Return to Grovium PageChemistry is admittedly a tough subject to study. It is a lot of strange symbols that describe invisible particles acting in unusual ways. Matching the theory with the hands-on phenomena is the challenge of mastering the subject.
I heard once that the computer is an extension of the programmer's mind. I change that to the computer is an extension of the teacher's mind. If I can find/write software that allows students to see how atoms act, how the forces between them interact, and how numbers and data become graphs and charts, students can "play" with these computer models to build their own mental models.
As I have been learning about writing Web pages, I have found some useful resources. If you're just getting started, try the NCSA Beginner's Guide to HTML. I currently use a great Adobe program called GoLive. You can download a 30-day tryout at Adobe.com. However, I firmly believe in doing things the hard way before you learn the easy way
If you've been working with web pages, Project Cool is a good source of interesting and nicely executed web site.
This is a good "getting started" guide to HTML (the HyperText Markup Language). It explains briefly how tags work and gives you some simple example pages that you can work with. From here you move to a bigger resource of HTML tags... like the Bare Bones Guide to HTML.
This is an efficiently organized list of the available HTML tags and their syntax. I learned about a lot of these by looking at other people's HTML source code or trying out little web pagettes of my own. Different tags work with different versions of the browsers and this list help you keep track of that as well.
If you have already made a web page, or seen some on your "surfing" expeditions, you GOTTA see this irreverent list of things NOT to do. I have to admit that I saw some of the things I did on this list. He also has links to some other useful resources (The Sucky to Savvy pages, etc.) Be careful, you can also link to his personal pages and find out much more than you probably want to know about this talented guy.
This site goes out and looks for good examples of web site programming. They classify sites as good because of their graphics, their interactivity, their usefulness, etc. You probably won't agree with all of their choices, but it is a great place to find ideas of what works and what doesn't. I've also stumbled onto some interesting information that I don't think I would have even thought to LOOK for.
I have had an opportunity to try out several HTML editors. All you REALLY need is a text editor or even a word processor. The browsers (Netscape and Internet Explorer) read text files that are named XXXXXX.htm or XXXXXX.html. Personally, I prefer to use a low-end editor rather than one which formats my page FOR me. I want to control exactly how things look. For this reason, I stopped using Netscape Navigator and Adobe PageMill. However, I learned a lot by setting up my "first draft" web page on Gold and then studying the code it wrote.
Here are two that I like. The PC editor (HomeSite) is freeware although a full-featured version is available as shareware. The Macintosh version is shareware ($25).
This freeware program is basically a text editor with special features for adding graphics, links, and doing other possibly tedious tasks. You switch to a browser to view your work. It is available through c|net's shareware.com.
This shareware program ($25) is basically a text editor with many special features for adding graphics, links, and doing other possibly tedious tasks. You switch to a browser to view your work. Quite a few options are user programmable which makes this editor really useful.
My current computer projects include three web pages, the high school web page, our science department web page, and The Mole Hole (www.chemmybear.com).
