RE: March Meeting for Chem on the Web and Publishing

Good day everyone,

I wanted to take a moment to reiterate some of the key points we discussed at our February meeting along with our discussions yesterday. This effort to standardize descriptions of organic chemistry molecular drawings, and the many facets it possesses and presents, is not something that can be completed in one or two meetings.

Our first subgroup meeting last week discussed how we will be taking apart the first semester organic chemistry textbook in a divide and conquer approach. As discussed yesterday, we will be taking the four major chunks that are documented in yesterday's minutes. For those of you that were unable to attend, please feel free to consult those minutes to become familiar with the four main chunks proposed.

I anticipate this work to be a sizable project which will take us many months and maybe years if we wish to truly address all facets of this challenge. Therefore, I think it is imperative that we try to recruit additional members to this chemistry community.

After our kickoff with the brain storming session later this month on March 18th, I anticipate that we will likely form multiple subgroups to try to address each of the major chunks of organic chemistry content. The purpose of the kickoff/brain storming meeting on March 18 is to try to devise some proof of concept approach of doing description, using the artefact of the organic chemistry mechanism that Stefan sent out yesterday. If we can leverage this to sketch out some rudimentary set of conventions as to how to go about addressing the larger challenge we have put before ourselves, then I hope this will catalyze many innovative ideas for how to work through the four major chunks.

I am optimistic as I said yesterday that we can successfully tackle this transformative project. However, at the end of our work, it is likely we will still have exceptions that will still not comply with our conventions. Therefore, we are focusing our efforts first on a typical first semester organic chemistry course. Once we have worked through the four major chunks of organic chemistry content in this course, we can try to address the second semester organic chemistry course.

To keep ourselves energized around this formidable challenge, let's stay focused on the immediate work at hand - the kickoff, and the first year organic chemistry content. In the meantime if you know any other people that you feel could find these types of discussions interesting, I would encourage you to recruit them to join this community group.

Again, I want to thank each one of you for your willingness to participate in this group and in this work which will surely change access to STEM for many. Without each of you, we could not be attempting to take on this moon-shot before us. I am genuinely excited about the possibilities and I am looking forward to our many successes in the months and years ahead.

Cary




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Received on Friday, 5 March 2021 15:53:33 UTC