the
- Other help with math formulas is found atWikipedia:Displaying a Formula
- Useful sites with HTML or wiki coding for special characters include
- the Wikipedia Help:Advanced Editing Pages: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Advanced_editing#Special_characters
- HTML Primer
- HTML Tags
- [1] is an excellent resource for finding HTML friendly metacharacters.
Tools
- See Wikipedia:Tools at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tools/Editing_tools
MediaWiki FCK WYSIWIG Editor
- Here is a What You See Is What You Get Editor that may be helpful in composing pages. Create pages in the FCK window, then cut/paste into final location.
Word to MediaWiki
- MediaWiki has an Editing Tool :Page with links to many helpful tools, including:Word To Media Wiki]
Excel to MediaWiki
- Or, in WikiPedia, you can type help:Topic to get editing help; for example, help:table [2] tells how to create tables, and gives a useful Excel to Wiki link.
Unalterable Pages
- In case you want users to see a page with content that cannot be changed, an alternative is Linking to an Unalterable Page.
Communicating with Other Users
- Standard MediaWiki strategies are used for Communicating with Other Users.
General Conventions on ChemPRIME
In order to maintain coherence of the text added to the ChemPRIME wiki, there are a number of conventions already in place in the current text. These include:
1.There are often multiple names for a chemical compound, an old, legacy name, and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry(IUPAC) systematic name, particularly for organic compounds. Where appropriate, both names will be given, the older name in parentheses. For instance, C2H4 would be introduced as ethene(ethylene).
2.Explain added media in the text. The content of video should be described in the text so that a user unable to see the video can still understand what was shown. Instructions should be added describing how inserted Jmols are intended to be interacted with. Images should be mentioned in the text, and if appropriate, captioned.
How to Upload Images
To insert an image, first upload it from your computer by clicking on "Upload File" in the tools menu on the left of every wiki screen. Browse for the file you want to upload and select it. Enter the source in the Summary box (this will be modified as described below). The format for the script needed to insert the image on a wiki page is given on the upload page; just copy the script, insert it on the wiki page, and insert the filename in the script. Document each image as follows on the image metadata file (created by the file upload page) as described below:
Below is a sample of the code format used to create a description of the image. To see this sample format as it appears on the wiki click here File:200px-Heme svg.png. This format can be copied and pasted under the summary box when uploading an image and then changed according to the guidelines below.
{{Information
|Description=Heme B
|Keywords={{ListCategory| Bioorganic Chemistry}}
|Source=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heme.svg
|Author=Lennert B
|Date=2005
|Permission=released to the public domain
}}
| Description |
Write a description of the image. |
|---|---|
| Keywords |
These are the JCE Keywords that relate to the image. They can be found at <http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/Contributors/Authors/Journal/keywords.html>. To quickly find the appropriate keyword you can hit control or command "F" and then search the whole page for matching keywords. The keywords need to match the keywords on the JCE website exactly with regard to spacing and capitalization, so its best to copy and paste them.The JCE keywords used to classify an image organize the images into category pages. These category pages can be seen here Special:Categories. It is because of this organizational system that it is essential that you copy and paste the JCE Keywords exactly as they are shown on the JCE page linked to above. |
| Date |
Date of the image. If unknown type "unknown". |
| Source |
This is the web source of the image. The website should link directly to the image being used. For example do not link to the Wikipedia page that uses the image as this can change. Rather click on the image in Wikipedia and link directly to the image page. It will have a page name similar to the example shown above: "File:filename.jpg" |
| Author |
The author of the image. If unknown type "unknown". |
| Permission |
Type the copyright permission here. Only images with equal or less restrictive access than the "Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported" can be used on the wiki. For more information on the permission of the wiki, "Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported" click here <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/> Also, at the bottom left of each page on this wiki is a Creative Commons logo which links to the standard license used on this wiki. |
Using ChemEd DL Resources
In collaboration with the Chemistry Education Digital Library, the ChemPRIME wiki allows for easy use of many of the ChemEd DL resources! It is very easy to include Chemistry Comes Alive! streaming videos, interactive Jmol applets and images of molecules from the Molecules 360 database, as well as Lewis Structures ready-made!
Part of our collaboration with the ChemEd DL is that we use their resources and then contribute our own. As soon as it is available through that repository, it will be available here on the ChemPRIME wiki automatically. In this way our user community here at ChemPRIME contributes to the shared resources of all of the ChemEd DL!
Let's take a look at how to use some of these features within the ChemPRIME wiki.
3D Structures of Molecules (Jmol)
For a simple, no frills Jmol model, simply insert the SMILES code for the molecule in the script:
<chemeddl-jmol2>SMILES CODE|smiles</chemeddl-jmol2>
The SMILES code can be found in PubChem, and in some Wikipedia articles about the substance. For example, it's CC(C(=O)O)O for lactic acid, and the ChemPRIME script would be:
<chemeddl-jmol2>CC(C(=O)O)O|smiles</chemeddl-jmol2>Lactic Acid
The result looks like this: <chemeddl-jmol2>CC(C(=O)O)O|smiles</chemeddl-jmol2>Lactic Acid
For a more elaborate Jmol, let's take a look at how to add 3D rotatable, interactive molecules to a page. Two examples of this are shown below. See A Visual Database or jmol2 for a list of available molecules] from Molecules 360. Elsewhere we provide full details of how to upload files and insert Jmol graphics. If you have difficulty adding your own Jmol to the wiki page (one that is not in the ChemEd DL repository) for now contact Jshorb).
A simple TwirlyMol version of a molecule is shown below. This light-weight JavaScript representation which is preferable when you have a large molecule and do not wish to use any of the fancy (and slower) utilities which Jmol provides.
<chemeddl-jmol>Acetic Acid|simple</chemeddl-jmol>
If you want to add visualization for vibrations, Molecular Orbitals, Symmetry Elements or various other representations, then insert a Jmol. Below we have a water molecule with the associated representation menu, as well as the vibrational modes menu.
<chemeddl-jmol>Water|genmenu|vib</chemeddl-jmol>
Various options for inserting molecules with the various menus is done using a set of simple tags.
Lewis Structures and 2-D Images of Molecules
We can insert a simple 2D picture of a molecule:
<chemeddl-jmol>Acetic Acid|image|size=100,150,200</chemeddl-jmol>
All of the above molecules can be viewed in their Lewis Structure corresponding to the Resonant structure most contributing to the overall electron configuration. An example of one is shown below.
<chemeddl-jmol>Acetic Acid|Lewis|small</chemeddl-jmol>
Lastly, we can actually use MarvinSketch to view all of the various Lewis Structures which contribute to the overall structure. Here you can see a drop-down menu of the various weights of the Lewis Structure of interest, as well as the graphic of that representation.
<chemeddl-jmol>Acetic Acid|res</chemeddl-jmol>
