DURHAM -- The Shodor Education Foundation's Center for Computational Science Education, a Durham-based organization dedicated to the teaching of computational science, has recently launched a dedicated computer server that is capable of running research-level calculations on small to medium-sized chemical molecules.

The server, funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education (SMT) Center, will provide N.C. high school students and teachers with free access to software for studying individual molecules, reaction mechanisms, and other chemical phenomenon.

"This resource is an amazing opportunity for N.C.'s high school community to be at the leading edge of chemistry learning and teaching," said Bob Gotwals, a computational chemistry educator at Shodor. "We're putting state-of-the-art tools into the hands of bright students and motivated teachers."

N.C. teachers can apply for classroom accounts that will allow them to teach basic chemistry concepts using computing and/or to introduce computational chemistry as a viable way to study chemistry. Classroom accounts will provide enough computing time per student to allow for exploration of small molecules using basic calculations.

Individual students can apply for research accounts, allowing them to conduct larger scale research projects, usually in collaboration with a scientific mentor. As is the practice in the high performance computing or supercomputing community, student researchers must submit a proposal for review by Shodor staff prior to receiving time on the server.

Access to the server will be available to any high school student in N.C., including public, private, charter, and home school students. Shodor staff will provide instructional materials and other support for both teachers and students.

"The future of our research enterprise depends on training future scientists in science, mathematics, and technology." Dr. Queta Bond, president of the BW Fund, said. "Shodor's chemistry resource for students and teachers is an exceptional opportunity to advance learning in this field."

"The SMT Center is excited to play a role in providing young science scholars and teachers with a tool that expands their ability to generate, manage, and manipulate data as it is done in the real world of computational chemistry," Dr. Sam Houston, president and CEO of the SMT Center said.

The server hosts three industry-standard software packages -- Gaussian, a commercial program, the General Atomic and Molecular Electronic Structure System (GAMESS), and Molecular Orbital Package (MOPAC). The computer hardware features two processors, with four 36-gigabyte disk drives for data calculation and storage.

Additional support comes from Mr. Jon Collins, a chemistry teacher at Cedar Ridge High School in Orange County. Collins, a 2005 Kenan Fellow in Computational Chemistry, will work with Shodor during the next two years to develop curricular materials and provide support to teachers and students.

Computational Chemistry Server link: http://www.shodor.org/chemistry

Shodor contact: Bob Gotwals, computational science educator, at (919) 530-1911 or rgotwals@shodor.org

BW Fund and SMT Center contact: Russ Campbell, communications officer, at (919) 991-5119 or news@bwfund.org.