The MolySym Corporation, with support from the US Department of Education, is offering a two-week online professional development program for in-service and pre-service high school chemistry teachers. The use of computational tools for 21st Century science will be the context, with a particular focus on medicinal chemistry and the computational aspects of molecular-level chemistry.  It is an opportunity to learn effective and creative ways to teach chemistry using computer visualization tools, and inquiry-based activities that enhance high school chemistry courses and meet learning standards.

The course is FREE.  In addition, participants will receive a FREE laptop and computational chemistry software.  Participants who successfully complete the course may keep the laptop and software at no cost.

To apply, please click HERE to complete the application.  Applications will be accepted until July 15, 2010.  Accepted participants will be notified on July 16, 2010.  The class starts August 7, 2010.

Online Course Overview:

In Drug Design and Development, students learn principles that govern the process of modern drug discovery and development. Students will follow a path similar to that taken by professional drug developers by learning important elements of the drug design process in a logical order. Some topics that we focus more extensively on are:

==> Principles of molecular recognition
==> Mechanism of enzymes and enzyme inhibition
==> Structure based drug design: Docking

Instructor:

Dr. S. Tiffany Donaldson will be the instructor for the course. She is a Psychopharmacologist with 15 years of experience teaching undergraduate and graduate students in Drug Design and Development in a variety of courses ranging from “Psychopharmacology”, “Substance Abuse and the Brain”, “Physiological Psychology” and “Behavioral Neuroscience” at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, Boston University Medical School and Northeastern University. In 2004 she was awarded the President’s Public Service Award, for her dedication to initiatives that promote math and science education, including the Summer Science Literacy Camp in Dorchester which she runs in collaboration with the Boston Public Schools and which has educated over 350 elementary-age inner-city children since 1997.

Commitment:

Orientation – Saturday, August 7, 2010 from 3p – 5p
Class – Monday, August 9 – Monday, August 30

Everyday starting August 9th, you should log into the course at a time convenient to you (there is no fixed time during the day, to complete lessons). Be prepared to spend up to 2 hours per day completing course work. You are expected to read through that particular day’s lesson, listen to the lecture, solve the examples / assignments given in that lesson. Then attempt the quiz (if any) pertaining to that lesson and finally the exercises. If at any time you are stuck, just post your questions in the relevant forum thread of that lesson. There is one teacher and 3 assistant teachers to help solve your queries and problems.

You must participate in the forum(s) by asking and answering questions or starting discussions. You will learn best by being an active participant: sharing knowledge, and exchanging ideas. Participants are strongly encouraged to post technical questions, interesting articles, tools, or anything that is relevant to the class / lesson.

Benefits:

Participants who are accepted into the Institute will receive the following intrinsic and extrinsic benefits:
• Extended, in-depth content instruction from experts in the field.
• Access to computational tools, resources, and technical support.
• Laptop that you may keep at no cost on successful completion of the PD
• 1-year subscription to SciTecMed (MolySym’s Online Learning Platform)

About MolySym:

MolySym is a provider of advanced technology solutions for research, training and education located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company emerged from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a cross-section of talent from the Department of Chemistry, the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), the Computational Systems Biology Initiative, and the Media Laboratory.